English

I have recently launched a new website to promote my forthcoming book, ‘In the Service of the Shogun: The Real Story of William Adams’ (Reaktion, 2024). William Adams was a pilot on the Dutch ship Liefde, which ran ashore at Bungo (Oita Prefecture) in 1600. He became a direct follower and advisor of Tokugawa Ieyasu and was granted a fief in Miura (Kanagawa Prefecture). Adams was instrumental in bringing western shipbuilding techniques to Japan and promoting free trade. His advice had an enormous impact on the future of Japan’s foreign relations. This biography traces Adams’s rise from humble pilot to a position of immense influence in Japan’s foreign relations. It unravels the subsequent diplomatic manoeuvres of the Western powers in the Shogun’s empire and Adams’s eventual downfall. The book is based on many years of painstaking research into hundreds of primary sources, many of which have never before been explored. In particular, the records of the Dutch East India Company provide us with a wealth of information about Adams and the international environment in which the Shogun’s Japan found itself.

The website includes a brief introduction to the book, as well as many links to interviews, articles, videos and podcasts related to William Adams and the making of the TV series Shogun, which was based on Adams’s experiences in Japan. There is also a blog where I plan to write about Adams and related topics. Please take a look at the website and recommend it to your friends on SNS if you like it.

https://frederikcryns.mydurable.com/

 

(Frederik Cryns)