Narrow Road To The Deep North 29

The expedition was headed by a samurai named Hasekura Tsunenaga (or Francisco Felipe Faxicura, as he would be baptized, in Spain). Tsunenaga had served under Hideyoshi, during the Japanese invasion of Korea. In 1612, his father, Hasekura Tsunenari had been indicted for corruption, and put to death in 1613. His fief was confiscated, and his son should have been executed as well, but Masamune however gave him the opportunity to redeem his honour by placing him in charge of the Embassy to Europe, and gave him back his territories as well.
The year 1613 was a busy one. On October 28, the Date Maru left for Acapulco with 180 people on board, consisting of 10 samurai of the Shogun, 12 samurai from Sendai, 120 Japanese merchants, sailors, and servants, and 40 Spaniards and Portuguese. It had barely cleared port when Ieyasu closed the ‘chained country’ with his Sakoku policy. No foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave, on penalty of death. For the protagonists on Masamune’s voyage, it may as well been forever.
After three months at sea, the Southern Barbarian hybrid and its crew arrived in Acapulco. They stayed for over a year. On April 28, 1615, the Date Maru began a return voyage to Japan, carrying fifty silver mining specialists and a group of doomed Franciscans, while Masamune’s embassy continued on to Europe, eventually reaching Rome. 
At the Vatican, Pope Paul V appointed Sotelo as as second Bishop of Japan, subject to the approval of the Spanish King. The expedition remained in Madrid for a full year on the return journey, delayed both because rivalries between Franciscans and Jesuits had prevented Sotelo’s consecration, and because Christianity was being harshly persecuted in Japan. Most of the Japanese samurai sent with the mission, who had converted to Christianity, chose to remain near Seville, where six hundred of their descendants, with the surname Japón, live to this day.
In 1618, the Catholic Council of the Indies sent Sotelo, accompanied by ambassador Hasekura and the remains of the embassy, back to Veracruz and Acapulco, to pursue missionary activities in Nueva España. Two years earlier the Date Maru’s outward-bound trip to retrieve them in Acapulco had gone terribly wrong, and around 100 sailors had died en route. 
On their way back to Japan they were diverted to Manila, obstructed first by pirates and contrary winds, and then by the outgoing Viceroy of the Philippines. The Spanish authorities impounded Sotelo in Manila, having no desire to allow a Franciscan rival to the existing Portuguese Jesuit bishop ruling the Nagasaki diocese.
By the time the embassy made it back to Japan in 1620, the situation had drastically changed. Christianity was being eradicated since its interdiction in 1614, and the shogunate had moved inexorably towards isolation. Masamune’s trade agreements with Mexico were denied and, although his eldest daughter, Iroha, had converted, he was forced to let Ieyasu persecute Christians in his domain.