Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan [Hardcover]

Giles Milton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 18, 2003

An eye-opening account of the first encounter between England and Japan, by the acclaimed author of Nathaniel's Nutmeg

In 1611, the merchants of London's East India Company received a mysterious letter from Japan, written several years previously by a marooned English mariner named William Adams. Foreigners had been denied access to Japan for centuries, yet Adams had been living in this unknown land for years. He had risen to the highest levels in the ruling shogun's court, taken a Japanese name, and was now offering his services as adviser and interpreter.

Seven adventurers were sent to Japan with orders to find and befriend Adams, in the belief that he held the key to exploiting the opulent riches of this forbidden land. Their arrival was to prove a momentous event in the history of Japan and the shogun suddenly found himself facing a stark choice: to expel the foreigners and continue with his policy of isolation, or to open his country to the world. For more than a decade the English, helped by Adams, were to attempt trade with the shogun, but confounded by a culture so different from their own, and hounded by scheming Jesuit monks and fearsome Dutch assassins, they found themselves in a desperate battle for their lives.

Samurai William is the fascinating story of a clash of two cultures, and of the enormous impact one Westerner had on the opening of the East.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following the success of Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Milton focuses on the exploits of another undiscovered historical personage to center a more expansive story. The individual is William Adams, and the larger narrative is the developing trade relationship between Japan and Western Europe. Adams arrived in Japan in 1600 after a death-defying 20-month voyage. Over the next two decades, he embraced Japanese culture, learned the language and rose to prominence in the court of the reigning Shogun, Ieyasu. His prominence allowed the English to outmaneuver the Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch for access to Japanese markets. Much of Milton's story reflects the almost instinctive Western impulse to to take enormous risks in search of riches. The narrative is energized by his accounts of shipwrecks, gruesome deaths from disease and the predations of cannibalistic tribes who attacked ships stopping for provisions. He takes advantage of additional opportunities for gore when describing the dual nature of the Japanese society, highly cultured on the one hand, but barbaric and violent on the other. Milton also offers accounts of the sexual indulgences of the Europeans in Japan, often driven in equal parts by cupidity and concupiscence. In the end the efforts of the Europeans to open trade were futile because, as Milton notes, in 1620, after the death of Ieyasu, his heir closed Japan until the mid-19th century. Milton couches considerable scholarship in a vivacious and colorful narrative that will appeal to lovers of historical adventure. Illus.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In 1600, the dawn of the modern world, when overseas journeys were measured in months and even years, William Adams (1564-1620), an English mariner of humble origins, washed up on the shores of Japan with a band of his fellows. Through a combination of skill, native wit, guile, and good luck, Adams became the confidant of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the powerful warlord who founded modern Japan. Milton (Nathaniel's Nutmeg) places Adams at the center of this rollicking popular history of early European intercourse, in all the senses of that term, with a Japanese society in many respects far more cultured and civilized than Europe. This rowdy and riveting tale is peopled with a large and colorful cast of European merchant adventurers, rogues, and miscreants who sought fame and fortune in the service of the British East India Company and like enterprises. Milton is a gifted storyteller with an eye for the graphic, often gruesome, detail. This is the kind of page turner that will keep you up way past your bedtime. For all libraries.
Steven I. Levine, Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1ST edition (January 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374253854
• ISBN-13: 978-0374253851
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,424,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A man tough as salt pork and bred to survive hardship.", February 18, 2003

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan (Hardcover)

When William Adams and his dying crew arrived in Japan in 1600, after nineteen months at sea, they became the first Englishmen ever to set foot on what was, for them, a completely uncharted, unknown land. The duplicitous Portuguese, who had already set up a trading post there, informed the Japanese that Adams and his men were pirates, and the Japanese imprisoned Adams for six weeks, but they did not crucify him, a common punishment in those days. Tokugawa Ieyasu, the most important ruler of the country, had been impressed, both with Adams's navigational skills and with his frank admission of dislike of the Portuguese and Jesuits, who were undermining the political and military stability of the Ieyasu's domain.

After learning the Japanese language, adopting Japanese customs and dress, and maintaining an unfailingly respectful demeanor, Adams became Ieyasu's interpreter, becoming so valuable to him that he was accorded samurai status and rewarded with a large country estate. Stranded in Japan with no means of escape, Adams became "Japanese." When English ships finally arrived more than ten years later, Adams helped them establish bases and become trusted trading partners, but he never returned "home," living his remaining 23 years in Japan, an honored and much respected man.

In this extremely fast-paced historical narrative, Milton uses primary sources to show how Japan came to be "discovered," what its values and culture were, and why the intrusion of the Europeans and the lure of trade were eventually rebuffed and the country "closed" in 1637. Though he clearly does not agree with the sense of quick justice, the immediate executions, and the brutality carried out by the Japanese in the name of justice, Milton graphically illustrates his admiration and appreciation of their courage and sense of honor, their loyalty and respect for authority, their diligence, their beautifully constructed and aesthetically pleasing gardens, and the grandeur of the palace in Edo (now the Imperial Palace in Tokyo), along with more mundane characteristics, such as their concern for hygiene and bathing and their medical practices (including acupuncture).

He sets up dramatic contrasts with the mores of the Europeans, clearly illustrating the much higher level of "civilization" that existed in Japan without the influence of the west, and it is easy to see why Ieyasu's grandson eventually banned all westerners in order to preserve his own society. Though Samurai William Adams is the real-life role model for James Clavell's Shogun, I found him far more true to life and interesting in this book. Neither romanticized nor idealized, he exists here as a man with flaws, often speaking in his own voice. His life as a seaman and his life in Japan are fascinatingly portrayed, attesting both to Milton's scholarship and his imagination as he recreates successfully the two cultures and societies in which Adams lived two very different lives. Mary Whipple

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining ... but I wish we had the Japanese perspective, January 5, 2003

By 

Charles E. Stevens - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan (Hardcover)

Samurai William is a very interesting tale about William Adams, an Englishman who had a small, but important, impact on Japanese history. For readers familiar with James Clavell's "Shogun", William Adams is the man that "Anjin-san" is based on.

The main problem I had with this book is Milton's nearly complete absence of Japanese sources. Adams' appearance and involvement in Japanese politics must have provoked rather significant reactions from the leading Japanese leaders of the time, but Milton sadly does not deal with this story from the Japanese side at all. Additionally, in the British edition of this book at least, there are several mistakes regarding the Japanese culture and the language. Most humorously, he refers to "bannermen" as "hamamoto" when he means "hatamoto." A "hamamoto" might best be called a "beachman," which I assume Milton did not intend. Hopefully this type of mistake was caught before the American version was printed. I would imagine many of these mistakes are due to Milton's over-reliance on old European sources and unfamiliarity with the Japanese culture.

Milton is clearly a writer first and a historian second. As such, the line between fact and fiction is somewhat vague at times. Nevertheless, this is a very interesting book. Just remember that it is not always an entirely accurate one.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The True Story Behind, September 22, 2004

By 

Maximiliano F Yofre "Maxi" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan (Paperback)

When I was gathering material to complete my review on Mr. James Clavell's "Shogun" I saw a reference to this book and can't resist the temptation to bought it and read it. After finishing reading it I was amazed by how deeply Mr. Clavell has grasped this exotic environment in his novel.

Mr. Milton has thoroughly researched the contemporary European sources to build this book. He took into account the diary & letters from William Adams (the historical character on which Clavell's book was based), Richard Cock, the chief English Factor at Hirado (Japan), Captain John Saris and other Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese sources. As other reviewers have pointed out, Japanese sources are omitted. This in my opinion, is not a great setback, because the author is telling the story of the hundred year relationship between Europeans and Japanese from the Europeans stand point of view, and he doesn't claim otherwise.

The amazement and shock, that such a different culture generated on these seamen and merchants is shown in their own words. In one hand the higher cultural level, reflected in the cleanness, sophistication and demeanor of the Japanese, seduce them. In the other hand the harsh justices applied: deaths for minor and major faults, without appellation or mercy, appall them.
The spicy language used by William Adams and his fellow merchants is shown, with minor standardization in order to render it intelligibly for modern readers, recreating their environment and mindset. The book is very entreatingly and provides a colorful sight of that historical period and place.
Enjoy this reading!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.