SAMURAI WILLIAM
The Englishman Who Opened Japan
by GILES MILTON
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. 352 pages, $24

reviewed by Sarah Stephens

Japan was considered a mysterious and tantalizing prize to the Jacobean adventurers of England. Rumors of its incredible riches, imperious rulers, and eagerness for trade had reached English ears by the late sixteenth century, but the obstacles to mounting an expedition there were staggering. Vast tracts of the oceans were still unmapped; Spanish and Portuguese outposts along the route would launch attacks on any approaching English ship; fierce natives often captured and killed sailors looking for supplies; and Japan itself was said to be "surrounded by unpredictable storms that swallowed ships with one watery gulp."

Yet the lure of the glittering East was irresistible. William Adams, a pilot and shipwright from Limehouse, in the deprived East End of London, was just one of many who dreamt of exotic lands and the treasures that lay across the seas. A rather surly and forthright man, he was not perhaps the obvious choice as a leader of men, but history bears him out. He was not only the first Englishman to reach Japan, but also the only one to be honored as a samurai and valued advisor to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.

For almost two years, Adams and his crew fought their way around the worldfrom London to Africa, across the Atlantic, around the tip of South America and across the enormous expanse of the Pacific. Treacherous seas, hostile natives, sickness and hunger had claimed a huge number of the men who had set off in the three-ship expedition, and by the time the only remaining boat found its way into Funai harbor on April 12, 1600, they were expecting the worst. Yet they were astonished to find their hosts amenable, civilized, and courteous, and even more amazed when they encountered richly dressed people, elegantly built houses, and shimmering monasteries. For Adams, it was the beginning of a love affair with Japan that would last the rest of his lifeand, in fact, he would choose never to leave its shores again.

Drawn from Jacobean letters and journals, Samurai William is part social history, part adventure novel, told with the skill of a storyteller but with the underlying scholarship to make it a real literary achievement. Giles Milton (who also wrote Nathaniel's Nutmeg and Big Chief Elizabeth) leads readers through an extraordinary era of exploration, which encompasses the formation of the East India Company, the fierce rivalry of the European trading nations, the religious fervor of the Jesuits who had already entered Japan, and the extraordinary customs and practices of the Japanese court.

Milton is particularly good on the clashes of culture between the English interlopers and the curious Japanese, whose tolerance is tested to the extreme by the carousing, womanizing, uncivilized sailors. Indeed, the English were so used to believing themselves the most civilized race in the world that they found it hard to accept that their manners and customs could be so repulsive and clumsy to the Japanese. The tea ceremony, eating with chopsticks, and the incredible deference shown to those higher in status were just a few of the things that bemused the men, and even after many years in the country, most had failed to come to grips with them. Only at one thing did the two races naturally concur: "Drinking themselves into oblivion was one of the few Japanese customs that was eagerly adopted by the English and the only one at which they truly excelled," notes Milton wryly.

Adams's principal task was to set up trading rights with Japan, and it was to this end that he found himself at the court of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a wily and powerful feudal ruler. Ieyasu was a charismatic, awe-inspiring mountain of a man (so fat in later years that he could not mount his horse) who dressed in luxurious silks and fancied himself worldly-wise. He was fascinated by Adams's stories of the West and, in particular, by his knowledge of astronomy and navigation. Realizing that this foreigner's skills could be of great use, Ieyasu wooed Adams with privileges and status, encouraging him to stay in Japan. So it was that despite the anguish of leaving his wife and daughter back in London, Adams adopted the customs, clothing, and practice of the court and began a new life.

Much of the rest of the book focuses on the setting up of the new East India Company outpost by English merchants, the scheming Jesuit monks who so infuriated the Japanese rulers, the internal strife of the country, and tensions among the rival Europeans, all of whom wanted privileged trading status with Japan. The intense violence of Japan never ceased to dismay Adams and the English (minor offenses were routinely punished by instant decapitation), and there is a growing sense of melancholy among the traders, who gradually all succumb to disease, alcoholism, or vicious brawling.

Despite years of efforts, the longed-for trade links were never established, and not long after Adams's death, the last of the English quietly left Japan. This was the beginning of sakoku, or the closed country, when Japan expelled all foreigners and closed her windows on the world. Yet when the English did return, some two hundred years later, they were astonished to find that the story of William Adams was still famous throughout the land. Thanks to Giles Milton, it is now accessible to those outside Japan, too.