Back in 1626, when the 4th official Siamese embassy reached Japan, Yamada Nagamasa sent a request for a shuin so that his ship, still harboured in Nagasaki, could return to Ayutthaya. The seal was granted. Along with the request, Nagamasa also had sent an ema, a votive image, that he dedicated to the god of Sengen Shinto Shrine at Sumpu, his native place. The image, which might have been painted on Siamese silk, was lost in a fire in 1788, but luckily a nobleman from Shizuoka had a copy made before the flames carbonized the shrine. The replica is displayed in the shrine’s museum on special occasions.
The picture represents a junk warship with about 30 men onboard. Curiously, they wear armor and have weapons that were used in Japan around the 12th-centruy, during the period of the civil war between the Heike and Genji clans. Thus, while researchers have tried to use the image as a historical source, it was probably a work created by one of the Japanese residents in Ayutthaya, with no concrete connection whatsoever with the period during which it was painted. It could have also been modified by the artist who reproduced it.
While the gesture of sending the ema might have been a way to show his pride in his achievements in Siam, it also shows how Nagamasa was still attached to his native land and to its Shinto traditions.
The Portuguese Jesuit Antonio Francisco Cardim visited Ayutthaya in the late 1620s, and wrote a report that was published in two versions: in Portuguese (sent to Lisbon in 1629) and in Italian (sent to Rome in 1645). This report solves the riddle to whether Nagamasa was a Christian or not. According to Cardim, he was not: “Il capitano di questi Giapponesi non era Christiano.” The Japanese community in Ayutthaya were not predominant Christian. Caradim in fact mentioned only 400 Japanese Christian refugees, less than 15% of some estimates of the Nihonmachi’s population.
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. 50-51)
