Yamada Nagamasa
Yamada Nagamasa was a leader of the Nihonmachi (Japantown) in early 17th century Ayutthaya (Siam), and of a Japanese contingent of the Siamese royal guard. Nagamasa led some 700 men (roughly half the Japanese population of the city) in suppressing rebellions and defending the kingdom against Burmese invasions, and by 1630 enjoyed high court rank, among other privileges. He served as governor of two provinces, and held a monopoly on managing trade in deerskin and certain other commodities.[1] His prominence made him a target, however, for Prasat Thong, who saw Yamada as a threat, or obstacle, to his plans to seize the throne. In 1630, Prasat Thong assassinated Yamada with a dose of poison, and then burned down the Nihonmachi in order to eliminate any further Japanese threat to his rule.
Biography
Born the son of a knife-maker in Sunpu in 1590, Yamada was not of samurai status. He lost his father while still a child, and after studying at the Meisetsu Rinzai Zen temple for a time, he earned a position at age 16 as palanquin-bearer for Lord Ôkubo of Numazu castle. When Lord Ôkubo passed away with no male heirs, however, the domain was confiscated by the shogunate, and Yamada was forced to return home; there, he found that his mother had died as well, and that the family had sold the house and moved to somewhere in the North.
Yamada then found a job as a dockworker in Sakai, and in 1612 joined the crew of a red seal ship bound for Siam. Ten weeks later, after stopping at a number of other ports, they arrived at Ayutthaya. Kiya Kyûemon, head of the Japantown, took Yamada under his wing. He also began studying Siamese and at least one European language, and soon found a job working as a middleman in the lucrative deerskin trade.
At one point, Yamada traveled to the northern borders of Siam, and volunteered to help fight alongside Siamese warriors against a Burmese invasion. Killing the Burmese general, he found himself invited to the royal palace by King Songtham, and granted aristocratic title. When Kyûemon decided to return to Japan, he named Yamada his successor; by this time, Yamada had become a head of the royal guards, and a wealthy merchant in his own right, even owning his own ship.
When King Songtham fell ill in 1628, he named a relative, known as the Kalahom (a military title), along with Yamada, to serve as regents for his underage successor. The Kalahom then began engineering the deaths of his political rivals, eventually ending in the death of the young king in 1629; when a rebellion arose in the southern province of Ligor, the Kalahom suggested that if Yamada led forces to suppress the rebellion, he could then become lord of that province. Yamada succeeded in this endeavor, and established himself and his Japanese compatriots as rulers of Ligor. In the meantime, however, the Kalahom seized the the throne, naming himself King Prasat Thom.
Yamada married a young woman from the royal family, and set himself to ruling his new territory. However, acting as an agent of Prasat Thom's agendas, his new wife poisoned him, applying poisoned plasters to a leg wound Yamada suffered while suppressing the rebellion. He died shortly afterwards, in 1630.
References
- Cesare Polenghi, Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese warrior and merchant in early seventeenth-century Siam. Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2009.
- ↑ Wray, William. “The 17th Century Japanese Diaspora: Questions of Boundary and Policy.” Thirteenth International Economic History Congress, Buenos Aires 2002. Preconference: Corfu, Greece, 21-22 September 2001, 10.
