Background
lie was born in 1556, in the Netherlands.
lie was born in 1556, in the Netherlands.
He was one of the senior officers of the Dutch far eastern trading ship Liefde, which in 1600 was stranded on the shore of Bungo Province, present-day Oita Prefecture in Kyushu. In company with William Adams, another officer of the ship, he journeyed to Edo and was received in audience by Tokugawa Ieyasu. He won the confidence of the future shogun and was given a residence in Edo. The place name Yaesugashi, which continues in use in present-day Tokyo, is derived from his name. In 1609, when a Dutch trading office was set up in Hirado, he played a very active part in negotiations between the shogunate and the Dutch traders. He also sent trading ships bearing the shuin (vermilion-seal patent) of the shogunate to various countries of Southeast Asia. Later, hoping to return to the Netherlands, he took ship to Batavia, but was unable to make satisfactory arrangements there and decided to go back to Japan. In the summer of 1623, however, his ship foundered on a reef of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea and he was drowned.
He was married and had a son.