Placed in the context of the widespread poverty that plagued Japan during this era, it is not surprising that the Valignano authorized the mission to rely on the tax income provided them by the Port of Nagasaki. By 1600, the Jesuit mission there was in decline because of persecution from the ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi and later, most severely, under the Tokugawas. Tokugawa Ieyasu worked diligently to thwart all European attempts to reestablish contact with Japan, religious or otherwise, after his rise to power in 1603. All samurai and members of the army were required to forswear Christianity and remove Christian emblems or designs from their clothing. Later, daimyo and commoners were ordered to follow the same restrictions. In 1636, Tokugawa Iemitsu enacted the Sakoku edict which ended almost all contact with the outside world. No Japanese ships were allowed to leave the country under pain of death, and any Japanese who attempted to return from abroad would likewise be executed, policies which remained in force until American Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853. Death and legacy Valignano died in Macau on 20 January 1606. He was buried at St. Paul's college. One of his Jesuit admirers noted in his Panegyric: "In [God] we lament not only our former visitor and father, but, as some would have it, the apostle of Japan." Valignano paved the way for a closer relationship between Asian and European peoples by advocating equal treatment of all human beings. He was a great admirer of the Japanese people and envisioned a future when Japan would be one of the leading Christian countries in the world. He memorably wrote that the Japanese "excel not only all the other Oriental peoples, they surpass the Europeans as well". See also Francis Xavier Matteo Ricci Nanban period Chinese Rites controversy Yasuke, African man in service of Valignano who became an armed retainer of Oda Nobunaga Notes References Boxer, C.R.; The Christian Century in Japan, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951 Braga, J.M.; "The Panegyric of Alexander Valignano, S.J." In Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 5, No. 2. (Jul., 1942), pp. 523–535 Cooper, Michael S.J.; Rodrigues the Interpreter, New York: Weatherhill, 1974 Moran, J.F.; The Japanese and the Jesuits, London: Routledge, 1993 Murakami, Naojiro; "The Jesuit Seminary of Azuchi" Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 6, No. 1/2. (1943), pp. 370–374 Schutte, Josef Franz S.J.; Valignano's Mission Principles for Japan, St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1980 Valignano,