Free Tour William Adams in Edo City in Tokyo

In April 1600, approximately six months before the decisive battle which allowed to establish Tokugawa shogunate, the Dutch ship Liefde arrived in Bungo Province.

The ship departed Rotterdam, Netherlands, in June 1598, with a crew of 110, but arrived in Bungo with only 24 remaining.

Among the crew were the Dutchman Jan Joosten and the Englishman William Adams, the first Dutchman and Englishman to arrive in Japan.

Both men served Ieyasu, the first Shogun of Tokugawa shogunate as diplomatic advisors, and William Adams in particular became an unprecedented foreign feudal lord in Japanese history. William Adams's outstanding insight contributed greatly to the fledgling Tokugawa shogunate amidst a difficult international situation in 17th century. He died in Japan in 1620 at the age of 56. Many biographies have been written, among those a television drama starring William Adams, "Shogun" (based on the 1975 novel "Shogun" by James Clavell). This early morning walking tour traces the legacy he left to Japanese society and his outstanding character, focusing on places around Tokyo Station associated with William Adams.