"koketsu ni irazunba koji o ezu" - "If you do not enter the tiger's cave, you will
not catch its cub" Perseverance commands great respect amongst the Japanese people,
and few people in history have embodied that trait more than William Adams.
The fantastical world of Nioh has its roots in one of the most astounding true stories
of all time - how a half-starved Englishman turned up on the Japanese coast and forever
altered the course of history.
At its core, Nioh is a game that tells the story of a blonde-haired Irishman named William,
who pursues a mysterious man named Edward Kelley all the way to the distant lands of
Japan.
The real world Edward Kelley was a dubious figure who wandered throughout Europe, practicing
alchemy, communicating with angels through a crystal ball, and even dabbling in necromancy.
By all accounts he was a fascinating man, though in reality he never reached the shores
of Japan.
William Adams, on the other hand, did.
Born on the east shore of England, young William seemed destined for the sea.
When his father died, 12 year old William was sent to apprentice under Master Nicholas
Diggins in London.
It was here that he learned shipbuilding, navigation and astronomy - skills that would
eventually endear him to the most powerful man in Japan.
By 1598, the climate in Europe was tense - the Dutch and English were at war with Portugal
and Spain.
The now 34 year old William signed on as a pilot for a particularly ambitious Dutch sailing
expedition.
This Dutch company was to act as pirate-merchants, sailing to South America, across the Pacific
to Japan, and back through Indonesia, antagonizing Portuguese and Spanish trade posts along the
way.
Five ships would set sail from Rotterdam as part of the company - and only one would ever
return.
The company left Rotterdam in June.
An omen of the treacherous journey that lie ahead, the Admiral of the fleet died of a
fever a mere two months later in August.
After some skirmishes with the Portuguese on the African coast, and eating strands of
rope leather to prevent starvation in the South Atlantic, the fleet finally reached
the Strait of Magellan by April of 1599.
Inexplicably, the captain decided to spend all winter in the treacherous Strait, afraid
to move ahead until the winds had shifted.
All told, some 120 men died over the months spent there.
At last, the captain decided to press onward, only to face a tremendous storm that scattered
the entire fleet.
By the following November, only two ships had arrived at the rendezvous point off the
coast of Chile.
The surviving crew determined to move ahead with their journey to Japan.
However, setting out across the Pacific would prove to be disastrous.
Two months into their journey, a massive typhoon hit, separating the two remaining ships.
The flagship of the entire expedition, the Hoope, was never seen again.
Hobbled and starving, the crew of the last remaining ship, the Liefde, were in a desperate
situation.
William later wrote, "Great was the misery we were in, having no more but nine or ten
men to go or creep upon their knees: our captain, and all the rest, looking every hour to die"
Finally, after four months and 22 days at sea, the crew of the Liefde spotted land.
What they presumed to be the northernmost cape of Japan turned out to be the southernmost
island of Kyushu.
24 badly malnourished men remained living, with three dying that day, and three more
shortly thereafter.
Only William and six others had enough strength to even stand.
The crew was brought ashore and met with the local "king" as William put it.
Portuguese Jesuits quickly arrived and claimed that the crew were dangerous pirates who should
be put to death.
The Portuguese being the only available translators for the men put them at a severe disadvantage.
Finally, word came from Tokugawa Ieyasu to bring a representative of the sailors to Osaka
Castle for questioning.
William Adams and one other sailor were brought before the regent, who was on the cusp of
becoming the ruler of all of Japan.
Ieyasu peppered William with questions late into the night.
He wanted to know how he came to Japan, his thoughts on the supernatural, and the state
of affairs in Europe.
It was on this very night that William forever altered the course of history in Japan.
You see, to date, the only knowledge about Europe the Japanese had to go on was what
little they were told by the Spanish and Portuguese.
Naturally, they represented themselves as the sole powers of any significance from Europe,
leaving no other options for trade.
But through WIlliam, Ieyasu learned two significant truths - that the Spanish and Portuguese had
been lying about European affairs, and that the Dutch weren't as zealously religious
as the Catholic nations of Spain and Portugal were.
The islands of Japan being embroiled in war, there was great demand for weapons of any
kind.
Warlords sought after anything that would lend them a strategic advantage.
So when the Portuguese came calling, offering guns and luxury goods for trade, the Japanese
eagerly accepted.
There were strings attached, however.
The Japanese had to allow the free proselyting of Catholic missionaries throughout their
lands.
Initially, this was seen as a beneficial way to weaken Buddhist groups that were actively
rebelling against local governments.
After a century of missionaries, however, many Japanese leaders began to grow wary of
Christianity's own spreading influence.
There seemed to be no way to obtain much needed weapons from the Portuguese without the rising
tide of Christian converts that would surely follow.
That is, until William Adams arrived.
The cunning Ieyasu quickly saw that he could trade with the Dutch without the need for
Christianity invading his shores.
Ieyasu rebuked the Jesuits who were still petitioning for William's execution.
"In the end, the Emperour gave them aunswer that we as yet had not doen to him nor to
none of his lande any harme or dammage: therefore against Reason and Iustice to put vs to death.
If our countreys had warres the one with the other, that was no cause that he should put
vs to death."
The Portuguese were dumbfounded.
Somehow, this insignificant band of starving men managed to scrape and crawl halfway around
the world to undo their monopoly in Japan.
Armed with weapons that arrived on the Liefde, Ieyasu completed his quest for power not 6
months later at the legendary Battle of Sekigahara.
The most powerful man in Japan now trusted a British sailor as one of his closest confidants.
Where William and his crew had once sought death as they drifted aimlessly in the Pacific
Ocean, they were now treated as lords.
William himself was made a Samurai, and promoted to the highest rank in Ieyasu's court - "Hatamoto"
He could seek audience with the Shogun any time he wished, an honor afforded to very
few.
William would die twenty years later as lord over 100 farms, leaving a Japanese wife and
two young heirs.
Not long after his death, in 1636, the Portuguese and Spanish were barred from the country.
Christianity would be eradicated from the face of Japan, and would not return for another
200 years.
So, the next time you think that you can't make a difference, that one person doesn't
matter, and the world is unchangeable, I would remind you of the story of William Adams.
Nobody could have predicted that a conversation late one spring night in Osaka, for good or
for ill, would lead to an entire religion being wiped from the face of Japan.
I'll see you again next time!
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