They are all descendants

 Summer shade                   

in Andalusia                                                                                                                                                

 2013 and 2014 saw the Spanish-Japanese celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Keicho Mission.

On 28th October 1613 a Japanese embassy led by Hasekura Rocuyemon Tsunenaga was sent by Date Masamune, lord of the Matsu region, on a mission to obtain the approval to establish relations with the West from King Philip III of Spain and Pope Paul V in Rome.

Following a long and difficult journey over sea which had lasted a year, the embassy reached Sanlucar de Barrameda in Cadiz in early October 1614. From there it travelled up the Guadalquivir as far as the Seville town of Coria del Rio, where it stopped while waiting for permission to enter Seville. The embassy received such a welcome in Coria that they chose to stay there at different points in their travels.

After several years trying to secure the goals of their journey and feeling that they had failed in their mission, the delegation decided to return. Of the one hundred and fifty Japanese who left Japan, just thirty reached Spain and only eighteen set off on the journey back.

Following the publication of Shūsaku Endō's novel The Samurai in the 1980s, it was noted that the presence in Coria del Rio of large numbers of people with the surname Japón might be connected with the Keicho Mission and that the surname was possibly given to the members of Hasekura's entourage who did not return. This supposition is now accepted and it is believed that the surname Japón appeared when they were baptised Catholic, following the Christian custom of the time of naming after places of origin.

In 2013, taking up a suggestion by Rafael Cortés, who was putting the finishing touches to his novel Encuentro en Tanabata and based on the facts described above, photographer Alejandro Sosa came up with the photographic project “Japón. El r@stro del samurái” [Japón. The face/trace of the samurai]. He took portraits of 400 locals with the surname Japón. Out of all these he selected the 46 eldest, those closest to the Keicho event, as of special significance. He then blended these faces to produce a single large format imaginary portrait symbolising the image of one of these adventurers, the face of nobody and the face of everyone. A face created from its own trace as an allegory of the project's ultimate meaning: “a return to origin from consequence”.

In conclusion, “Japón. El r@stro del samurái” was created to expand on this proximity. The trace presented by the document leads to a questioning of the idea that this diplomatic venture had ended in failure, the feeling that the mission was in vain. As a humble offering from the descendants to their ancestors, this work bears witness to the human legacy of this historical event, showing that one of its objectives, two peoples embracing each other, was achieved.