Sanemon ( ja, 三右衛門, Sanemon; russian: Санима, Sanima) was a Japanese castaway who drifted ashore in

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and west ...

with nine others in 1710. After being immured for a period in the fortress of Verkhne-Kamchatsk, in 1713 he joined Ivan Petrovitch Kozyrevski's expedition to the northern

Kuriles The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...

. The following year he was sent to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, where he is said to have become

Dembei Dembei ( ja, 伝兵衛 ''Dembei'', russian: Дэмбэй) was a Japanese castaway who, through Vladimir Atlasov, provided Russia with some of its first knowledge of Japan. He was a merchant clerk accompanying a fleet of "thirty transports laden wi ...

's assistant at the Japanese language school founded in the city by

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

References

{{Reflist Castaways Japanese emigrants to Russia Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Japan–Russia relations People of Edo-period Japan