Changes

* ''Birth: [[1569]]''

* ''Birth: [[1569]]''

* ''Death: [[1633]]''

* ''Death: [[1633]]''

* ''Other name: Konchiin Sûden''

* ''Other name: Konchi-in Sûden'' (金地院崇伝)

* ''Titles: Enshô Honkô Kokushi (1626)''

Sûden was a [[Zen Buddhism|Zen]] monk who acted as a religious advisor to [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] and as a result played a notable role in that sphere in the foundation of the [[Tokugawa clan|Tokugawa]] shogunate. Along with other scholars he drafted the [[Buke Shohatto]] for Tokugawa Ieyasu in [[1615]] and read the document before an assembly of daimyô at Fushimi that same year. In [[1612]] he was tasked with composing a letter to the governor of New Spain inviting Spanish trade. At Ieyasu’s funeral in [[1616]] he acted as an overseer of ceremonies, along with [[Tenkai]] and [[Bonshun]].

Sûden was a [[Rinzai]] [[Zen Buddhism|Zen]] monk who acted as an advisor to [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] on both religious matters and on foreign affairs. As a result, he played a notable role in those spheres in the foundation of the [[Tokugawa clan|Tokugawa]] shogunate.  

 

The son of an [[Ashikaga clan]] retainer, Sûden was the head of [[Nanzen-ji]] in [[Kyoto]] when he was called upon by Tokugawa Ieyasu in [[1608]] to serve as a foreign policy advisor.<ref>Cesare Polenghi, ''Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese warrior and merchant in early seventeenth-century Siam''. Bangkok: White Lotus Press (2009), 14.</ref>

 

Sûden was tasked by Ieyasu with recording the shogunate's diplomatic activities and communications; these records, collected over the period from 1608 to [[1629]], were compiled into a volume titled ''Ikoku nikki'' ("Chronicle of Foreign Countries").<ref>Polenghi, 6.</ref> Sûden also oversaw the administration of the country's [[Buddhist temple]]s and [[Shinto shrine]]s along with [[Itakura Katsushige]], and inaugurated two temples called [[Konchi-in]], one in [[Sunpu]], where he made his home, and another in [[Edo]].

 

In [[1612]] he was tasked with composing a letter to the governor of New Spain inviting Spanish trade; during his service to the Tokugawa, he would be involved in drafting a number of communications with the Spanish colonies, Korean court, various Ming Chinese officials, and other foreign powers. Negotiations with the Ming court over the reopening of trade between China and Japan, and over the issue of piracy (''[[wako|wakô]]'') formed a significant part of this work. In [[1617]], and again in [[1624]], he rejected requests from the Korean court that the shogun be referred to by the term "king" (王, ''ô'') in diplomatic documents; this would imply submission to within the Sinocentric world order, to the Chinese Emperor, and would lead to the identification of Japan as a [[tribute|tributary]] state to China.

 

Sûden was instrumental in effecting the edict banning Christianity in [[1614]], drafted the ''[[Buke Shohatto]]'' in [[1615]] along with a number of other scholars, and read the document before an assembly of [[daimyo|daimyô]] at [[Fushimi]] that same year. At Ieyasu’s funeral in [[1616]], he acted as an overseer of ceremonies, along with [[Tenkai]] and [[Bonshun]].

 

He was named ''Enshô Honkô Kokushi'' by [[Emperor Go-Mizunoo]] in [[1626]]. His primary work, the ''Honkô kokushi nikki'' (Chronicles of Master Honkô), remains a valuable tool for understanding diplomacy of the time.

==References==

==References==

* Initial text from [http://www.samurai-archives.com Samurai-Archives.com] FWSeal & CEWest, 2005

* Initial text from [http://www.samurai-archives.com Samurai-Archives.com] FWSeal & CEWest, 2005

[[Category:Religious Figures]][[Category:Sengoku Period]]

[[Category:Religious Figures]]

[[Category:Edo Period]]