Background
Seizaemon Chijiwa was born in 1590.
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Seizaemon Chijiwa
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Career
When he was 15 or 16, he was sent by Lord Omura of Hizen Province (Nagasaki Prefecture) to Rome to pay respects to the Pope. Arriving in Rome (1585), he was received in audience by Pope Gregory XIII and presented to him a letter from his lord. The Pope and the Roman citizens treated him courteously and accorded him Roman citizenship. He left Rome and visited Venice, northern Italian cities and Spain before he returned to Nagasaki in 1590, eight years and five months after he started on the journey. He was received in audience by Hideyoshi Toyotomi in Osaka before he returned to Hizen.
