Besides the Kyuemon party’s alleged visit of 1616, there had been another minor encounter in 1612, when a Siamese junk reached Japan and the commander met with the retired Ieyasu in Shizuoka on August 26. However, that was probably another casual, semi-official meeting.
The first official Siamese royal embassy reached Japan in 1621 and it marks the first meeting between a party of official emissaries from Ayutthaya and the shogunate of Edo.
The Siamese entourage was a party of seventy. The ambassadors appointed by King Song Tham were Khun Pichit Sombat and Khun Prasoet. They travelled with a few Japanese, among which Kiya Jazaemon, a wealthy merchant from Sakai, Ito Kyodayu the interpreter, and a man called Hasegawa Genroku. They reached Edo on October 11 and were lodged at the Seigan Temple.
The party visited the shogunal court three times: for a first audience on the 13th, for the ritual exchange of gifts on the 15th, and for a final audience of leave on the 17th. During the first meeting, Hidetada received Song Tham’s letter, a valuable object of art, inscribed on a sheet of gold that was rolled into a cylindrical box made out of elephant tusks. The text, written in Chinese – the lingua franca used during this period all over East Asia – expressed benevolence and concern and emphasized the common traits that distinguished both Siam and Japan, among which Buddhism. In the letter, Song Tham also announced the name he had appointed to supervise the affairs of the Japanese who chose to stay in Ayutthaya: Khun Chaija Sun, which in fact was Yamada Nagamasa.
Among the presents sent by the Siamese were: one long sword, one pair of fowling pieces (a light shotgun), one golden tray, one stone for rubbing ink, and about 1.200 kg of ivory.
Hidetada answered promptly, accepting Song Tham’s proposal of keeping in contact annually by means of embassies and government-sponsored trade. In his letter, he also underlines the importance of Buddhism and Confucianism and described the four Tokugawa social classes: warrior, peasants, artisans, and merchants. He also mentioned that Chinese and Indian books were abundant in Japan.
Hidetada originally had also written to congratulate Nagamasa on his appointment, but this part of the text was later deleted from the letter. A minister of Hidetada was afraid that Nagamasa might later be involved in “some future intrigues” and the shogunate did not want to take the risk of having to bear part of the eventual responsibility. The answer to Nagamasa came instead from Honda Masazumi and Doi Toshikatsu, two men closer to his rank. They acknowledged the presents and the embassy, letting Nagamasa know that they had been delivered by the emissaries from Ayutthya, implying that they considered Nagamasa as a Siamese subject as well.
Back in Ayutthaya, a letter by an Englishman confirms how Nagamasa had already taken control of the Japanese community. English merchants had been in Ayutthaya since 1612, and for the most part they were on friendly terms with the Japanese residing there. The English, who had a factory in Japan, at Hirado, had every interest in cultivating friendly relations with the Japanese.
In the summer of 1621, John Dod the second-in-command of the English factory, was on his way to pay a visit to Nagamasa in Ayutthaya. For unknown reasons, Dod was attacked and arrested by a large group of men in arms. Two Japanese servants who were escorting him escaped from the brawl and managed to get in touch with Nagamasa who, in turn, led a group of forty “men armoured with muskets” and set the Englishman free.
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. 39-42)
