William Adams (sailor)
William Adams (24 September 1564 – 16 May 1620), also known in Japanese as Anjin-sama (anjin, "pilot"; sama, a Japanese honorific) and Miura Anjin (三浦按針: "the pilot of Miura"), was an English navigator who travelled to Japan and is believed to be the first Englishman ever to reach that country. He was the inspiration for the character of John Blackthorne in James Clavell's bestselling novel Shōgun.
Soon after Adams' arrival in Japan, he became a key advisor to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and built for him Japan's first Western-style ships. Adams was later the key player in the establishment of trading factories by the Netherlands and England. He was also highly involved in Japan's Red Seal Asian trade, chartering and captaining several ships to Southeast Asia. He died in Japan at age 55, and has been recognized as one of the most influential foreigners in Japan during this period.
Read more about William Adams (sailor): Early Life, Expedition To The Far East, Arrival in Japan, Japan's First Western-style Sailing Ships, First Foreign Samurai, Establishment of The Dutch East India Company in Japan, Establishment of An English Trading Factory, Religious Rivalries, Character, Participation in Asian Trade, Adams's Legacy
Famous quotes containing the words william and/or adams:
“No hand has been allowed to touch
The rose I hide,
Though eyes have looked upon it and desired it.”
—Unknown. The Thousand and One Nights.
ErPo. Erotic Poetry; the Lyrics, Ballads, Idyls, and Epics of Love—Classical to Contemporary. William Cole, ed. (1963)
“You seem to think that I am adapted to nothing but the sugar-plums of intellect and had better not try to digest anything stronger.... a writer of popular sketches in magazines; a lecturer before Lyceums and College societies; a dabbler in metaphysics, poetry, and art, than which I would rather die, for if it has come to that, alas! verily, as you say, mediocrity has fallen on the name of Adams.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)