William Adams (Miura Anjin)

William Adams (1564–1620) was an English navigator who reached Japan in April 1600 aboard the Liefde, the sole survivor of a five-ship Dutch expedition, and became the first Englishman in the country. At Limehouse he spent twelve years learning shipbuilding and navigation.

Summoned before Tokugawa Ieyasu, he became the shōgun's foreign-affairs adviser and built Japan's first Western-style sailing ship, completed in 1604. Granted samurai rank and an estate on the Miura Peninsula, he took the name Miura Anjin, led red-seal voyages to Siam and helped open the English factory at Hirado.

The Tokugawa authorities refused to let him leave for over a decade; when finally allowed to return to England, he stayed. He died at Hirado in 1620.