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William Adams (samurai)
, better known in Japan as , was an English navigator who, in 1600, became the first Englishman to reach Japan. He was later granted samurai status, and was recognised as one of the most influential foreigners in Japan during the early 17th century.William Adams and Early English Enterprise in Japan, by Anthony Farrington and Derek Massarella. He arrived in Japan as one of the few survivors of the ship ''Liefde'' under the leadership of Jacob Quaeckernaeck. It was the only vessel to reach Japan from a five-ship expedition launched by a company of Rotterdam merchants (a ''voorcompagnie'', or predecessor, of the Dutch East India Company). Soon after his arrival in Japan, Adams and his second mate Jan Joosten became advisors to ''shōgun'' Tokugawa Ieyasu, and each was appointed as ''hatamoto''. For more than a decade, the Tokugawa authorities did not allow Adams and Joosten to leave Japan. Although eventually given permission to return home to England, Adams decided to stay in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga, Oda Nobunaga and fellow Oda clan, Oda subordinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The son of a minor daimyo, Ieyasu once lived as a hostage under daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto on behalf of his father. He later succeeded as daimyo after his father's death, serving as ally, vassal, and general of the Oda clan, and building up his strength under Oda Nobunaga. After Oda Nobunaga's death, Ieyasu was briefly a rival of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, before declaring his allegiance to Toyotomi and fighting on his behalf. Under Toyotomi, Ieyasu was relocated to the Kantō region, Kanto plains in eastern Japan, away from the Toyotomi power base in Osaka. He built Edo Castle, his castle in the fishing village of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koku
The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before cooking), used to this day for the plastic measuring cup that is supplied with commercial Japanese rice cookers. The ''koku'' in Japan was typically used as a dry measure. The amount of rice production measured in ''koku'' was the metric by which the magnitude of a feudal domain ('' han'') was evaluated. A feudal lord was only considered ''daimyō'' class when his domain amounted to at least 10,000 ''koku''. As a rule of thumb, one ''koku'' was considered a sufficient quantity of rice to feed one person for one year. The Chinese equivalent or cognate unit for capacity is the ''shi'' or '' dan'' () also known as ''hu'' (), now approximately 103 litres but historically about . Chinese equivalent The Chinese 石 ''dan'' is equal to 10 ''d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Master (naval)
The master, or sailing master, is a historical rank for a naval officer trained in and responsible for the navigation of a sailing vessel. In the Royal Navy, the master was originally a warrant officer who ranked with, but after, the lieutenants. The rank became a commissioned officer rank and was renamed navigating lieutenant in 1867; the rank gradually fell out of use from around 1890 since all lieutenants were required to pass the same examinations. When the United States Navy was formed in 1794, master was listed as one of the warrant officer ranks and ranked between midshipmen and lieutenants. The rank was also a commissioned officer rank from 1837 until it was replaced with the current rank of lieutenant, junior grade in 1883. France Within the French Navy, there exists a number of "master" ranks. Russia Until 1733 the sailing masters in the Imperial Russian Navy were rated as petty officers, but in that year the rank of ''Master'' was introduced after the British ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Armada
The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval experience appointed by Philip II of Spain. His orders were to sail up the English Channel, join with the Duke of Parma in Flanders, and escort an invasion force that would land in England and overthrow Elizabeth I. Its purpose was to reinstate Catholicism in England, end support for the Dutch Republic, and prevent attacks by English and Dutch privateers against Spanish interests in the Americas. The Spanish were opposed by an English fleet based in Plymouth. Faster and more manoeuvrable than the larger Spanish galleons, its ships were able to attack the Armada as it sailed up the Channel. Several subordinates advised Medina Sidonia to anchor in the Solent and occupy the Isle of Wight, but he refused to deviate from his instructions to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (being the first English expedition to accomplish this). He is also known for participating in the early English slaving voyages of his cousin, John_Hawkins_(naval_commander), John Hawkins, and John_Lovell_(slave_trader), John Lovell. Having started as a simple seaman, in 1588 he was part of the fight against the Spanish Armada as a vice admiral. At an early age, Drake was placed into the household of a relative, William Hawkins (died c. 1554), William Hawkins, a prominent sea captain in Plymouth. In 1572, he set sail on his Francis Drake's expedition of 1572–1573, first independent mission, privateering along the Spanish Main. Drake's circumnavigation began on 15 December 1577. He crossed the Pacific Ocean, until then an area of exclusive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)
The Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) was an intermittent conflict between the Habsburg Spain, Habsburg Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of England that was never formally declared. It began with England's military expedition in 1585 to what was then the Spanish Netherlands under the command of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in support of the Eighty Years' War, Dutch rebellion against Spanish Habsburg rule. In large-scale campaigns, the English repelled the Spanish Armada in 1588, while Spain repelled the English Armada in 1589. The war included much English privateering against Spanish ships, and several widely separated battles. The war dragged on towards the end of the sixteenth century; England and Spain intervened French Wars of Religion#War with Spain (1595–1598), in France in the 1590s and in Nine Years War (Ireland), Ireland from 1601. The Eighty Years' War, 1599–1609, campaign in the Netherlands saw a Spanish veteran force defe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early Middle Ages, medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Kingdom of France, France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the English Navy of the early 16th century; the oldest of the British Armed Forces, UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service. From the early 18th century until the World War II, Second World War, it was the world's most powerful navy. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing and defending the British Empire, and four Imperial fortress colonies and a string of imperial bases and coaling stations secured the Royal Navy's ability to assert naval superior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Navigation
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, marine navigation, air navigation, aeronautic navigation, and space navigation. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks. All navigational techniques involve locating the navigator's Position (geometry), position compared to known locations or patterns. Navigation, in a broader sense, can refer to any skill or study that involves the determination of position and Relative direction, direction. In this sense, navigation includes orienteering and pedestrian navigation. For marine navigation, this involves the safe movement of ships, boats and other nautical craft either on or underneath the water using positions from navigation equipment with appropriate nautical char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include planets, natural satellite, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxy, galaxies, meteoroids, asteroids, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Egyptian astronomy, Egyptians, Babylonian astronomy, Babylonians, Greek astronomy, Greeks, Indian astronomy, Indians, Chinese astronomy, Chinese, Maya civilization, M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history. Until recently, with the development of complex non-maritime technologies, a ship has often represented the most advanced structure that the society building it could produce. Some key industrial advances were developed to support shipbuilding, for instance the sawing of timbers by Saw#Mechanically powered saws, mechanical saws propelled by windmills in Dutch shipyards during the first half of the 17th century. The design process saw the early adoption of the logarithm (invented in 1615) to generate the curves used to produce the shape of a hull (watercraft), hull, especially when scaling up these curves accurately in the mould Lofting, loft. Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both commercial an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limehouse
Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, such as The Grapes and Limehouse Stairs. The area gives its name to Limehouse Reach, a section of the Thames which runs south to Millwall after making a right-angled bend at Cuckold's Point, Rotherhithe. The west-to-east section upstream of Cuckold's Point is properly called the Lower Pool. History Etymology The name relates to the local lime kilns or, more precisely, lime oasts, by the river. The name is from Old English ''līm-āst'' "lime-oast", and appears in a 1335 record. The name is found used in 1417:Inquisicio capta sup' litus Thomisie apud Lymhosteys pro morte Thome Frank. ("''Inquest held on the shore of the Thames by Lymhosteys for the death of Thomas Frank''") 17 Aug, 5 Henry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taizé Community
The Taizé Community () is an ecumenical Christian monastic community in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France. It is composed of about one hundred brothers, from Catholic and Protestant traditions, who originate from about thirty countries around the world. It was founded in 1940 by Brother Roger Schütz, a Reformed Protestant. Guidelines for the community's life are contained in ''The Rule of Taizé'' written by Brother Roger and first published in French in 1954. Taizé has become one of the world's most important sites of Christian pilgrimage, attracting over 100,000 young people each year for prayer, Bible study, communal work, and shared reflection. Central to its contemplative atmosphere are simple, meditative chants that support prayer and silence. Through these practices, the community fosters ecumenism and reconciliation across diverse Christian traditions. The community's church, the Church of Reconciliation, was inaugurated on 6 August 1962. It was designed b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
