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Do you know "John=Matthew=Otoson"?
Recently I have been interested in Otokichi. And the musical Nippon Otokichi Monogatari "Tale of Otokichi of Japan" was held near my home town. So I went to see it. This musical will be held in Britain from May 21 to May 24 at Hurstpierpoint College (a private school) (21st) at Bloomsbury Theatre in London (22st), at Bangor Gwynedd Theatre in Wales (24).
Now I will introduce you to Otokichi.
Otokichi was born in Mihama (in the south of the Chita peninsula which is in Aichi prefecture. This town's name means "beautiful beach") and he was a worker on a freight ship.
In 1832 November 3, "Houjun-Maru" (this is the name of the freight ship) was going to go to Edo (Now,this is Tokyo), so left Mihama.
But a heavy storm hit the "Houjun-Maru". Then the ship was wrecked in the Pacific Ocean. 14 people were there. And they couldn't eat enough fresh vegetables, so they passed away one after another.
After one year and two months, by which time only three of them were still alive, the ship arrived at Cape Arava. And the native American people helped them.
Times went by. A Dr. McFarlane who was a member of the English Hudson Bay Company received them and took them to Britain. So, they were the first Japanese man to visit London.
Then they went to Macao, and they translated the Bible into Japanese.
In 1837, they got a chance to get back to Japan, so they could come to near Japan. But the Japanese army attacked them, because Gaikokusen Uchiharai Rei (It means that they had to attack any foreign ships) was published. So they couldn't get back to their home country, Japan.
Otokichi changed his name to "John=Matthew=Otoson", and he married with an English woman.
In 1854, he came to Japan as a interpreter, and he contributed to the conclusion of the peace treaty between England and Japan.
After all, he left Japan and he lived as an Englishman.
This is the story of Otokichi, and the musical included most of this story. And I have researched about him in more detail.
See the poster for the production