1640 Macau embassy to Nagasaki

The 1640 Macau embassy to Nagasaki (ポルトガル使節団長崎受難事件)^[4] (Portuguese: Embaixada Mártir)^[5] was a diplomatic mission dispatched by the Senate of Macau to Nagasaki in July 1640. Its purpose was to try and reverse the Tokugawa shogunate's decision to end nearly a century of Portuguese trade in Japan in 1639.^[6][7]

1640 Macau embassy incident
Part of the Japanese isolationist policy
Front page of the 1643 book "Report of the Glorious Death of Four Portuguese Ambassadors from the City of Macau, with Fifty-seven Christians of their Delegation." by António Francisco Cardim[1]
Date 6 July – 4 August 1640 Location Nagasaki, Japan Result Embassy seized; 61 executed and ship destroyed
Belligerents
Kingdom of Portugal Macau	Tokugawa shogunate
Commanders and leaders
Luís Pais Pacheco  Rodrigo Sanches de Paredes  Gonçalo Monteiro de Carvalho  Simão Vaz de Pavia	Kagazume Minbu[2] Nonoyama Shinbei[2]
Strength
74 crew	Unknown number of Ōmura soldiers[3]
Casualties and losses
61 executed 13 spared and expelled	None

The ban followed the Shimabara Rebellion, which the shogunate incorrectly blamed the Portuguese for aiding through the smuggling of supplies and missionaries.^[8] Since Macau's economy relied on the annual trade with Japan,^[9] the city's assembly resolved on March 13, 1640,^[7][9] to dispatch four ambassadors, Luís Pais Pacheco, Rodrigo Sanches de Paredes, Gonçalo Monteiro de Carvalho and Simão Vaz de Paiva,^[9] along with sailors and slaves, totaling 74 crew.^[10] All participants knew that the risk of death was almost certain.^[11]

The embassy's vessel arrived at Nagasaki on July 6, 1640,^[10][12][13] however, all of the delegation members were imprisoned and detained on Dejima^[12][13] while their appeals were sent to Edo.^[13] On 3^[14]–4^[13] August 1640, 61 members of the mission, including all four ambassadors, were beheaded on Martyrs' Mount in Nagasaki, and their ship was burned in the harbor.^[12][14][13] 13 men were spared and sent back to Macau on 1 September to deliver the message of the embassy's fate.^[12][14]