Writing my lecture for the English EIC in Japan and was reminded of this fantastic subversion of Eurocentric narratives of globalisation, and how Europe didn't just "come" to Asia, but how Asia went to Europe and pursued pro-active global diplomacy centred on Asia. Thread 1/9

We often ignore the role Japan played in global Asian diplomacy, largely because of later "isolationist" edicts of the 1630s/40s. The Keicho Embassy of 1613 - 1620 tells a different story, one in which Japan sought to bring Americas and Europe into its own networks 2/9

Increasing regulation of Japanese trade with new Tokugawa Shogunate from 1603 and religious and political ambitions of Christian convert elites, especially Daimyo Date Masamune, combined to create a Japanese push to claim Pacific waterways while establishing links with Europe 3/9

Keicho Embassy launched in 1613 and led by convert and low-level Samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga (left - painted in Rome). Sailed aboard Japanese built ship Date Maru (right), modelled on Dutch ships - in 1614 reached Acapulco and Mexico, travelling on to Havana in 1614 4/9

By end of 1614 crossed the Atlantic and reached Seville, and in 1615 Hasekura was baptised at court of Philip III in Madrid (below). Attempts to negotiate treaties stalled, as the Spanish did not want the Japanese to break into Spanish American markets 5/9

Next stop for embassy was France. When ships called in at Saint-Tropez, French observations subvert traditional European "othering", showing sophistication of Japanese and barbarism of French: "They blow their noses in soft silky papers the size of a hand, which they... 6/9

...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." Hasekura finally arrived in Rome where he had an audience with Pope Paul V. By 1616 back in Spain 7/9

In 1618 Keicho embassy returned to Asia, and governor of Philippines so taken with Date Mura that purchased it for defence of Manila. When Hasekura returned to Japan in 1620, much scepticism in wake of anti-Christian edict of 1613 and mounting tensions with Spanish 8/9

Japanese failed to crack Spanish trade or create permanent networks with Europe, but showed that globalisation did not just flow from Europe to Asia, but vice versa. Look up at frescoes in Quirinal Palace when next in Rome, and you'll see Hasekura's embassy looking back Finis 9/9