An Englishman in the Shogun's Service: The Remarkable Story of William Adams

In the turbulent years following the unification of Japan, William Adams, an English navigator whose ill-fated voyage landed him on Japanese shores in 1600, earned the trust and favor of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the powerful warlord who would become shogun. Through his candid advocacy for free trade and his impartial counsel, Adams helped shape Ieyasu's foreign policy. In this lecture Professor Frederik Cryns examines Adams' extraordinary rise as a hatamoto under Ieyasu, reflecting the shogun's pragmatism as well as Adams' catalyzing role in Japan's shifting foreign policy after the Sengoku period.

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This event is a part of YCAPS' "Getting to Know Japan Series".

Speaker:

Frederik Cryns is Professor of Japanese History at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan. He is the author of several bestselling books in Japanese on the history of the Sengoku period (the period in Japanese history in which the members of the samurai class fought each other continuously) and the early interaction of the Western world with Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Frederik supervised all the historical aspects of the television series Shōgun (2024). His latest book 'In the Service of the Shogun: The Real Story of William Adams' (Reaktion, 2024) will be released in North America on July 3rd 2024.

Website: https://frederikcryns.com/

Format: This event will be recorded and published in our web archive. Questions are encouraged during the live event.

Registration: Required Link
Moderator: Amani Kidd, Program Director of Getting to Know Japan

Webinar Cost: Free of charge