San Buena Ventura was a 120 ton ship built by the English navigator and adventurer William Adams for the Japanese shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. William Adams (September 24, 1564 – May 16, 1620), also known as Miura Anjin (三浦按針 Miura Anjin), was an English navigator who went to Japan. ... In Japanese history, a shōgun (将軍) was the practical ruler of Japan for most of the time from 1192 to the Meiji Era beginning in 1868. ... Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (previously spelled Iyeyasu); 徳川 家康 (January 31, 1543 – June 1, 1616) was the founder of the Tokugawa bakufu of Japan which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the restoration of the monarchy in 1868. ...

The ship was built in 1607, and followed the construction of a smaller 80 ton ship, also by William Adams, which had been used for the charting of the waters around Japan. Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the second, bigger, boat for travels to other countries. Events January 20 - Tidal wave swept along the Bristol Channel, killing 2000 people. ...

On 30 September 1609, the Spanish galleon San Francisco with a crew of 373 was wrecked on the coast of Chiba, Japan (near the present-day town of Onjuku), and the 317 survivors were received warmly by the Japanese. One of the passengers was the governor of the Philippines, Rodrigo de Vivero y Velasco. He had the opportunity to meet the shogun Tokugawa Hidetada, and the following year his father Tokugawa Ieyasu, meetings in which the Franciscan friar Luis Sotelo, who had been in Japan for a few years, acted as an interpreter. Chiba Prefecture (千葉県 Chiba-ken) is located in the Greater Tokyo Area of Honshu Island, Japan. ... Onjuku (御宿町; -machi) is a town located in Isumi District, Chiba, Japan. ... Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada Tokugawa Hidetada (徳川 秀忠 (1579-1632) was the second shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. ... Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (previously spelled Iyeyasu); 徳川 家康 (January 31, 1543 – June 1, 1616) was the founder of the Tokugawa bakufu of Japan which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the restoration of the monarchy in 1868. ... The Order of Friars Minor and other Franciscan movements are disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi. ... A Franciscan friar, 17th century. ...

Ieyasu expressed his desire to expand trade with Nueva España (Mexico) and Spain. Rodrigo de Vivero answered that he could readily organize trade on a scale surpassing that of the Dutch, the main rivals of Spain in Asia at the time. He also offered to send to Japan 50 experts in silver mining from Mexico. In exchange, he asked for the protection of Spanish priests in Japan, support for shipwrecked boats on the Japanese coasts, and the expulsion of Dutch merchants from Japan, the last request being rejected by Ieyasu.

In order for the Spanish to return to Mexico, Ieyasu lent them William Adams's ship, which the Spanish called San Buena Ventura. The Shogun also lent them the equivalent of 4,000 ducados for the trip.

Rodrigo de Vivero made it back to Mexico on board the ship in 1610. Twenty-two Japanese were also on board, who became the first recorded Japanese to reach the continent.

Luis de Velazzo, the viceroy of Nueva España received the 22 Japanese and expressed his great satisfaction at the treatment the Spanish sailors had received in Japan. He decided to send an embassy to Japan in the person of the famous explorer Sebastian Vizcaino. Sebastian Vizcaino was a Spanish captain and ambassador to Japan. ...

Vizcaino also had a mission to return the 4,000 ducados and to research "gold and silver islands", supposedly to the east of Japan. He left for Japan on 22 March 1611, and after another shipwreck would eventually return in 1613 onboard the Japanese-built galleon San Juan Bautista with the first official Japanese embassy to the Americas and Europe, led by Hasekura Tsunenaga. For the fictional unit of money called a galleon, see Money in Harry Potter. ... San Juan Bautista (“St John Baptist”) (originally called Date Maru, 伊達丸 in Japanese) was one of Japans first Japanese-built Western-style sail warships. ... Hasekuras portrait during his mission in Rome in 1615, by Claude Deruet, Coll. ...