contributor
27,126
edits
Changes
From SamuraiWiki
Jump to navigationJump to searchCreated page with " Jan Joosten van Lodensteiyn was an agent of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), who first arrived in Japan in 1600 aboard the ''Liefde''; he and his shipmates wer..."
Jan Joosten van Lodensteiyn was an agent of the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC), who first arrived in Japan in [[1600]] aboard the ''[[Liefde]]''; he and his shipmates were the first Dutchmen (and the first Englishman, [[William Adams]]) to ever travel to Japan.
The ''Liefde'' left Europe alongside four other ships, on a mission to challenge the Iberian monopoly in Japanese trade. By the time they arrived in Japan on 1600/3/7, however, the ''Liefde'' was the only ship left. Joosten and Adams were among 21 survivors of what was originally a 110-man crew. Most of the others were kept in detention for several months, while Joosten and Adams were granted an audience with [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] on 3/29 (or perhaps 4/10). Ieyasu later took both men into his service, granting Joosten a 100 ''[[koku]]'' fief near [[Nagasaki]], and a mansion in [[Edo]].
Once the VOC formally established a factory in Japan in [[1609]], Joosten began working more actively for them, while also making private investments in the Southeast Asia trade. Once the [[British East India Company]] established its Japanese factory in [[1613]], Joosten began using his influence with Ieyasu to push for greater Dutch privileges (over the English), to the chagrin of [[Richard Cocks]], head of the British factory. Even so, Cocks is known to have sent gifts to Joosten's wife and daughter in [[1616]]. Little is known about Joosten's Japanese wife, or about his daughter, except that she was old enough by [[1622]] to get married herself.
{{stub}}
==References==
*Gary Leupp, ''Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900'', A&C Black (2003), 59.
[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Foreigners]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Merchants]]
