IDTG

Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga was the first official Japanese ambassador to the Americas and Europe, having traveled there in the early 17th century.

He was a Samurai whose mission from Japan to the Christian west spanned from 1613 through 1620 and it was the last one until 1862!

Mon of the daimyo Date Masamune

The objective was to establish a close relationship with the West and increase trade to the benefit of the Japanese. Hasekura was sent by the daimyo (regional powerful lord) Date Masamune of Sendai who had plans to become the Shogun.

In the correspondence that the daimyo sent with Hasekura, it was said that he was planning to convert to Christianity and offered to accept Catholic mercenaries.

This came at a time when Christianity had started taking root in Japan and a number of them were converting, though not all feudal lords welcomed the new religion. Hasekura and his entourage were among those who were at least friendly towards the religion and the majority converted during their trip.

Hasekura himself converted in Spain in 1615 and on February 17th was baptized by King Philip III’s personal chaplain and had as his godfather the Duke of Lerma. His Christian name was Felipe Francisco Hasekura.

Of interest is that on Hasekura’s way to Rome to meet with the Pope, he had to spend a few days in Saint Tropez due to bad weather. While there, he met with French nobles marking the first official contact between France and Japan in history.

There are some funny stories from the French side about their “exotic” visitors:

“They never touch food with their fingers, but instead use two small sticks that they hold with three fingers.”
“They blow their noses in soft silky papers the size of a hand, which they never use twice, so that they throw them on the ground after usage, and they were delighted to see our people around them precipitate themselves to pick them up.”
“Their swords cut so well that they can cut a soft paper just by putting it on the edge and by blowing on it.”

(Marcouin, Francis and Keiko Omoto. Quand le Japon s’ouvrit au monde. Paris: Découvertes Gallimard, 1990. ISBN 2-07-053118-X. Pages 114–116)

In Rome, he got to meet the Pope and made many high level contacts with members of the Church. The people of Rome, to whom he became endeared, even made him a Citizen of Rome.

On the return trip to Japan, several of Hasekura’s men decided to stay behind in Spain where their descendants still carry the surname “(Hasekura de) Japon”.

To continue the story of this mission, when Hasekura returned all those years later to Japan, his home country was a very different place.

Almost immediately after giving his report to the daimyo, Christianity became an outlaw religion. All Christians had to change their religion otherwise they would either face exile (for nobles) or death (for everyone else).

Hasekura remained faithful to the end and among his remains a rosary, a cross and other items were found.

During his years in Europe, he acquired a Coat of Arms and they are depicted above. The blazon is: Argent a two arrows in saltire overall a swastika Sable.

Today, April 29, is the veneration of Saint Torpes of Pisa, better known by the town named after him: Saint Tropez.

Saint Torpes is one of those few saints that are venerated by both the Eastern and Western Churches who lived in the first century AD having martyred in 65AD.

Torpes was a Roman whose full name was Caïus Silvius Torpetius who, according to legend, was either senior military person or a leader of emperor Nero’s guard. It is said that he was martyred when, in the presence of the emperor, he professed his faith.

He is highly venerated in his birthplace of Pisa and the locations where his body finally arrived. The legend says that his decapitated body was placed on a boat with a rooster and a dog to devour the corpse.  The boat was set adrift and floated towards north-western Italy.

A woman named Célèrine had a vision at that time saying that Torpes would visit her village. As foreseen, the boat with the corpse, rooster and dog did indeed reach that small seaside village. Upon arrival the rooster fled one way and the dog the other.

The village was renamed to Saint Tropez, in honor of the saint.

Interestingly, the village towards which the rooster fled was renamed Cogolin and the village towards which the dog went to Grimaud.

It is the arms of the town that we see at the top of this post, the blazon of which is amazingly easy: Azure the Saint Tropez (Torpes) Or holding in his right hand a sword Argent point to base, standing on a base Or charged with the text “SAINT-TROPEZ”

Personally, I find these arms to be ugly. I never liked shields with text on them, even though it is relatively common in the Iberian peninsula and France.

The Royal Academy of History of Spain (Real Academia de la Historia) has created a database collection of the biographies of thousands of historical persons.

The database is the outcome of the project Diccionario Biográfico Español or “Spanish Biographical Dictionary” of the Royal Academy and for the creation of the Center of Biographical Studies. The project intends to cover persons from all regions of the world that were under the Spanish Crown: the Iberian peninsula, the Americas, the Low Countries, the Philippines, etc.

At present, the database contains the data of over 40,000 persons and can be accessed via the link: http://www.rah.es/cdeb.htm

While looking for some genealogy books I need for my research, I came upon an amazingly valuable resource for anyone doing research in Chile that’s absolutely free!

It appears that the government of Chile has created a website that contains hundreds, if not thousands, of scanned images, articles, books, etc. from sources from the early 1900′s and older.  It is a veritable treasure trove for anyone doing research.

In my case, I had been unable to find many books that I had leads that may contain information on my family and had resigned to the fact that I had to plan a trip to Washington, DC to visit the Library of Congress as that was the only place I could find them. On the rare occassion that I did find a book for sale, its price would range from the mid $100′s (USD) all the way to close to $1,000!

The name of the site is called Memoria Chilena and is located at this address: http://www.memoriachilena.cl/

It has a very powerful search engine that can search by either title, author, publisher or any other keyword. The results returned will include, perhaps, an information page a list of books, articles and photographs.

All books or articles are available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format to be read electronically on your computer, PDA, etc.

One of my favorite features is the e-Libros section whereby there is a list of recommended resources for researchers and enthusiasts alike. What’s great about the list is that it changes monthly which means that you may find a gem there that you never knew existed.

Any researcher of genealogy or history will be well served to use this most excellent resource.

Just be aware that you will not be able to find any of the books or articles published after around the 1930′s. This means that one of the books I’m looking for “El linaje de Vial” by Raúl Díaz Vial, published in 1960 is still to be found by me outside of the Library of Congress… If anyone knows where to find it, please let me know!

To most of us living in republics, the concept of monarchy is something very foreign and harkens to a time long ago. This is usually because the country of residence disposed itself of its monarchy in way or another.

I won’t go into political theory of whether monarchy is better than republicanism or not. There are plenty of books and opinions on the matter abound on the Internet.

All these republics that are no longer monarchies have created the same result: formerly reigning dynasts and their families.

This is a product not only of republics but also of monarchies that through conquest or otherwise replaced the previously reigning dynasty.

Collectively, these former dynasts are called “pretenders” and through custom are permitted to use their prior titles. However, it is a rare occasion where they can do that in the country which they were previously a ruler of.

The better known pretenders are those whose families recently lost their throne or of a large and still extant country. Some of the better known are those of Greece, Serbia, Italy, Bulgaria, etc. In the latter’s case, the pretender to the Bulgarian throne, Simeon of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha who was deposed as a child in 1946 has had a successful political career after the fall of communism becoming the Prime Minister of the country in 2001-2005.

However, we also have pretenders to thrones of kingdoms that have not existed in centuries. Perhaps the most known are the Imperial family of Brazil (various pretenders), the various claimants to the throne of France and those of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.

Going further back, we can also find pretenders to thrones as old as that of Aragon and Jerusalem.

Though opinions vary on whose claim is the “valid” one, in some cases it is crystal clear. Even with particularly old ones. Perhaps some day, when I feel adventurous, I’ll start looking at the various claims and share my opinion.

All these pretenders, as mentioned, can still use their previously held titles and are recognized in international law as heads of state.