The First and Only Englishman in Edo

choi

Robert Whiting, An Englishman in Edo; William Adams was invaluable to Japan's military ruler, advising him on trade, diplomacy and intrigues of European politics. Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2024, at page C7
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture ... n-in-japan-a2981295
(book review on Frederik Cryns, In the Service of the Shogun; The real story of William Adams. Reaktion Books, May 1, 2024)

Quote: "We are told [by Cryns] that ]in the early seventeenth century] Chinese was the official language of diplomatic documents across East Asia. Ieyasu's letter to King James discussing trade privileges, for example, was first written in Chinese and then translated into English.


Note:
(a)
(i) Reaktion Books
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaktion_Books
(ii)
(A) The review carries am image "View of Edo," which is reproduced as the top photo in Edo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo
, which does not attribute the source.
(B) View of Edo  江戸図 屏風. National Museum of Japanese History 国立歴史民俗博物館 (abbreviation in Japanese: reki-haku 歴博), undated
https://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/kids/activities/screen/index.html
actually has two (左隻 右隻, each with six panel; the preceding Wiki page shows only 左隻). 隻 has only Chinese pronunciation seki (and no Japanese one) and is a counter for ship, eye, hand, or one half of a pair.

(b) "In 1600, the ailing Dutch trading ship Liefde washed ashore at Usuki Bay, on Japan's southern island of Kyushu. Among its crew was William Adams, a 35-year-old Englishman who served as the ship's chief navigator pen.wikipedia.org for this person identifies him  as 'pilot']. * * * Jacques Specx, who in 1611 represented the Dutch * * * Mr Cryns, a professor of Japanese history at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan, includes in his book numerous interesting facts about life in 17th-century Japan. We learn, for instance, that the samurai shaved their heads 'to the crown, the rest of their hair tied in a knot behind' to make it easier to don a helmet—and make wearing one feel less hot and damp during battle. We are told that Chinese was the official language of diplomatic documents across East Asia. Ieyasu's letter to King James discussing trade privileges, for example, was first written in Chinese and then translated into English. And we discover that Adams left evidence of his ambitions to use Hokkaido, then called Ezo, as a starting point to discover the elusive Northwest Passage."
(i) The Dutch noun feminine liefde means love. There is no en.wikipedia.org page for Liefde the ship.
(ii) Usuki Bay 臼杵湾 is not found in en.wikipedia.org, but found in
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/臼杵湾
("大分県臼杵市にある湾 [a bay located at 大分県臼杵市")
, which has no map, though.

Usuki, Ōita  大分県臼杵市
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuki,_Ōita
("William Adams, Jan Joosten, Jacob Quaeckernaeck and Melchior van Santvoort got stranded on the coast of Bungo, now Usuki City, in April 1600, on the ship "De Liefde", marking the first contact that led to many years of Dutch-Japanese trading partnership")
carries such maps.

Bungo Province 豊後国
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungo_Province
("corresponding to most of modern Ōita Prefecture," NOT City of Usuki)

The ja.wikipedia.org for states under 市名の由来 that "臼塚古墳の入口に立っている石の武人像が、「臼」と「杵」の形に似ており * * *"  That is, the City has an ancient burial site whose entrance has [a pair of] 武人像. Seach images.google.com with 臼塚古墳 and you will see.
(iii) Jacques Specx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Specx
(1585 – 1652; Dutch merchant)
(iv) International Research Center for Japanese Studies  国際日本文化研究センター (1982- ) is under 文部科学省.
(v)
(A) For hairstyle, see chonmage  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chonmage
(B) 丁髷
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/丁髷
("本来は本多髷(ほんだまげ)と言い、「ちょんまげ」は、えび折りにした髷がゝ(ちょん)に似ているところから生じた明治初期以降の俗称である"_

my rough translation: Originally called 本多髷, ちょんまげ came into use since early Meiji Era, because the knot is tied like ゝ or the (natural) bending 折り of a shrimp えび (pronunciation: ebi; kanji: 海老).

Japanese has various symbols to repeat something already written. See 踊り字
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/踊り字
(々 to repeat the same kanji, ゝ to repeat the same hiragana, and ヽ to repeat the same katakana)
(C) Japanese-Ennglish dictionary:
* mage 髷 【まげ】 (n): "bun (hairstyle); chignon; topknot"  (This is Japanese pronunciation.)


(c) "The floors [shogun's palace] were 'covered with tatami mats'—flooring material made of hardened straw—'edged with damask or gold cloth.' * * * Ieyasu's heir and successor, Hidetada [(徳川)秀忠, a son of Ieyasu], had no affinity for Adams and distrusted the English and Dutch as much as he did the proselytizing Spanish and the Portuguese Catholics. * * * Hidetada forbade the Japanese from buying goods from foreigners in Osaka, Kyoto and Sakai, the commercial centers of Japan at the time. All foreigners were ordered to move to the southern cities of Nagasaki or nearby Hirado, the only two places they would be allowed to do business.
(i) damask
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damask
talks about being first invented in China, but there is no such Chinese word for it, or in zh.wikipedia.org. A Taiwanese website describes damask as "表面織出特殊紋路的織物."
(ii)
(A) Sakai  堺(市)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakai
("in Osaka Prefecture * * * directly south of the city of Osaka" -- both Sakai and City of Osaka 大阪市 are within Prefecture of Osaka 大阪府)
(B) The ja.wikipedia.org for this city says, "地名は、方違神社付近がかつて摂津国・河内国・和泉国の3国の「境（さかい）であったことに由来する。"

my rough translation: The city name came from the fact that 方違神社 [within the city] once bordered three provinces.
(iii) The en.wikipedia.org for "Hirado, Nagasaki" says Hirado is "about 80 kilometers north-northwest of Nagasaki City." Both cities are within Prefectyre of Nagasaki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagasaki_Prefecture
(section 2 Geography, section 2.1 Cities)

Click these two cities to learn their location within the prefecture.