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[[File:Yamada-nagamasa.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Bust of Yamada Nagamasa in the ''shôtengai'' main street approaching [[Sengen Shrine]] in [[Shizuoka City]]. Wearing a facemask during the Covid-19 crisis of 2020.]]
*''Born: [[1590]]''
*''Born: [[1590]]''
*''Died: [[1630]]''
*''Died: [[1630]]''
Once in Ayutthaya, [[Kiya Kyuzaemon|Kiya Kyûzaemon]], head of the Japantown, took Yamada under his wing. Yamada 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 some point while in Siam, or perhaps during his time in Sakai, Yamada Nizaemon took on the name Nagamasa.
Once in Ayutthaya, [[Kiya Kyuzaemon|Kiya Kyûzaemon]], head of the Japantown, took Yamada under his wing. Yamada 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 some point while in Siam, or perhaps during his time in Sakai, Yamada Nizaemon took on the name Nagamasa.
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 Kyûzaemon 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.
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 Kyûzaemon 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. Kyûzaemon last appears in the historical record in [[1619]]; it is unclear precisely when Nagamasa succeeded him as head of the community, but it must have been sometime between 1619 and [[1621]].<ref>Polenghi, 42.</ref>
In [[1621]], acting as representative of the royal court, Nagamasa sent three letters to Shogun [[Tokugawa Hidetada]] and two of the ''[[roju|rôjû]]'', in advance of Ayutthaya sending an embassy to [[Edo]] to negotiate for formal relations. This marks the first time anyone in the shogunate heard of (or from) Nagamasa, and as a result of [[Ishin Suden|Ishin Sûden]] investigating the identity of this mysterious "Yamada Nagamasa" and then recording it in his ''[[Ikoku nikki]]'', it also marks Yamada's first appearance in official shogunate documents.
In 1621, now serving as head of the ''Nihonmachi'' and acting as representative of the royal court, Nagamasa sent three letters to Shogun [[Tokugawa Hidetada]] and two of the ''[[roju|rôjû]]'', in advance of Ayutthaya sending an embassy to [[Edo]] to negotiate for formal relations. This marks the first time anyone in the shogunate heard of (or from) Nagamasa, and as a result of [[Ishin Suden|Ishin Sûden]] investigating the identity of this mysterious "Yamada Nagamasa" and then recording it in his ''[[Ikoku nikki]]'', it also marks Yamada's first appearance in official shogunate documents.
By [[1624]], Nagamasa was wealthy enough to purchase his own ship, which he sent to Nagasaki in the hopes of obtaining a ''shuinjô'' (red seal license). He was not granted one until a full year later, however, and so his ship remained in Nagasaki harbor, finally returning to Ayutthaya in [[1626]]. Nagamasa was able to secure some space on a Dutch ship to send a load of deerskins to Nagasaki on commission (i.e. in his own name, for his own profit), and also to send his own ship the following year, in [[1627]]. On this latter journey, the ship was captured by the Dutch, but once [[Jan Pieterzoon Coen]], governor of the Dutch East Indies, realized whose ship it was, he granted Nagamasa a license to trade in [[Batavia]] (Jakarta) and sent the ship freely back to Ayutthaya; Nagamasa sent a load of gifts to Batavia in response, and for the next year or two enjoyed a friendly and profitable personal trading relationship with the VOC. His ship traveled to Japan for the third and last time in [[1629]], after which it returned to Ayutthaya once more.<ref>Polenghi, 49.</ref>
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.
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.
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.
==Aftermath==
Nagamasa's son Oin succeeded him as king of Ligor, and as head of Nagamasa's army of Japanese forces. Before long, however, amid local uprisings, Oin and his men fled to Cambodia, possibly merging into the Japanese community there. Meanwhile, Nagamasa's red-seal-licensed junk returned to Ayutthaya from its last trip to Japan; Prasat Thong attempted to have the ship seized, and the people of the ''Nihonmachi'' opposed him. Whether in the conflict over this particular incident, or due to Prasat Thong's fears of Japanese opposition or rebellion more broadly, the ''Nihonmachi'' was burned down. Some sixty or seventy members of the community fled to Japan, while the rest remained, and rebuilt, under a new headman, Iwakura Heyemon.
The next few years brought numerous difficulties and conflicts for the Japanese community of Ayutthaya. Conflict between the resident Japanese and royal forces in the immediate aftermath of the burning of the Japantown culminated in a naval battle, and in some number of Japanese fleeing overseas to return to Japan. Later that same year, the Cambodian navy attacked Ayutthaya, quite possibly with the help of Oin and his men (formerly, Nagamasa's men). Many of the men, and other members of the Japanese community, were slaughtered by Prasat Thong's royal forces, but some number of them switched sides and rejoined the royal guard.
Some number of Japanese returned to Ayutthaya directly from Ligor, and though Prasat Thong's efforts to reverse his policies and welcome them in [[1632]] did not see much of a lively response, from [[1633]] onward the community gradually began to recover.
==Legacy==
==Legacy==
*Cesare Polenghi, ''Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese warrior and merchant in early seventeenth-century Siam''. Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2009.
*Cesare Polenghi, ''Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese warrior and merchant in early seventeenth-century Siam''. Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2009.
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==External Links==
*[http://sengendori.com/nagamasa/nagamasagoods.html 長政関連文物] - a listing of paintings, documents, artifacts, and popular works related to Nagamasa.
[[Category:Other Historical Figures]]
[[Category:Other Historical Figures]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
