BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Published in the The Japan Society Review (September 2024)

In the Service of the Shogun: The Real Story of Williams Adams

By Frederick Cryns

Reaktion Books (2024) ISBN-13: 978-1789148640

Review by Trevor Skingle

The new FX series Shogun, based on the homonymous 1975 novel by James Clavell was released in spring 2024 and heralded a renewed interest in feudal Japan. It also led to a renewed interest in the character of John Blackthorne, which is based on William Adams (1564-1620), the English ship’s pilot whose arrival in Japan on 19 April 1600 was destined to influence trade and the beginnings of the Tokugawa era (1603- 1868). The worldwide popularity and the fans of the series are likely to have prompted this new and timely publication by Frederick Cryns, Professor of Japanese History at the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies in Kyoto. Prof Cryns is a longtime resident in Japan moving there from Antwerp, Belgium in 1989 and was also a historical consultant on the FX series.

Drawing on Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese sources, as well as new archival material from Jaques Specx (1585-1652), then head of the Dutch East India Company in Japan, the book places William Adams’ encounters in the wider geopolitical context of the political intrigues of the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English, the Western nations trading with Japan at the time.

The book begins with a potted history from around the time of Adams’ birth, setting the context for his upbringing and apprenticeship, and his subsequent involvement in the fight against the Spanish Armada. Apart from some new information, the story of his involvement with the Dutch and his departure for Japan as part of their fleet, and the story of the fleet’s encounters along the way, do not differ much from the accounts in other books. On the surviving crew’s experiences in Japan, there is some welcome newly published information on Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn, one of William Adam’s shipmates, a Dutch navigator and merchant. In other English- language publications, the details of Jan Joosten’s life in Japan aren’t developed as much, but here the narrative does justice to his story and legacy, which is almost on a par with that of William Adams.

In this regard, the book explains how the area around Tokyo station is named ‘Yaesu’ after Jan Joosten’s Japanese nickname (which was the name of the canal where his house was situated), and includes a substantial open-air memorial to him and his legacy, with a bust of him in the station grounds, and a statue of the ship on which they arrived in Japan, De Liefde, just outside the station. The area where Jan Joosten’s house was located, which is mentioned in the book, was between today’s Babasakimon Bridge and the edge of the moat of Wadakuramon Gate in front of the Imperial Palace, and can still be visited today.

The book also deals with an incident in Nagasaki when the Japanese attacked the merchant ship, the Madre de Deus, in revenge for an incident in Macau when 50 Japanese were killed on the orders of the ship’s captain, Andre Pessoa. The author claims that the ship was sunk by the Japanese. However, it was Pessoa who torched the magazine and sank the ship, not the Japanese. A small detail perhaps, but details matter when trying to construct a true narrative.

After writing about the arrival in 1613 of The Clove, the first English ship to land in Japan, there is a brief reference to the gifts given by Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) to the ship’s captain, John Saris (c. 1580- 1643) for King James I (1566-1625). According to Saris’s journal, in addition to ten folding screens (byobu), a katana long sword and a wakizashi short sword - all now lost -, there were (it is thought) the saddle and stirrups now in the Royal Collection, and two sets of samurai armour, one in the Tower of London Armoury Collection and the other in the Leeds Armoury. These details might have been mentioned not only for interest and to embellish the narrative, but also for serious fans who may want to follow the story on a physicaljourney.

There is some revealing new information about Adams’s contract with the Dutch and their payments on his behalf to his English wife, and about the British East India Company’s forgiveness of Saris’s misdemeanours, whose affairs in Japan that led to his initial disgrace are not revealed in quite as much detail as in other accounts. It might also have been worthwhile for avid followers of this epic story to mention, after giving the year of Saris’s death, 1643, that he is buried in All Saints Church in Fulham, London, where his tombstone can still be seen.

The latter part of the book skips over the stories of the confrontations with the Dutch, which are covered in some detail in other books. This leaves out an essential part of the story of Adams’ life, one that shows his extraordinary bravery, the rescue of three sailors prisoners of the Dutch. In September 1619 a Dutch ship, The Angel, sailed into Hirado with three prisoners on board; William Gordon (captain of the ship The Hound), Michael Payne (carpenter of the ship The Samson) and a Welshman called Hugh Williams. Cryns refers to the ship by its Dutch name Engel and states that it arrived on 21 September 1619, whereas other accounts (G. Milton/H. T. Rogers) give August 1619. However, William Eaton (a member of the British East India Company in Hirado, Japan) in his letter of 10 March 1620 to the East India Company confirms September as the month of arrival.

In his letter also dated 10 March 1620, Richard Cocks (1565–1624), head of the British East India Company’s factory in Japan, confirms the rescue of the sailors by William Adams. William Eaton also confirms the facts, stating that it was 25 September when the English sailors were rescued by William Adams, with Cocks confirming the rescue of the Welshman ‘the morrow’ (the day after). Cocks also reports the subsequent violence and threats from the Dutch, as well as reports of another escape of three English prisoners (John Moore, John Jones and Edward Curwin) from Dutch ships the previous Christmas.

However, Cryns reports that ‘the Engel brought several English prisoners of war to Hirado. When Adams heard of this he went straight to Specx and persuaded him to release them’. There is no reference for this in the book, but if this is fresh information from the newly discovered material of Jacques Specx, it would have been helpful to know the source, the context and any other directly related information to help clarify what happened. In the absence of this, it can only be assumed that if this was reported by Specx in this way, it was because he wanted a slightly more sympathetic historical view than that which might be given to William Adams for his bravery.

Occasionally, the book feels as if it has focused on context at the expense of biography. However, the latter part of the book lacks the detail that was underpinned in the earlier part by the extensive historical context. There is much to be said on the difficult commercial dynamics that Adams faced in the run-up to and immediately after Ieyasu’s Osaka campaign, immediately after Ieyasu’s death, and during the final years of Adams’ involvement in trade in Japan. Nevertheless, there is an almost rushed feel to it, especially where it jumps from the almost insignificant references to the Anglo-Dutch conflict in Hirado to Adams’ death.

On the other hand, while the subtitle ‘The Real Story of Williams Adams’ may indeed be a marketing reference to James Clavell’s Shogun, the fictionalised version of William Adams’ life, it also has an uncomfortable ring to it. “The Real Story”, accompanied by the publisher’s claim that this is the ‘authentic’ story of Adams’ life, almost implies that other memoirs of Adams might not meet the ‘standards’ required of a factual biography. And while it certainly has a wide range of sources it is hardly, as the publisher claims, the ‘first’ or a ‘complete biography’.

Moreover, in terms of the readers of the book, apart from scholars of Japanese history and serious aficionados of William Adams and his life, the other potential buyers of the book are likely to be fans of Shogun the novel and/or the TV series, who may not be aware of the connection between John Blackthorne and William Adams.

Unfortunately, for history buffs with some knowledge of the Treaty of Windsor (1386) who cannot understand why there was such a conflict between the English and Portuguese at the time, none of the publications on William Adams set the context by looking at the reasons behind it; that the pact of mutual support between England and Portugal established by that treaty was interrupted by the Iberian Union between 1580-1640, when Portugal was forced by Spain into hostilities against the English. As Cryns notes, but does not elaborate, ‘Ieyasu was well aware that the missionary work and imperialism of Spain and Portugal were working in tandem’.

Where this book fits into the milieu of publications on Adams is something that must be left to the reader. There are shortcomings on William Adams’ life that stand out in a similar way as those in some of the other books about Adams (for example, the occasional, or frequent depending on which book you are reading, instances where artistic licence has been taken to fill in the gaps in the narrative left by lack of evidence). However, despite the author’s assertions that this account is entirely based on fact, there are some occasional minimal conjectures, which can be excused by the limited range of factual narratives available. It is an admirable and as far as historical accounts allow, as true an account as can be given the passage of a very long period of time.

Although in places the context seems to have almost overtaken the biography, this is still a very readable account with very welcome additional, relevant, newly published information. In this reviewer’s estimation, this book is a refreshing addition to the hallowed halls of biographical accounts of the truly remarkable William Adams, his life and many adventures and misadventures and later misfortunes, rather than, as the publisher’s website states, ‘downfall’.