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Yamamoto Otokichi was one of three Japanese castaways, along with two men named Kyukichi and Iwakichi, who came ashore in the Pacific Northwest in [[1834]], and then journeyed to England, China, and elsewhere in their efforts to return home.

Yamamoto Otokichi was one of three Japanese castaways, along with two men named Kyukichi and Iwakichi, who came ashore in the Pacific Northwest in [[1834]], and then journeyed to England, China, and elsewhere in their efforts to return home.

Their ship was somehow disabled just off the coast of Japan, floundering and floating all the way to the west coast of the United States. Found by members of the Makah Indian tribe, they were at first enslaved, then later turned over to a sea captain of the Hudson Bay Company. They were later allowed to make their way to England, and to China, in efforts to find their way back to Japan. The group arrived in Japan in [[1837]] aboard the American ship ''Morrison'', a ship out of [[Macao]] carrying a number of American missionaries who were hoping to show goodwill by returning the castaways. Instead, the ship was fired upon by shogunate forces, and driven away. Otokichi and his mates ended up settling in Singapore, Macao, and Shanghai; Otokichi himself married an Englishwoman, and later a Malay woman, and found work as a translator and agent for a British trading company.

Their ship was somehow disabled just off the coast of Japan, floundering and floating all the way to the west coast of the United States. Found by members of the Makah Indian tribe, they were at first enslaved, then later turned over to a sea captain of the Hudson Bay Company. They were later allowed to make their way to England, and to China, in efforts to find their way back to Japan. The group arrived in Japan in [[1837]] aboard the American ship ''Morrison'', a ship out of [[Macao]] carrying a number of American missionaries who were hoping to show goodwill by returning the castaways. Instead, the ship was fired upon by shogunate forces, and driven away.  

 

Otokichi ended up settling in Shanghai, while the others did so in Singapore and Macao. Otokichi himself married an Englishwoman, became an English subject, and took on the name James Matthew Ottoson, later settling in Shanghai, marrying a Malay woman, and working as a translator and agent for a British trading company. He visited [[Nagasaki]] once in [[1849]] pretending to be a Chinese, and later re-entered Japan in [[1854]] as an English subject and interpreter for a British mission seeking to secure for Britain the concessions granted to the United States in the [[Convention of Kanagawa]]. Following the negotiations, he was offered the opportunity to return to Japanese society, but chose instead to return to his new home of Shanghai.

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==References==

==References==

*Matt Matsuda, ''Pacific Worlds'', University of Cambridge Press (2012), 233-

*Matt Matsuda, ''Pacific Worlds'', University of Cambridge Press (2012), 233-237.

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Other Historical Figures]]

[[Category:Other Historical Figures]]