SSJ-Friends,
I'm very excited to invite you to the first installment of YCAPS'
Blue-Eyed Samurai Series commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death
of William Adams, an English sailor who proved his worth to shogun Tokugawa
Ieyasu and became the lord of lands in today's Yokosuka.

Best, John Bradford, YCAPS President
-------------------------

YCAPS-JUMP Seminar and Blue-Eyed Samurai Series kick-off event.

*When:* Feb. 18, 2020
17:30-18:30 Welcome Reception
18:30-20:15 Seminar

*Location: *Werk Yokosuka Kinrofukushi Hall
ヴェルクよこすか（横須賀市立勤労福祉会館）
http://www.werk-yokosuka.jp/access
<http://www.werk-yokosuka.jp/access?fbclid=IwAR2SeoWI2ms-9MDDnlvA5cIjIBv_Y6EczKOXFHMxw1Edt_2CKyGzyEPBtUI>

Share free drinks and appetizers, meet like-minded individuals and learn
about William Adams in this lecture that serves as the kick-off event for
YCAPS' new "Blue-Eyed Samurai Series."

Adams, known as the "blue-eyed samurai" and "Miura Anjin," inspired James
Clavell's award-winning "Shogun" novel and TV miniseries -- but his
real-life was even more inspiring. After two grueling years sailing from
the Netherlands via the Straits of Magellan, William Adams arrived in a
Japan that only knew Europeans in the form of Iberian dons and
missionaries. Adams' presence soon changed that image dramatically -- so
much so that the soon-to-be shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu not only took him under
his wing but made him hatamoto, or inner-circle lord, and gained fiefdom
over the region we now know as Yokosuka.

Scholar Mike Perrin will examine the reasons Ieyasu placed trust in Adams,
the geopolitical contingencies of the time, socio-cultural approaches that
the Japanese (particularly Ieyasu) would have deemed more preferable, as
well as economic motives. Perrin will also discuss the space and place of
Adams, first landing in Kyushu, subsequently living in the Kanto area to
advise the future Tokugawa shoguns, eventually dying of pneumonia in
Hirado, where he set up the East India Company's operations in Japan.

Perrin will argue that Adams was by far more effective in his capacities as
advisor to Ieyasu and the Tokugawa shoguns that succeeded him in Adams'
lifetime than his responsibilities with the East India Company. This can be
seen in the stable period of isolation, or sakoku, that lasted for well
over two centuries.

Join our Facebook event for the seminar here.
<https://www.facebook.com/events/1586251641516064/>

*About the speaker: *Mike Perrin is a National Defense Academy of Japan
adjunct lecturer, YCAPS member and Japanese maritime scholar. Besides his
research into Japanese and Pacific nautical archaeology, Mike Perrin has
been examining Japan's post-medieval maritime interaction with Europe at
the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology since 2014. He has lived and
worked in Japan for over three decades.

*Cost:* Free of charge. Please register on Facebook or RSVP to
info@ycaps.org. RSVP not required, but helpful for organizers.

Co-sponsored by the Japan-US Military Program (JUMP).
Learn more about JUMP at https://www.jumprogram.org/
Learn more about YCAPS at www.ycaps.org
<http://www.ycaps.org/?fbclid=IwAR1wGzSJ_n2jV3V8I7dthsQRieG01QKrqWMGYAn4R0LfOwzHZIIVqFAhbYE>