Samurai William : The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan

Author: Milton, Giles

United Kingdom, Great Britain

Published on 3 February 2003 by John Murray Press (John Murray Publishers Ltd) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 416 pages, line drawings throughout
199 x 132 x 26 | 322g

In 1611 an astonishing letter arrived at the East India Trading Company in London after a tortuous seven-year journey. Englishman William Adams was one of only twenty-four survivors of a fleet of ships bound for Asia, and he had washed up in the forbidden land of Japan.

The traders were even more amazed to learn that, rather than be horrified by this strange country, Adams had fallen in love with the barbaric splendour of Japan - and decided to settle. He had forged a close friendship with the ruthless Shogun, taken a Japanese wife and sired a new, mixed-race family.

Adams' letter fired up the London merchants to plan a new expedition to the Far East, with designs to trade with the Japanese and use Adams' contacts there to forge new commercial links.

SAMURAI WILLIAM brilliantly illuminates a world whose horizons were rapidly expanding eastwards.