Hasekura Tsunenaga in Rome, 1615

The British Museum’s big new exhibition, Samurai, opens this week. I got a sneak peek of the exhibits last week. One of the most fascinating is that of the Christian samurai, Hasekura Tsunenaga. In 1613 Hasekura led a mission to Madrid and Rome (and stopped briefly in France too) to see pope Paul V. they arrived in 1615 and had his portrait painted in silk clothes by the Urbino artist Archita Ricci. Hasekura returned to Japan in 1620, by which time Christianity had been banned by the shogunate. Hasekura died of illness in 1622 with rumours swirling that he had abandoned Christianity, or that he was martyred for his faith, or that he continued to practise Christianity in secret.