S2-E10 - Christian Samurai – Japan’s Katana Diplomacy in Taiwan

After unifying Japan’s warring states, supreme feudal lord
Hideyoshi launched a massive invasion of Korea. In 1593, a year
into this Imjin War of 1592-1598, he sent an envoy to Taiwan on a
doomed mission to establish formal diplomatic and trade
relations.  In 1609 and 1616, the Japanese Shogun Tokugawa
Ieyasu, hoping to establish indirect trading links with China,
sent two larger missions to Taiwan.  They were led and
manned by Christian samurai from the island of Kyushu, which in
the late 1500s had seen amazing success by Portuguese and Spanish
missionaries in converting the population.  Both expeditions
to Taiwan were failures to the point of farce, but the many
misunderstandings and missteps make for fantastic stories.
 Get ready for some katana-flavored diplomacy, with generous
servings of piracy, abducted envoys, and a lot of seppuku.