(b. 1565?) was a Japanese merchant from the port of

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its '' kofun'', keyhole-shaped burial mounds dating from the fifth century. The ''kofun ...

, who traded '' shimamono'' pottery in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

from

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and later emigrated to

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

in the final years of the 16th century.

Biography

Originally known as Naya Sukezaemon (納屋助左衛門), he was the son of Sakai merchant Naya Saisuke. He changed his name in 1593 or 1594 after returning from a trip to

in the

. He became successful and wealthy in the South Seas trade, particularly from selling '' shimamono'' pottery from Luzon to

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

and other powerful lords. It is said that even the great tea master

Sen no Rikyū , also known simply as Rikyū, was a Japanese tea master considered the most important influence on the ''chanoyu'', the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of '' wabi-cha''. He was also the first to emphasize several key aspect ...

prized some of the tea wares brought back from Southeast Asia by Sukezaemon. Sukezaemon built himself a lavish house in Sakai and lived a rather luxurious lifestyle for several years before attracting the attention and the ire of Hideyoshi. In 1598, the warlord accused the merchant on bogus charges, and confiscated all his possessions; Sukezaemon entrusted his home to his family's temple, the

Daian-ji is a Buddhist temples in Japan, Buddhist temple located in the city of Nara, Nara , Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan. It was founded by Emperor Jomei in 639 as one of the first official temples in Japan at the capital of Asuka-kyō and was subseq ...

, and fled Japan for Cambodia. Very little is known about Sukezaemon from original sources, but like many merchant sailors and maritime adventurers of the period, a number of legends have arisen about him. He has been conflated with the pirate Tai Fusa who attacked

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

some years earlier and was defeated; according to some tales, when Sukezaemon left Japan he took one hundred men with him and led a raid or assault on Manila, but was ultimately forced to flee to Cambodia. Other sources omit the piracy and violence and indicate simply that he remained in Manila until, around 1607, the Spanish began to interfere in the Philippines, and Sukezaemon fled to Cambodia, where he earned the trust of the local authorities and began to trade once more. He is buried at the Daian-ji in Sakai, and bronze statues of him can be seen in that city, and in Manila as well.

In popular culture

Was portrayed by

Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. He often played hypermasculine characters and was noted for his commandin ...

in the 1963 film '' The Great Bandit'' (aka ''The Lost World of Sinbad''). He also appeared in a novel by

Saburō Shiroyama Saburō Shiroyama (城山三郎, b. ''Eiichi Sugiura;'' 8 August 1927 – 22 March 2007) was a Japanese novelist. Shiroyama was born in Aichi Prefecture, and studied economics at Hitotsubashi University. He later taught economics at Nagoya Gak ...

, and in the 1978

Taiga drama is the name NHK gives to the annual year-long historical drama television series it broadcasts in Japan. Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white ''Hana no Shōgai'', starring kabuki actor Onoe Shoroku II and Awashima Chikage, the network regul ...

Ōgon no Hibi is a 1978 Japanese television series. It is the 16th NHK ''taiga'' drama, and is based on Saburo Shiroyama's novel of the same title. The series is the first ''taiga'' drama to focus on the lives of commoners and merchants, and the first ''taiga ...

'' as well as the 2016 Taiga drama ''Sanada Maru''

References

* Miyamoto, Kazuo. ''Vikings of the Far East''. New York: Vantage Press, 1975. pp88–89. {{Authority control 1560s births Japanese emigrants to the Philippines Year of death unknown 16th-century Japanese businesspeople People from Sakai, Osaka