Two families, the Hojo and the Ashikaga, successively held the shogunate down to the year 1573. The last shogun of the second house was deposed by Nobunaga, the son of a soldier of fortune, whose name, like those of his two generals and successors, Hidéyoshi and Iyéyasu, is great in Japanese history. Nobunaga fell the victim of treachery; but his place was promptly filled by Hidéyoshi, who at once crushed the rising which had overthrown his master and assumed the reins of government. The son of a peasant, he had entered Nobunaga’s service as a groom, but, attracting notice, he was promoted to military service and quickly rose by his own prowess to high command. Often changing his name, according to Japanese custom, he appears in history under many designations. By the Portuguese Jesuits he is referred to as Faxiba (i.e. Hashiba); but he is more generally known by his later name of Taiko Sama; and by this name he is called in these volumes. Neither he nor Nobunaga received the title of shogun. The highest rank to which he attained was that of kuwambaku, or premier.[5]
Hidéyoshi died in 1598[6] leaving an infant son, Hidéyori (the Fidaia Sama of Cocks’s diary), whom he had married to the grand-daughter of his old fellow-soldier Iyéyasu, in the hope of thus disarming a dangerous rival, who was also appointed one of the guardians of the boy. But these precautions went for nothing. Even in Nobunaga’s days Iyéyasu was a powerful leader, and he had only submitted to Taiko Sama after some hesitation. It is true that he swore to protect the interests of the young Hidéyori; but many circumstances combined to stifle any scruples that he might have felt in supplanting his ward. It was whispered that the child was no son of Taiko Sama, and, even if he were, the nobles who had resented the rule of the low-born chief, whom they were forced to obey, were not disposed to continue their submission to his child. What has always happened in such conjunctures was sure to happen now. The other guardians of the young prince, suspicious of Iyéyasu, began to draw together their troops; Iyéyasu summoned his men; and soon after, in October, 1600, the rival armies confronted each other on the field of Sékigahara, near Lake Biwa, in the centre of the kingdom. Iyéyasu gained a decisive victory; his enemies were scattered with fearful slaughter; and the young Hidéyori was at the mercy of the conqueror. To the credit of the latter, his captive received no harm, but continued to lead a life of almost perfect freedom in his strong castle of Ozaka.
It was, then, only a few months before this decisive battle that Adams had his first interview with Iyéyasu, the emperor as he styles him, at Ozaka. How he found favour in his eyes, was taken into his confidence, “learned him some points of geometry and understanding of the arts of mathematics”, built him ships and, in fine, gained such influence that “what I said he would not contrary,” Adams himself has told us in that letter which, a captive in a far-off land, he addressed so pathetically to his “unknown friends and countrymen.” But when, in his yearning to see wife and children again, “according to conscience and nature”, he prayed for liberty to return to his country, Iyéyasu hardened his heart and would not let him go. The most that was granted was leave for the Dutch captain of the ship[7] and one of the crew to depart. This they did; and it should be noted that it was by the help of the daimio of Firando, who now first appears upon the scene, that they found a junk wherein to sail. The captain was soon after killed fighting against the Portuguese. His companion returned and settled at Nagasaki, being the Melchor van Sanfort (or Sanvoort) whom we meet in the diary. Others of the crew no doubt settled in the country. One of them is incidentally mentioned by Cocks (i. 171).
Adams’s letter above referred to was written in October, 1611. It reached the English factory at Bantam probably early in 1612; but the idea of opening trade with Japan had already been entertained in England. Adams’s story was known there by reports from the Dutch; and letters announcing the intentions of the East India Company were sent out to him by the ship Globe, which sailed in January, 1611. In April following, the Clove, the Thomas, and the Hector were despatched under command of Captain John Saris, with letters from King James I. to the Emperor of Japan. Arriving at Bantam in October, 1612, Saris remained there till the beginning of the new year, and then, on the 14th of January, sailed for Japan in the ship Clove, with a crew of some seventy men. On the 10th of June, off Nagasaki, he first sighted the western coast of Kiushiu, and two days after came to an anchor in the haven of Firando.
The first to greet the English commander were the old daimio or tono, Foyne Sama, then in his seventy-second year, and his grandson, a young man of two-and-twenty, who shared the government. Both are styled kings; and the latter is Figen a (or Figeno) Sama, who appears throughout Cocks’s diary as the king of Firando. Foyne Sama seems to have been a simple and unaffected old man, not averse to merry-making, but firm, and, says Saris, “famed to be the worthiest soldier of all Japan, for his valour and service in the Corēan wars.”[8] Old as he was and good-humoured as he appeared, we see something of the sterner side of his character in certain remarks of our diarist. Almost immediately after their arrival the English sailors began quarrelling and drew from him a reproof which, though gentle, was a sufficient hint; and we are told, at a later date, when his dog “Balle” was accidentally killed by the English cook, that “if this had happened in the time of Foyne Sama, who esteemed this dog much, it might have cost us all our lives” (i. 248). The readiness with which he welcomed and encouraged foreign trade is creditable, and proves that he understood, at all events in some degree, the benefits which his small principality might derive from it. He died in 1614, about a year after the establishment of the English factory. The young king had not the force of character of his grandfather. Though generally keeping on fair terms with the English, his temper was capricious, and he was probably too indolent not to be ruled by his own ministers, some of whom appear to have been all-powerful. The principal nobles and ministers at Firando were: Bongo Sama or Nobesane, Foyne’s brother, and consequently great-uncle to Figen a Sama; Tonomon Sama, and Genta or Gentero Sama, Figen a Sama’s brothers, of whom the first acted as viceroy in the absence of the king, and the second resided as hostage at the shogun’s court and was in favour there; Sangero Sama, a natural son of Foyne; Oyen Dono[9] and Semi Dono, the royal secretaries; and Taccamon Dono, the chief justice, “our enemy”, as Cocks calls him (ii. 3).
The Dutch had already been settled in Firando for some years. In July, 1609, their ship the Red Lion arrived in that port and, favoured by Foyne Sama, they succeeded in obtaining from the shogun leave to establish a factory and to send one or more ships annually from Europe. It was not, however, till two years after this that another small ship, the Brach, arrived, and two commissioners were sent up to pay the usual visit to the court. One of these was Jacob Speck,[10] afterwards head of the Dutch factory and the contemporary and rival of Cocks. At the court at Suruga they were met by William Adams, whose influence with the shogun was used to such good purpose that they received most favourable terms for trading in the country, while two embassies of the Portuguese and Spaniards, which were present about the same time, failed to obtain the full privileges they sought.[11] The head of the Dutch factory, when Saris landed, was Hendrik Brower; and at the very first mention of his name by Cocks, the jealousy which was smouldering in the hearts of the two nations shows itself: “Captain Brower went along by the door but would not look at us, and we made as little account of him.”[12]
The first business for Saris to transact was the hire of a house, to serve for a factory, from Captain Andassee, “Captain of the China quarter”, the Chinaman who appears all through the diary by the name of Andrea Dittis; his next was to prepare to visit the court of Iyéyasu, only waiting to be joined by William Adams, for whom he had sent and who arrived on the 29th of July. They started on their journey on the 7th of August, leaving Cocks to manage affairs at Firando, and travelled by the same regular route over which Cocks was afterwards so often to pass: down the inland sea to Ozaka, and thence by land to Suruga[13] where Iyéyasu resided, and afterwards proceeding to Yedo to visit Hidétada, son of the latter and actual shogun, to whom his father, according to a not infrequent custom, had transferred the title in 1605. It is needless to repeat here the interesting details of this journey, which are to be found in Saris’s own narrative in the pages of Purchas. For our present purpose it is enough to state that the travellers returned to Firando on the 6th of November with ample privileges for trade.[14] One request was however refused, viz. the right to bring into Japan and sell the goods of Chinese prizes which might be captured as a punishment for rejection of the English trade. This is only one of several instances that are recorded of Iyéyasu’s fairness to all foreigners alike and of his refusal to mix in their quarrels. It was also understood that, on the arrival of a ship from Europe, a present was to be carried to the shogun; and for trade with neighbouring countries a goshon or licence was requisite for each junk that sailed.
“Now touching a factory to be left there,” says Saris, “I had on the twenty-sixth [of November] assembled my merchandizing council, where, upon these considerations, viz. the encouragement we had received in the Moluccas by private intelligence; the Dutch factory already planted here in Firando; the large privileges now obtained of the Emperor of Japan; the certain advice of the English factories settled in Siam and Patane; the commodities resting unsold upon our hands appointed for these parts; and the hoped-for profit which further experience may produce, it was resolved that a factory should be left there, viz. eight English, three Japan jurebasses or interpreters, and two servants, who were appointed against the coming of the next ships to search and discover the coast of Corea, Tushmay, and other parts of Japan and countries thereunto adjoining, to see what good might be done in any of them.”[15] The eight Englishmen who were thus appointed members of the English factory, were: Richard Cocks, captain and cape- (or head-) merchant, William Adams, Tempest Peacock, Richard Wickham, William Eaton, Walter Carwarden, Edmund Sayers, and William Nealson.
Richard Cocks[16] was probably a native of Coventry; at all events he was familiar with that city (i. 172), and had friends there (i. 229). His name appears in the charter of incorporation of the East India Company, 31 Dec. 1600; and in the earlier list of “names of such persons as have written with their own hands to venture in the pretended voyage to the East Indies,” 22 Sept. 1599, he is described as a grocer and subscribes £200.[17] He himself tells us (ii. 317) that, besides being a member of “this Right Honourable and Right Worshipful Society or Company which trade to the East Indies,” he belonged to the Merchants Adventurers and was “made free of the old Hanse”, and he was also a member of the Clothworkers’ Company. A certain Richard Cocks who sailed with Frobisher in his third voyage to Meta Incognita, in 1578, and who was distinguished as “the first to sail in among the ice”, was probably a relative.[18] From 1603 to 1608 he lived at Bayonne, no doubt as a merchant. Many news-letters written by him from thence are preserved in the Public Record Office, addressed to Sir Thomas Wilson, secretary to Lord Treasurer Salisbury. From this we may infer that Sir Thomas was Cocks’s patron. The correspondence was continued when Cocks was in Japan; and some of his letters which dwelt on the wonders of the country were sent to King James to read, who declared them to contain “the loudest lies that he had ever heard.” Wilson pronounces the writer to be, though not lettered, a man of honesty, years, and judgment.[19] As Cocks becomes well known to us as we read his diary, we will leave him for the present.
Of the other members of the factory, two soon disappeared from the scene. Tempest Peacock and Walter Carwarden went on a trading venture to Cochinchina, and, as we shall see, never returned. Richard Wickham appears to have been in more independent circumstances than the rest. Even before Saris’s departure he began to give trouble, as his time of agreement with the Company had nearly expired and he bargained for higher wages. He resigned his place and left Japan early in 1618, and died soon after at Jacatra in Java, worth, it was said, £5,000 or £6,000. William Eaton and Edmund Sayers[20] were with the factory from first to last. The former is called by Cocks “my countryman”, probably meaning that they were natives of the same place or district. William Nealson was turbulent and quarrelsome, particularly when drink put him into his “fustian fumes”. He died in March, 1620, “being wasted away with a consumption.” After reading of their constant bickerings, one smiles to find that he made Cocks his heir; and, piously adds Cocks, “if God had called me in his mercy before Mr. Nealson, then had he had as much of mine” (ii. 321).