The Nossa Senhora da Graça incident (ノサ・セニョーラ・ダ・グラサ号事件), alternatively called the Madre de Deus incident (マードレ・デ・デウス号事件), was a four-day naval battle between a Portuguese carrack and Japanese samurai junks belonging to the Arima clan near the waters of Nagasaki in 1610. The richly laden "great ship of commerce", famed as the "black ship" by the Japanese, sank after its captain, André Pessoa, set the gunpowder storage on fire as samurai overran the vessel.
Background
In 1543, Portuguese traders arrived in Japan, initiating its first contact with the West. Soon, they established a trading post in Nagasaki, linking it with their headquarters in Goa via Malacca. Large carracks engaged in the flourishing "Nanban trade", introducing new goods and ideas into Japan, the most important of them being arquebuses and Christianity. Mercantilism consisted in exchanging silver from Japan for silk from China via the Portuguese settlement of Macau on the Chinese coast near Canton, since China banned direct trading with Japan. As Nagasaki grew from a fishing village to a bustling community of Jesuit missionaries and Portuguese traders, its autonomy and religious influence eventually drew the ire of the top powers of Japan. Portuguese control of the settlement was revoked in 1588, and a bugyō (governor) assumed control of Nagasaki in 1605. In addition to the Nagasaki bugyō, local municipal affairs were managed by the daikan (代官; magistrate or lieutenant-governor).
At the same time, the Portuguese near monopoly on East Asian maritime trade was increasingly being contested by new entrants. The Dutch, who had been at war with the Portuguese, made a chance landing in Japan for the first time in 1600 on the Liefde, and the navigator of that ship, the Englishman William Adams, managed to become a key advisor in the shogunal court and therein advocate for Dutch interests. The Spanish, based in the Philippines, also sought a presence in the Japanese trade at the expense of Portugal despite the union of the crowns of Spain and Portugal (the news of which was coolly received in Portuguese Macau). Japan itself toyed with the idea of foreign trade, issuing trading permits to a select list of worthies who would then send off "Red Seal ships" to waters as far as Malacca and the Moluccas.
Incident in Macau
The direct cause of the Nossa Senhora da Graça incident was the waterfront altercation on November 30, 1608, in Macau, resulting in the deaths of 50 Japanese samurai under the orders of André Pessoa, the captain-major of the Portuguese Macau Japan voyage, and is sometimes known as the Red Seal ship incident (マカオの朱印船騒擾事件). Because Macau did not have a permanent governor at the time, Pessoa was the acting governor while he was in the settlement, overriding the Senate of Macau.
In 1608, a red seal ship belonging to the Hinoe daimyō Arima Harunobu weathered in Macau after coming back from Cambodia to fetch a cargo of agarwood, intending to winter there until the monsoon of 1609. The Japanese crew behaved rowdily and walked brazenly through the town in armed bands of thirty or forty. The Chinese inhabitants, greatly concerned by this, urged the Senate of Macau to curb these activities or expel the Japanese altogether. The Senate merely advised the Japanese to moderate their behavior and disguise themselves as Chinese, but this was flatly ignored.
Since appeasement only appeared to encourage the Japanese crew, whom their compatriots joined from a nearby shipwreck, the Portuguese authorities hardened their stance in response, lest the Japanese try to take over Macau. On November 30, the Japanese gang got into a serious brawl. When the Portuguese ouvidor (magistrate) arrived and attempted to stop the fight, he was injured and his retainers killed. Church bells were sounded in alarm following this incident, and Captain-major André Pessoa arrived at the scene with all available armed reinforcements. The Japanese fled and took refuge in two houses, which Portuguese soldiers quickly surrounded. Pessoa offered quarter to those who would surrender, but 27 of those in the first house refused and were gunned down when forced out of the house by fire. The Jesuits and the Bishop of Macau intervened as Pessoa prepared to storm the second house, and the Japanese there, numbering around 50, were induced to surrender on the promise of life and freedom. However, Pessoa had the suspected ringleaders strangled in jail, while the rest were allowed to leave Macau after signing an affidavit absolving the Portuguese from all blame.
Estimates of the Japanese casualties vary, with reports indicating between 27 and 50. The defeated and humiliated Japanese weighed anchor and headed back to Nagasaki.
The Japan voyage of 1609
Due to Dutch activities in Cantonese waters in 1607 and 1608, no Portuguese ship left for the Japan voyage for over two years. Hence, the 1609 Macau carrack was unusually richly stocked with two years' supply for the Japanese market. This carrack, variously called the Nossa Senhora da Graça (Our Lady of Grace) or the Madre de Deus (Mother of God), left Macau on May 10, six weeks ahead of schedule, because its captain, André Pessoa, heard from Malacca that the Dutch were planning to attack his ship.
It was the Dutch modus operandi at the time to intercept the annual Portuguese trading fleet, especially since their capture of the Santa Catarina in 1603 had been so profitable its booty sold for more than half of the original capital of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). When the admiral of the Dutch fleet in the East learned that the Portuguese were loading an exceptionally rich carrack in Macau, he sent orders to Abraham van den Broeck, in command of two Dutch vessels in the waters of Johor, to find this ship. If they missed the carrack, the Dutch would proceed to Japan and try to open trade there. Van den Broeck, with Jacques Specx in tow, set sail on May 10, stopping by Patani to get a supply of some silk, pepper, and lead to trade in Japan. They then laid around the Taiwan Strait in wait for the Portuguese carrack to no avail, then made their way into the Japanese harbor of Hirado on July 1. As it happened, the Dutch only missed the Nossa Senhora da Graça by two days since Pessoa sailed right into a monsoon that carried the carrack way to the south, offsetting his early lead, and landed in the harbor of Nagasaki on June 29.
Intrigues in Japan
In Nagasaki, the bugyō Hasegawa Fujihiro (長谷川藤広) gave Pessoa more trouble than was usual for Europeans in Japan at the time. Hasegawa repeatedly tried to inspect the ship's contents, but Pessoa always rejected it, and Hasegawa temporarily relented. When all the merchants and merchandise were unloaded, Hasegawa paid the Portuguese scant courtesy and bought all the best silk at low fixed prices, ostensibly on behalf of the retired shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. For reasons not entirely clear, Hasegawa and his colleague, the daikan Murayama Tōan, showed hostility to the Portuguese traders at this time, whereas previous relations had been amicable. Their behavior may have been motivated by jealousy against the influential Jesuit father João Rodrigues at Ieyasu's side, desire for a larger share of the Portuguese trade, or merely be a reflection of Ieyasu's increasing impatience with the Portuguese. Hasegawa and Murayama complained to Ieyasu of Portuguese insolence, pointing out that they acted with virtual extraterritoriality in Nagasaki and accusing them of hiding the best silk to sell in the black market for higher prices. They added that if Ieyasu adopted a harder line against the Portuguese, the red seal ships could compensate for some potential losses in the Portuguese trade. Faced with the Dutch establishment of trade at Hirado, Pessoa reconciled with Hasegawa and Murayama through the intercession of the Jesuits and a monetary bribe.
When Pessoa explained his version of events of the Macau incident to Hasegawa and suggested forwarding the affidavit to Ieyasu (who was retired but still in charge), Hasegawa advised Pessoa to do nothing of the sort. Hasegawa explained that while Ieyasu was mindful of the truculent behaviors of the Japanese abroad, he would be forced to take his compatriots's side as a matter of principle if the issue was brought up officially. This argument did not entirely convince Pessoa, and he drew up an unofficial memorandum of the Portuguese case for Honda Masazumi, Ieyasu's handler of foreign affairs, much to the displeasure of Hasegawa and Murayama, who wrongly suspected that Pessoa had also complained about the two in the memorandum. In any case, Honda, with authorization from Ieyasu, gave Pessoa's envoy written assurances that Japanese sailors would be forbidden to travel to Macau, and any who did could be handled according to Portuguese laws.
Outwardly, Hasegawa still put Portuguese interests in mind as it was in his best interests to keep the Portuguese trade alive in Nagasaki. He arranged to have the Portuguese envoys arrive in Ieyasu's court at Sunpu before those of the Dutch trading party, even though Ieyasu chose to grant an audience to the Dutch envoys first. The Dutch entry provided Ieyasu an opportunity to break the Portuguese monopoly on Chinese silk, and the delighted ex-shōgun gave the Dutch permission to establish a trading post anywhere in Japan without the restriction on prices like the Portuguese had. Hasegawa took the Portuguese side and relayed information of Dutch activities to the Portuguese; however, Pessoa and the Macanese merchants were still suspicious of Hasegawa's intentions and resolved to petition Ieyasu directly to complain about Hasegawa and Murayama. The Jesuits were horrified when they found out about Pessoa's decision due to their knowledge that Hasegawa's sister Onatsu (お夏) was a favorite concubine of Ieyasu, "so much so, that if she said black was white, [Ieyasu] would believe it". The fathers used all sorts of rhetoric they could muster, including the threat of excommunication, to dissuade Pessoa from complaining. Pessoa desisted, but the damage had already been done since the Japanese interpreter hired to translate the list of grievances showed it to the bugyō himself. Hasegawa, in great anger, swore to get even with Pessoa dead or alive.
In September 1609, the Japanese survivors of the Macau affair of 1608 returned to tell their version of events to their lord, Arima Harunobu, and the news was reported to Ieyasu. The ex-shogun reprimanded Hasegawa for trying to hide the matter and ordered him to make a full investigation. Hasegawa drew up a lengthy report taking the side of Arima, who wanted revenge for his men, saying the Portuguese had obtained the Macau affidavits under duress and should be considered void. Hasegawa and Arima advocated for the forcible takeover of the Nossa Senhora da Graça and its cargo. Still, Ieyasu was hesitant since such a move could endanger the annual Nagasaki-Macau trade. The Jesuit father Francesco Pasio alleges that the final push Ieyasu needed came when a Spanish ship sailing from Manila to Mexico was wrecked off the coast of eastern Japan in the same month. When Ieyasu received the Spanish survivors in his court at Sunpu, he asked their leader Rodrigo de Vivero y Aberrucia, the newly replaced governor of the Philippines, if the Spaniards could supply the bulk of silk imports to Japan like the Portuguese. Aberrucia rashly replied that they could easily send three ships to Japan yearly. Ieyasu, now convinced that he could replace the Portuguese merchants with the Spaniards, the Dutch, and his red seal ships, ordered Hasegawa and Arima to arrest Pessoa at all costs.