Tanaka Shōsuke
Japanese trader and diplomat / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In this Japanese name, the surname is Tanaka.
Tanaka Shōsuke (田中 勝介) was a Japanese merchant in the early Edo period. He is the first recorded Japanese to have travelled to the Americas in 1610 (although some Japanese, such as Christopher and Cosmas, are known to have sailed across the Pacific on Spanish galleons as early as 1587). Returning to Japan in 1611, he again went to North America in 1613, with the embassy of Hasekura Tsunenaga. In total, he accomplished two round trips between Japan and North America and helped establish trade and diplomatic relations between Japan and the Spanish Empire. According to Sumpu-ki, he was a representative of the great Osaka merchant Gotō Shōsaburō.