William Adams
William Adams was born on September 24, 1564. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About William Adams
William Adams (24 September 1564 – 16 May 1620), better known in Japan as Miura Anjin (三浦按針; 'the pilot of Miura'), was an English navigator who, in 1600, became the first Englishman to reach Japan. He was later granted samurai status, and was recognised as one of the most influential foreigners in Japan during the early 17th century. He arrived in Japan as one of the few survivors of the ship Liefde under the leadership of Jacob Quaeckernaeck. It was the only vessel to reach Japan from a five-ship expedition launched by a company of Rotterdam merchants (a voorcompagnie, or predecessor, of the Dutch East India Company). Soon after his arrival in Japan, Adams and his second mate Jan Joosten became advisors to shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu, and each was appointed as hatamoto. Among Adams's legacies, he influenced Japan's isolationist sakoku policy, under which Japanese interactions with other countries were severely limited, and almost all foreign nationals were banned from entering Japan, while Japanese commoners were prohibited from leaving the country. For more than a decade, the Tokugawa authorities did not allow Adams and Joosten to leave Japan. Although eventually given permission to return home to England, Adams decided to stay in Japan, where he died at the age of 55. His Japan-born children, Joseph and Susanna, were likely expelled to Batavia in 1635 when Tokugawa Iemitsu closed Japan to foreign trade; they disappear from historical records at that time.