Hasekura Tsunenaga Visits Rome
- When
- 1615
- Where
- Rome
- Episodes
- 1
Hasekura Tsunenaga, a retainer of Date Masamune, led the Keichō Embassy to Rome to request a trade treaty with Mexico and Christian missionaries. He presented gilded letters to Pope Paul V, though political discussions also occurred. The mission faced obstacles due to Japanese Christian persecution.
Episodes
Background and detail
Mission Context. Hasekura Tsunenaga, a samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, headed the Keichō Embassy from 1613 to 1620. The mission aimed to discuss trade agreements with the Spanish crown and meet the Pope in Rome. Hasekura was of Japanese imperial descent and served as a representative for several important missions.
Audience with the Pope. Hasekura presented two gilded letters to Pope Paul V, one in Japanese and one in Latin. These letters requested a trade treaty between Japan and Mexico and the dispatch of Christian missionaries to Japan. The letters were signed by Date Masamune, who addressed the Pope with profound submission and reverence.
People involved
- Hasekura Tsunenaga · Leader of the Keichō Embassy, retainer of Date Masamune
- Pope Paul V · Recipient of the diplomatic mission and trade treaty request
- Date Masamune · Daimyō of Sendai, principal of the embassy
Sources
- Hasekura Tsunenaga Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-29
- Pope Paul V Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-04
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.