was a kirishitan Japanese samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, the daimyō of Sendai. He was of Japanese imperial descent with ancestral ties to Emperor Kanmu. Other names include Philip Francis Faxicura, Felipe Francisco Faxicura, and Philippus Franciscus Faxecura Rocuyemon in period European sources. In the years 1613 through 1620, Hasekura headed the Keichō Embassy (), a diplomatic mission to Pope Paul V. He visited New Spain and various other ports-of-call in Europe on the way. On the return trip, Hasekura and his companions re-traced their route across New Spain in 1619, sailing from Acapulco for Manila, and then sailing north to Japan in 1620. He is considered the first Japanese ambassador in the Americas and in Spain, despite other less well-known and less well-documented missions preceding his mission. Although Hasekura's embassy was cordially received in Spain and Rome, it happened at a time when Japan was moving toward the suppression of Christianity. European monarchs refused the trade agreements Hasekura had been seeking. He returned to Japan in 1620 and died of illness a year later, his embassy seemingly ending with few results in an increasingly isolationist Japan. Japan's next embassy to Europe would not occur until more than 200 years later, following two centuries of isolation, with the "First Japanese Embassy to Europe" in 1862. Early life Hasekura Tsunenaga was born in year 2 of the Genki era (1571) in Ushū, Okitama-no-kōri, Nagai-sō, Tateishi-mura (now part of modern day Yonezawa in Yamagata Prefecture. He was the son of (), who had ancestral ties with Emperor Kanmu. He was a mid-level noble samurai in the Sendai Domain in northern Japan who had the opportunity to directly serve the daimyō, Date Masamune, and received an annual stipend of 1200 koku. He spent his young adulthood at Kamitate Castle () that was constructed by his grandfather Hasekura Tsunemasa (). The place of origin of the family name Hasekura was Hasekura Village (), now Hasekura Ward () in Kawasaki City. Hasekura and Date Masamune were of roughly the same age, and it is recorded that several important missions were given to Tsunenaga as his representative. It is also recorded that Hasekura served as a samurai during the Japanese invasion of Korea under the Taikō Toyotomi Hideyoshi, for six months in 1597. In 1612, Hasekura's father, Hasekura Tsunenari (), was indicted for corruption, and he was put to death in 1613. His fief was