Fukushima Pride "Persimmons" to "San Juan Bautista" (One of the First Nanban 南蛮 Ship)


 Namban 南蛮 Screen @Tainan



Fukushima (The Fruit Kingdom) Pride Persimmons are peeled and fumigated with sulfur prior to drying in order to prevent them from oxidizing and darkening thus preserving their golden amber color.


The emblem (mon 紋) of the Date clan


Date Masamune (伊達政宗) 1567 – 1636
The Date Clan (伊達氏) is a Japanese samurai kin group

I  bought a pack of Japanese dried persimmon without thinking much about the produce name and place at the time. After I got home - the cute bird and the name Date 伊達 strikes me that's Date Masamune Crest I saw in Sendai! 

Then I noticed the small words "Produce of Fukushima prefecture" 福島縣, googled, Ah! Date (City) is where Date 伊達 clan originated!

Built for Date Masamune 
The Zuihoden  (瑞鳳殿 ずいほうでん)  (Mausoleum of Date Masamune) I have mentioned HERE. It's well worth a visit if you are in the Sendai area. 



I was moved to see its present status considering most of the  monuments were destroyed by bombing or fires in 1945 and what we see today is a subsequent rebuilt and repairs to its original style. 

Built by Date Masamune (in 1613) is San Juan Bautista - one of the first Nanban 南蛮 Ship.


Legacy of the Nanban era 
I was fascinated by Date Masamune's diplomatic mission which I had no idea of until the Sendai trip. Replica of  1613 galleon is in Ishinomaki 石巻市. 



(San Juan Bautista ("St. John the Baptist") was one of Japan's first Japanese-built Western-style sailing ships. She crossed the Pacific in 1614. She was of the Spanish galleon type, known in Japan as nanban-sen (南蛮船, "Southern Barbarian ships"). She transported a Japanese diplomatic mission of 180 people during the first leg of their trip to the Vatican as envoys to Pope Paul V, headed by Hasekura Tsunenaga and accompanied by the Spanish friar Luis Sotelo. After transporting Hasekura to Acapulco in the Spanish possession of New Spain, the ship returned to Japan. Hasekura and the embassy went on to Europe, eventually reaching Rome.)

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