Background
Wlliam was bom in Gillingham in Kent on the 24th of September, 1564.
Wlliam was bom in Gillingham in Kent on the 24th of September, 1564.
William acted as advisor to Ieyasu, handling matters pertaining to foreign trade, and on Ieyasu’s orders also undertook to build several Western style sailing ships. He did his best to promote relations between England and Japan, and when John Saris arrived at the head of a fleet of English ships in the fifth month of 1613, he helped arrange for the opening of an English trading office at Hirado in the tenth month of 1613.
William Forbes Adams was the first known as Western Samurai.
A monument to Adams was installed in Watling Street, Gillingham (Kent), opposite Darland Avenue. The monument was unveiled 11 May 1934 by his excellency Tsuneo Matsudaira GCVO, Japanese ambassador to the Court of St James.
In the city of Itō, Shizuoka, the Miura Anjin Festival is held annually on 10 August. On the seafront at Itō is a monument to Adams. Next to it is a plaque inscribed with Edmund Blunden's poem, "To the Citizens of Ito", which commemorates Adams' achievement.
A village and a railroad station in his fiefdom, Anjinzuka ( "Burial mound of the Pilot") in modern Yokosuka, were named for him.
A town in Edo (modern Tokyo), Anjin-chō (in modern-day Nihonbashi) was named for Adams, who had a house there. He is annually celebrated on 15 June.
A monument to Adams was installed at the location of his former Tokyo townhouse, in Anjin-chō, today Nihonbashi Muromachi 1-10-8, Tokyo.
