Historical person
John Saris
1580–1643
John Saris was an English merchant and sea captain employed by the East India Company. He led the company’s first voyage to Japan in 1613, secured trading privileges from Tokugawa Ieyasu and established a short-lived English factory at Hirado.
Saris had already served the East India Company in Southeast Asia before commanding the company’s eighth voyage aboard the Clove in 1611. In Japan he worked with William Adams, obtained audiences with Tokugawa Ieyasu and Hidetada and secured permission for English trade. He left a factory at Hirado under Richard Cocks when he sailed home in 1613, but the English venture struggled commercially and was abandoned a decade later.
In Giles Milton’s Samurai William, John Saris established a factory at Hirado in 1613, but cultural misunderstanding, poor commercial judgement and competition from Dutch and Portuguese traders undermined the enterprise.
Non Fiction
Non Fiction featuring John Saris (1 book)
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.