Jacques Specx (; 1585 – 22 July 1652) was a Dutch merchant, who founded the trade on Japan and Korea in 1609. Jacques Specx received the support of William Adams to obtain extensive trading rights from

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fel ...

, the ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

'' emeritus, on 24 August 1609, which allowed him to establish a

trading factory Factory was the common name during the medieval and early modern eras for an entrepôt – which was essentially an early form of free-trade zone or transshipment point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, o ...

Hirado is a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. The part historically named Hirado is located on Hirado Island. With recent mergers, the city's boundaries have expanded, and Hirado now occupies parts of the main island of Kyushu. The components ...

on 20 September 1609. He was the

interim An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities. Interim may also refer to: Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept) *Provis ...

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

in Batavia between 1629 and 1632. There his daughter

Saartje Specx Saartje Specx (1617–1636) was the daughter of Jacques Specx, governor of the North Quarter of the Dutch East India Company's (VOC's) Asian trading empire, and a Japanese concubine. Saartje (Sara in English) was born at the Dutch trading base on ...

was involved in a scandal. Back home in Holland Specx became an art-collector. The Dutch, who, rather than "

Nanban Nanban may refer to: Japan * Nanban art, Japanese art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries influenced by contact with the Nanban * Nanban trade or the , was a period in the history of Japan from the arrival of Europeans in 1543 to t ...

" were called "Kōmō" (, "Red Hair") by the Japanese, first arrived in Japan in 1600, on board the ''Liefde''. In 1605, two of the ''Liefde''s crew, Jacob Quaeckernaeck and

Melchior van Santvoort Melchior van Santvoort (c. 1570 – 1641) was one of the first Dutchmen in Japan, was a purser on the Dutch ship ''De Liefde'', which was stranded in Japan in 1600. Some of his shipmates were Jacob Quaeckernaeck, Jan Joosten, and William Ada ...

, were sent to Pattani by

, to invite Dutch trade to Japan. The head of the Pattani Dutch trading post, Victor Sprinckel, refused on the ground that he was too busy dealing with Portuguese opposition in Southeast Asia.

1609 mission to Japan

Jacques Specx, the brother of

Cornelius Specx Cornelis Specx (15??-June 11, 1608), the brother of Jacques Specx, is known as a European who interacted with the Thai court. In 1601 he sailed under Joris van Spilbergen to Aceh. The journey was organised by Balthazar de Moucheron. Specx became ...

, sailed on a fleet of eleven ships that left

Texel Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of ...

in 1607 under the command of Pieter Willemsz Verhoeff. After arriving in Bantam two ships which were dispatched to establish the first official trade relations between the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and Japan. Dutch-Japanese trading pass 1609

The two ships Specx commanded were ''De Griffioen'' (the "Griffin", 19 cannons) and ''Roode Leeuw met Pijlen'' (the "Red lion with arrows", 400 tons, 26 cannons). The ships arrived in Japan on 2 July 1609. Among the crews were the chief merchants Abraham van den Broeck and Nicolaas Puyck and the under-merchant Jaques Specx. The exact composition of the delegation is uncertain; but it has been established that van den Broeck and Puyck traveled to the Shogunal Court, and

acted as the mission's interpreter. Santevoort had arrived a few years earlier aboard the Dutch ship ''De Liefde''. He had established himself as a merchant in Nagasaki. The ''shōgun'' granted the Dutch the access to all ports in Japan, and confirmed this in an act of safe-conduct, stamped with his red seal. (Inv.nr.1a.). In September 1609 the ship's council decided to hire a house on Hirado island (west of the southern main island Kiushu). Jacques Specx became the first ''opperhoofd'' (chief) of the new company's factory. In 1610, Specx sent a ship to Korea.

Gallery

Specx owned five paintings by

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally co ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Specx, Jacques 1585 births 1652 deaths History of the foreign relations of Japan Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies People from Dordrecht Dutch expatriates in Japan Dutch chiefs of factory in Japan