Yamada Nagamasa disembarked from his ship in Ayutthaya in February or March 1612. A few months before, on November 16, 1611, a group of Japanese had caused great commotion at the Ayutthayan court. According to some reports, a group of 280 Japanese “slaves” had storm the Royal palace to extract revenge upon four Siamese noblemen who had killed their master. After the presumed culprits were slaughtered on the spot, the Japanese allegedly obtained a promise of non-belligerence from the young King Song Tham, who was forced to sign the document with his own blood.
Once their immunity was certified, the Japanese performed some more random violence and left with a great treasure. The Japanese then went to Petchaburi, and after being expelled from there because of further excesses, they regrouped in Bangkok, which at that time was just a village near the mouth of the Menam, where they stayed until they were barred from the country by King Song Tham. The Dutch merchants rejoiced at advantage that their leave brought to their business.
In Thai sources, the young King Song Tham, also called “Tilokkanat,” is described as a scholarly man, devoted to the study of Buddhist scriptures, and a just king who examined criminal cases and gave light punishments. If the cases involved minor offenses, he dismissed defendants with no punishment imposed at all. In some accounts, the king is portrayed as helping the Japanese merchants when they had been cheated by Siamese officials.
There is convincing evidence that in the late 1620s King Song Tham had a unit of Japanese soldiers at the palace, which were probably recruited in the second half of the 1610s, when the relations between Ayutthaya and the Japanese became more reliable. The guards might have been selected from the men in Baan Ippun – the Japanese village, or they might have been soldiers of fortune who had boarded shuinsen soon after the battles at Osaka castle of 1614 and 1715 (battles that marked the beginning of Pax Tokugawa).
However, the Japanese royal guard was most likely formed mainly by the Japanese warriors who were expelled from Malacca after being dismissed by the Portuguese. They had been trained for the job and they would have needed to travel only a few weeks up the Malay Peninsula to find employment in a city where their countrymen could offer shelter.
Resources: “Samurai of Ayutthaya – The Historical Landscape of
Early 17th Century Japan and Siam: Yamada Nagamasa
and the Way to Ayutthaya” by Cesare Polenghi (p. 27-39)
