João Rodrigues

Life In Japan A 16th- or 17th-century Japanese screen print of a Portuguese Black Ship engaged in the Nanban Trade.

Rodrigues was born at Sernancelhe in Viseu, Portugal, in 1561 Ōtomo Yoshishige, daimyō of Funai ("Bungo"), had long maintained a friendly relationship with the Portuguese and Spanish against the strong resistance of his wife at some point, Rodrigues joined his campaigns against other clans competing for control of Kyushu. and converted to Catholicism in 1578. In December 1580, and taught grammar while he studied Latin and theology under the Jesuits and Japanese literature and philosophy with others. He served as interpreter for Alessandro Valignano during his visit and for Vice-Provincial Gaspar Coelho (1581–1590). He began to preach in Japanese in 1588, despite still being unordained. During Valignano's visit to Toyotomi Hideyoshi in July 1590, Rodrigues so impressed Toyotomi that the regent hired him for a time as his personal interpreter.

Following memorials by the converts Paul Xu and Leo Li in 1629, Rodrigues—now 68—served as the interpreter for a second expedition While there in early 1631, Sun and Rodrigues were visited by Jeong Duwon, a Korean mandarin traveling with a diplomatic mission from Seoul to Beijing. Rodrigues introduced him to the Jesuits' work on astronomy and other sciences and made a personal gift of his telescope, which Jeong highly praised for its use in warfare. He also provided Jeong with a small fieldgun, a treatise on cannon and their use, and a book on European customs and manners. His letter to Jeong Duwon on Western astronomy is also preserved; His Record of Gonçalo the Dutiful (, Gōngshā Xiàozhōng Jǐ) is a Chinese paean to the bravery of Capt. Teixeira at Dengzhou.

On the Japanese-Portuguese dictionary He was also long supposed to have been the main compiler of the first Japanese–Portuguese dictionary, published in 1603, but this attribution was mistaken and Rodrigues's involvement with any aspect of its compilation has been debated.

Legacy The character of Martin Alvito in the James Clavell book Shōgun is loosely based on Rodrigues, while the protagonist is based on William Adams. In the 1980 miniseries adaptation he is portrayed by Damien Thomas and by Tommy Bastow in the 2024 adaptation. Clavell appears to have named the character Vasco Rodrigues to acknowledge João Rodrigues in a similar way as he gave Vasco Rodrigues's Japanese wife the name "Gracia" to honor Hosokawa Gracia. (In the book, the character "Mariko" is based on Hosokawa.)