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Ibi Masayoshi

?–?
Hidetada's commissioner for the investigation of Christianity, c. 1615–1622
Also written: Ibi Masayoshi · 伊比正義
A subject of Tokugawa Hidetada whom a Japanese chronicle, quoted by James Murdoch in 1903, describes as sent abroad in the first years of Genna to establish what Christianity was in the country that produced it, returning after seven years to a report the shogun heard day and night before renewing the interdict. No primary source, ship, port, route or European archival trace of him has ever been identified, and even the famous three days and nights are a second-hand embellishment of a second-hand account. The seven-year duration is the one detail that matches the sailing realities of the Cape route exactly, which is why the case stays open rather than closed.

Full article: The Commissioner Who Left No Wake: Ibi Masayoshi and the Seven-Year Journey to Europe, c. 1615–1622

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