NAGAMASA, YAMADA (born Yamada Nizaemon, c. 1590–1630), Japanese adventurer who rose from humble origins to become an important figure in the court of the Siamese Kingdom of Ayutthaya (now Thailand) and a leader of the Nihonmachi, the Japanese community in the kingdom.
Born in Sunpu (now Shizuoka), Japan, Nagamasa worked as a palanquin-bearer for Lord Ōkubo Tadasuke, daimyo of Numazu. Following the dissolution of Ōkubo’s domain, Nagamasa journeyed to the Kingdom of Ayutthaya as a trader in 1612 and settled in the Nihonmachi village of Baan Yipun (“Japanese village”), home to an estimated one thousand residents, including religious refugees, merchant traders, and rōnin, unemployed samurai fleeing their homeland following defeat in battle.
King Songtham of Siam took advantage of the presence of a cohort of unemployed warriors and enlisted them in defending the kingdom against invasion. Rising through the military ranks and distinguishing himself through his service, Nagamasa became a representative of the royal court and guard and later became chief of Baan Yipun. As one of the most trusted foreign officers in Siam, he oversaw diplomatic relations with Japan and corresponded with the shogun.
Nagamasa was also an entrepreneur and in due time became a wealthy merchant. He expanded the Nihonmachi’s booming trade in deerskins and exchanged them with Japan for gold, silver, and valuable handicrafts such as swords, paper scrolls, and lacquered boxes. He shrewdly negotiated the mercantile politics of the era, cultivating good trade relations not only with the shogunate but with the Dutch East India Company, which was flexing its colonial and economic muscle in the region. In 1629, when a Dutch ship detained one of Nagamasa’s vessels, the company’s governor, realizing whom the ship belonged to, not only ordered the ship released but granted Nagamasa a license to trade in Batavia (now Jakarta).
Nagamasa ultimately attained the rank of khun or noble and was a prominent adviser in the court of King Songtham. After the king’s death, however, he became embroiled in the palace intrgue surrounding the question of royal succession, which cost him first his position and ultimately his life. After Nagamasa’s death King Prasat Thong, a Siamese noble–cum–royal usurper, destroyed the Japanese settlement in the kingdom and expelled the survivors. When the shogun learned of these developments, he cut off relations with the kingdom; for the next two centuries Japan would largely retreat from the world.
Nagamasa’s legacy was revived for propaganda purposes in the aggressively nationalistic and militaristic Japan of the 1930s and 1940s; he was celebrated as a great pioneer and symbol of Japanese power, leadership, and expansionism. Contemporary scholars, however, have tended to view him more as an opportunist than a patriot. Alternatively, some Thai histories deny his existence altogether and consider him a mythological figure.