Ivan Moris, author of Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan, was one of the first modern scholars to explore Japanese history. In his book he also mentions Yamada Nagamasa (1590-1630), a gekokujo who lived during a unique period in Japanese history. The early 17th century saw the last generation of the gekokujo men – self-made individuals who crossed social class boundaries and used their willpower and practical skills to achieve power and glory.
The 17th century is also when the early Tokugawa shogunate, in order to acquire new knowledge and products, opened Japan politically and economically to the rest of East and Southeast Asia. This lasted for about 30 years, during which many Japanese adventurers, among which Yamada Nagamasa, sailed to foreign lands.
Most of the historical facts we know about Nagamasa’s life can be found in European sources. Cesare Polenghi’s Samurai of Ayutthaya. Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese Warrior and Merchant in Early 17th Century Siam is the first monograph written in English dedicated to Yamada Nagamasa. In a broader extent, the book also deals with Japanese in Southeast Asia before 1940. Basically, with few exceptions, no primary or quasi-primary source deals directly with Nagamasa.
The main source of information for Nagamasa’s Auytthaya comes from Jeremias van Vliet, a Dutchopperhoofd, or merchant. Van Vliet lived in and out of Ayutthaya from 1633 to 1641 and wrote four volumes on Siam, often mentioning the Japanese community. His depiction of Nagamasa is quite balanced: a strong man, with high moral values, yet vulnerable to flattery and at time lacking resolve. Van Vliet regards the Japanese warriors in Ayutthaya as “desperate villains”.
Japanese primary sources regarding Nagamasa begin with letters exchanged by the Tokugawa shogunate with the king of Siam and members of the nobility in Ayutthaya. Two of these were signed by Nagamasa himself. This official correspondence was carried on in friendly terms between 1606 and 1629, and was translated and published by Ernest M. Satow in 1885.
The first Japanese text to mention (in 1621) Yamada Nagamasa is Ikoku Nikki, or “Compilation of Foreign Correspondence,” which was recorded for the Tokugawa shogunate by the Zen Monk Suden between 1608 and 1629. Here, Siam is referred to as “Shamu.”
There are also a few semi-legendary renditions of Nagamasa’s life in Ayutthaya. One of them was written in 1707 by Tenjiku Tokubei, a Japanese who travelled to India and, on his way back, stopped in Siam during the days of Nagamasa. Saito Masakane wrote in Kaigai Iden in 1850 a short piece about Nagamasa’s deeds. It was translated into English by captain J.M. James in 1879 as “A Short Narrative of Foreign Travel of Modern Japanese Adventurers.” The text narrates the stories of Yamada Nagamasa and Hamada Yahei (Yahyoe), a Japanese who fought against the Dutch in Formosa (Taiwan) in 1628. It is considered to be the first biography of Nagamasa to appear in a Western language. Unfortunately, both texts contain a series of hyperbolic exaggerations and fictional deeds, thus researchers question their value as primary sources.
The early Thai sources are very few since whatever might have been compiled before 1767 was destroyed when the Burmese sacked and burnt down Ayutthaya. Only a few lines mention the Japanese in The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya, especially in Chronicle B, written in 1795 and translated in English by Richard Cushman (published in 2000).
In Our Wars with the Burmese, which was compiled by the Thai Prince Damrong in 1917, the Japanese are often mentioned. Damrong work drew from the royal chronicles and an important distinction is made between the Japanese who fought alongside the Thai army and those who came by ship to raid the Siamese Royal Palace in 1611. The author himself considers this book “the first Thai history book in the Western sense of an analytical work based on a range of documentary sources.” (2001: ix)
Nagamasa’s popularity as a historical character reached its peak in Japan in the first half of the 1940s. In that period, he was depicted as a tragic hero in No plays, celebrated in patriotic songs, and used as a role model in pro-expansion propagandistic textbooks. Between 1941 and 1943, three biographies were written by the Japanese about his adventures.
In the postwar period, the image of Nagamasa in Japan had to be restyled according to the new course Japan was taking under the wings of the occupying forces of the United States. However, ever since, a new generation of historians has emerged. They are determined to straighten the facts and produce solid scholarship that would be accepted in the West as well.
Resources: “Samurai of Ayutthaya – Preface (p.ix-x) &
The Historiography of Yamada Nagamasa” by Cesare Polenghi (p. 5-10)
