William Adams

William Adams, better known in Japanese as Miura Anjin, was an English navigator who, in 1600, was the first Englishman to reach Japan leading a five-ship expedition for a private Dutch fleet. Of the few survivors of the only ship that reached Japan, Adams and his second mate Jan Joosten were not allowed to leave the country while Jacob Quaeckernaeck and Melchior van Santvoort were permitted to go back to the Dutch Republic to invite them to trade.

Adams, along with former second mate Joosten, then settled in Japan, and the two became some of the first Western samurai.Soon after Adams' arrival in Japan, he became a key advisor to the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Adams directed construction for the shōgun of the first Western-style ships in the country.