Four boys and Gregory XIII
The Jesuit Visitor Alessandro had the idea of sending a mission from Japan to Europe. In 1582 four young students of the seminary at Arima left Nagasaki as envoys of three Christian lords of Kyushu. By way of Macao, Goa and the Cape of Good Hope they reached Lisbon, and they were received by King Philip II of Spain and by two popes, Gregory XIII and Sixtus V. They reached Renaissance Rome on 23 March 1585 and had their audience with Gregory XIII; before and after, they were welcomed with great honour all over Italy and Spain.
A pamphlet printed at Reggio in 1585, now in the Tokyo National Museum, describes the boys' stay in Rome, the audience with Gregory XIII and the welcome given them by the Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 2009 a portrait in the Trivulzio collection in Milan was found to bear the name "Mansio" and the year 1585: it is , chief of the envoys, painted to mark their visit to Venice.
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The Reggio pamphlet of 1585 is a printed account from the time; the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture and the Japan Tourism Agency summarise the embassy.
Hasekura before Paul V
Thirty years later another embassy came, sent by of Sendai. On 25 October 1615 it entered Rome; on the 29th Hasekura, splendidly dressed, rode in the formal procession of entry; and on 3 November he met Pope . Masamune's letter to the pope asked for Franciscan friars to be sent to spread the faith in his domain, and for the pope's help with the King of Spain over trade with Mexico. Written in Japanese and in Latin on beautiful paper scattered with gold and silver leaf, both versions are still kept in the Vatican Library.
In Rome, the Sendai City Museum says, Hasekura's noble character was praised. He was raised to the nobility, and he and seven others received the citizenship of Rome. The parchment certificate, written in Latin in gold, names him "PHILIPPO FRANCISCO FAXECVRA ROCVYEMON", with "SANDAI", "VOXV" and "IDATE MASAMVNE". He brought it home, with a portrait of Paul V and an oil portrait of himself praying with a rosary before the crucified Christ, probably painted in Rome: the oldest oil painting of a real Japanese person to survive in Japan.
The fresco in the Sala Regia
The of the Quirinal Palace, now called the Salone dei Corazzieri, was the hall where the popes held public audiences and met foreign ambassadors. Between 1616 and 1617 a workshop led by Agostino Tassi and Giovanni Lanfranco painted its frieze to praise Paul V's ties with the East and Africa and his missionary work. Among the eastern embassies looking out from the painted loggia is the Japanese one, led by , which had visited Rome in 1615.
