An Ayutthaya Noble! That was a Japanese person???!!

Yamada Nagamasa, who lived in the Ayutthaya Kingdom

The 17th century.

The Ayutthaya Kingdom was the most international capital in Southeast Asia.
In the city surrounded by rivers, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, Persians, and even Japanese people lived, and spices and gold, languages and faiths mingled.
Among them were two individuals with roots in Japan.

日本にルーツを持つ人が二人もいるの？？？！！！ 

One was a man who served the king with the "power of martial arts," Yamada Nagamasa.

Yamada Nagamasa - A Japanese man who rose to success in a war-torn capital -

Yamada Nagamasa, who is said to have been born in Suruga, Shizuoka, traveled to distant Siam (modern-day Thailand) during the era of the "Red Seal Ship trade" before the Tokugawa Shogunate closed the seas.

At that time, there was a corner in Ayutthaya called the "Japanese Town (Ban Yipun)." It is said that hundreds of people who had drifted from Japan, including merchants, ronin, and Christians, lived there.

Nagamasa made a name for himself in that town and was chosen as its leader. He not only built wealth through trade but also joined the Ayutthaya Kingdom's army as a "mercenary captain," earning the king's trust through his brave fighting. Eventually, he was granted the noble title of "Okya Senaphimuk" and rose to become the governor of Nakhon Si Thammarat (Ligor) in the south.

あんちゃん、めちゃ昇進しちゃってますやん。
しかも、貴族までなっちゃって。
やり手やな。

However, there was always a political storm in the shadow of prosperity.
After the king's death, a succession struggle occurred, and Nagamasa was caught up in a new power struggle. Having lost his position after the king he swore loyalty to was ousted, it is said that he either died after being poisoned or was killed in a rebellion.

あれま～......
やられちゃったのね。

Even so, the fact that a Japanese person rose to become a high-ranking official in a kingdom in a foreign land is still deeply etched in the history of exchange between Thailand and Japan. "A samurai who crossed the sea"
The name Yamada Nagamasa became a symbol of someone who survived in a foreign land with courage and conviction.

It's so cool that he was active in a foreign land.
I didn't realize so many people in Thailand were immigrants. That was such a shocking fact.

Thanks for telling me, friend!
I really didn't know anything about Thai history, but now I'm interested.
I used to think of Ayutthaya as a place where something happened in the distant past,
but now I think I can feel a bit closer to it.

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Reference

Yamada Nagamasa
Basic Information and Background: Born in Shimizu, Suruga Province, around 1590. Traveled to Southeast Asia through the Shuinsen (Red Seal Ship) system.
Sources
・Yoshihiro Uehara, "Shuinsen Trade and Japanese Towns" (Chuko Shinsho, 2017)
・Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680 (Yale University Press, 1988)
・Shinya Iwamoto, “Yamada Nagamasa and Siam” (Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 95, 2007) Oka Mihoko
・"The Japanese Town of Ayutthaya and Yamada Nagamasa," Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, 1999
・Michael Smithies, A Resounding Failure: Martin and the French in Siam, 1672–1693 (Silkworm Books, 2002)
・Tatsuro Yamamoto, "Yamada Nagamasa and Siam," Iwanami Shoten, 1943 (Classical Study)
・Iwamoto (2007), same paper as above; Shosuke Murai, "Japanese Towns in the Shuinsen Era," Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1993