British samurai’s descendants sought for DNA to identify bones
RESEARCHERS are seeking DNA from the Kentish descendants of an adventurer who was the first Englishman to set foot in Japan.
The remains of William Adams, a sailor from Gillingham, are thought to have been found in a small pot beneath what was long rumoured to be his grave in the remote southern town of Hirado, Nagasaki.
But experts are keen to trace the family line to a surviving relative in Britain to compare the DNA extracted from the bones and two teeth they believe belong to Adams, who became a samurai and inspired James Clavell’s novel Shogun.
Carbon dating revealed that they date from 1590 to 1620 and analysis suggests the DNA is that of a northwest European.
Academics and historians believe that finding a DNA match is a “realistic possibility” and are hoping to identify the bones before the 400th anniversary of Adams’ death next year, when they plan a formal ceremony in which he is officially “laid to rest”.
Susan Haydock, the former Mayor of Medway and chair of the Medway Japan Group, said many people had come
‘The only way to weed it out is by asking for volunteers to come forward for DNA testing.’
forward claiming to be descendants of the celebrated sailor and had shown her their birth certificates.
But she added: “It’s a very common name. The only way we can really weed it out is by asking for volunteers to come forward for DNA testing.”
Adams was born in Gillingham in 1564 and served in the Royal Navy under Francis Drake against the Spanish Armada. He married Mary Hyn in Stepney in August 1589, and they had two children.
His daughter Deliverance married local mariner Raph Goodchild in Stepney in 1618 and had two daughters, one of whom died. In 1598, Adams signed up as a navigator on a Dutch ship travelling from Rotterdam to the New World. He arrived in Japan in April 1600 after his ship was wrecked off the town of Usuki.
Initially threatened with execution, Adams and the rest of the crew were imprisoned at Osaka Castle on the orders of Tokugama Ieyasu, the “daimyo” of Edo, modern-day Tokyo, and future shogun.
Adams reportedly met Ieyasu three times in the summer of 1600 and impressed him sufficiently with his knowledge of ships, shipbuilding and nautical mathematics that he was barred from leaving Japan.
He later oversaw the construction of two British-style warships to add to the
‘Everyone in Japan knows who Adams is. He is credited with revealing the western world was not Spanish.’
shogun’s fleet, which had been destroyed in a tsunami in 1605.
As an expression of his gratitude, the shogun granted Adams the title of samurai and gifted him an estate at Yokosuka, south-west of Tokyo.
He was given the name Miura Anjin, after the name of the peninsula where he had his estate and the meaning for pilot of a vessel.
Adams, who also had a Japanese wife and at least three children born in the country, has been deemed a powerful symbol of Anglo-japanese friendship, and each year a memorial service is held in Hirado in his honour.
Prof Timon Screech, of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, said the Japanese were hoping to make a big announcement about the discovery next year, to coincide with the 400-year anniversary of Adams’ death.
He said: “Everyone in Japan knows who Adams is. He is taught in schools, credited with revealing that the western world was not Spanish or Roman Catholic and teaching them about the Spanish Armada. It marked the beginning of the Japanese turn against the Catholic mission.”