William Adams

William Adams arrived in Japan on 24 September 1600 as one of the few survivors of the Dutch ship Liefde, the sole vessel from a doomed five-ship expedition to reach Japanese waters. Soon after landing, he and second mate Jan Joosten caught the attention of shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who appointed both men as hatamoto - samurai advisors. For over a decade the Tokugawa authorities refused to let Adams leave, and his counsel during those years influenced Japan's sakoku policy, the severe isolationism that would bar foreigners and trap commoners inside for generations. Eventually granted permission to return to England, Adams chose to stay. He died in Japan on 16 May 1620 at fifty-five, and his Japan-born children Joseph and Susanna likely vanished into Batavia in 1635 when the country sealed itself shut for good.