An Island, a Weapon, and a Plot Point Walk Into a Novel …

Tanegashima is the second largest island in Japan’s Ōsumi Island chain, located off the southern coast of Kyushu (the southernmost of the four major islands which make up the country of Japan). During the medieval period, Tanegashima was considered part of Ōsumi province and ruled by the daimyo in control of that territory. In 1543 a Portuguese trade ship heading for China found itself blown off course and landed at Tanegashima. The accident introduced the Portuguese to Japan (and vice versa) and within a few years the Portuguese had established a trading relationship with Japan. Among the most popular Portuguese goods

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Jesuits in Japan: Fact from Fiction!

In my debut Shinobi mystery, Claws of the Cat, ninja detective Hiro Hattori must protect–and literally save the life–of Father Mateo Avila de Santos, a Portuguese Jesuit working as a missionary to Kyoto’s lower classes. Father Mateo is fictitious, but real Jesuit missionaries were living and working in Kyoto in 1565. The first Portuguese Jesuits arrived in Japan in 1549, and shortly thereafter, Father Francis Xavier established Japan’s first mission, at Kagoshima. Ten years later, after an audience with Jesuit Father Gaspar Vilela (who appears in the Shinobi novels as Father Mateo’s superior, even though Father Mateo’s work is separate

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