Folio, (370 x 240 mm). [5] pp., holograph manuscript in ink, headed ‘Firando [Hirado] in Japon le 1th [sic] of January 1618 [but 1617]’, signed ‘Ric:Cock’; addressed on verso of third leaf to ‘the Right Wor[shipfu]ll Thomas Willson Esquire one of his Ma[jes]ties Secretaries give these at his house at Brittain Burse in the Strand or elsewhere in London [Per] the shipp Thomas p[er] way of Bantam’, and with an endorsement by the recipient, ‘Richard Cock: Ferando in Japan 1st January, 1618/9’; small tears and wear at edges partially affecting words in 13 lines on second leaf and in 15 lines on third leaf, original folds, tiny perforation at centre of main fold on third leaf restored, expertly strengthened at margins; relined with conservationbacking, housed in a quarter morocco clamshell box, lettered in gilt.

English merchant Richard Cocks (1565?-1624) arrived in Japan in 1613 aboard the Clove. He was accompanied by John Saris, who had brought gifts and official letters from King James I. Through these, and with the aid of their compatriot William Adams, who had resided in Japan since 1600 and had gained the confidence of the Tokugawa Ieyasu, they were able to obtain trading privileges for the East India Company. On the departure of Saris a few months later, Cocksbecame the chief factor of the EIC trading post at Hirado, northwest of Nagasaki. The Company soon established other factories at Osaka, Miyako (Kyoto) and Edo (Tokyo), for which Cocks was also responsible. His brief was not only to travel between these cities in order to oversee the Company’s activities in each location, but also to explore trading opportunities further afield: to this end, he is known to have visited the Ayutthaya Kingdom in Siam, and to have made arequest to the Japanese authorities for permission to trade with the Ryûkyû Kingdom, which was denied.

Cocks married a Japanese woman from a family with high social status in the Hirado Domain. Known to us only as Matinga, she was clearly treated with great respect by her husband, as she was given her own house and servants. Matinga provided Japanese language tuition to the EIC merchants – with one of whom, Richard Wickham, she conducted a clandestine affair, resulting in Cocks formally ending their relationship.

The British Library holds Cocks’s diary for 1615-1622 (Add.31300-31301), as well as his letters to the East India Company (India Office Records: E/3). The present letter is one of three known surviving letters Cocks wrote from Japan to his patron, Sir Thomas Wilson. The other two, written in 1614 and 1620, are published in Murakami and Murakawa, Letters written by the English residents inJapan 1611-1623. The present letter has not been published.

In this letter, Cocks describes his first visit to Edo in 1616, soon after the accession of the Tokugawa Shogun Hidetada (‘Shongo Samme’), son of Ieyasu (‘Ogosho Samme’). ‘[T]he ould Emperour is dead and hath left the Empire in quiet possession to his sonne Shongo Samme, now reigning, whoe is held to be the politikest prince that ever Reyned in Japan, for since his father’s death he hath sent for all the other Tono (or Kynges) in Japan to com to his cort at the cittie of Edo & to bring their queenes with them and there to remaene for thespace of 7 yeares … to prevent war or rebellion so that Japan never stood in awe of any prince soe much as of this. For now of late I returned from the court at Edo in w[hi]ch journey I was about 4 monthes in going and returnying. And to say the truth his court & trayne is mighty for w[i]th those Tonos and kynges which daylieattend upon hym they cannot be so few as 100,000 men, he haveing place enough w[i]thin his Castell (or fortress) where he dwelleth hym selfe to lodg about 200,000 men it being compassed about with 3 greate &a deepe ditches full of water w[i]th strong walls about each of them especially the Innermost being all of free ston of an exceeding hiyght w[i]th fayre buildings upon it & towers, a prettydifferance, the one from the other being very beautiful … And for the Emperour’s pallas it selfe, it is most beautiful to show on the out side but much more glorious w[i]thin as being all the salle & rowfe gilded over w[i]th gould … In fine I doe esteem the fortress far bigger than the cittie of York for to my Judgment you may goe a league out ryght in it.’

Cocks describes many pagodas, temples and ‘ancient monuments left by Emperours’, among them the Great Buddha of Kamakura: ‘[H]is thom was bigger than my selfe in the wast. I entered into the body of it wherin I was certen that about 1000 men may be contained & above 30 stand in the compass of the head’; and at Miyako he visited ‘Another admerable temple … I saw wherein are 3333 idalls gilded over w[i]th gould, so that I could not p[er]ceve whether they were of mettall or tymbr, the gilding is so fresh and fayre’.

He reports on the expulsion of the Jesuits and other missionaries (stemming from the Tokugawa Ieyasu’s edict of 1614), as well as the new emperor’s return of King Philip III of Spain’s gift along with ‘3 padres as his ambassadors’, ordering them ‘to avoid out of his cuntrey & never more to sue for entrance unto Japon’. A postscript describes one of the emperor’s hawking expeditions, and also theexecution of a ‘mad cavalero’ who presumed to claim the hand of the emperor’s daughter. Cocks also seeks Sir Thomas’s help in securing a post at the Tower of London for his brother Walter.

Cocks’s patron, Sir Thomas Wilson (1560?-1629), had been appointed Keeper of the Records at Whitehall in 1606. Wilson maintained a keen interest in both the Virginia Company and in the East India Company, and is known to have befriended and corresponded with several company servants, including Cocks. At some point between 1620 and 1624, letters from his correspondence with Company officials passed into the hands of Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex (1575-1645), who was serving as Lord Treasurer at this time. After he was impeached in 1624, Cranfield was compelled to retire, but he retained a numberof historically significant documents acquired from his various offices of state. On his death in 1645, these letters passed into the possession of his daughter, Frances, who in 1637 had married Richard Sackville (later 5th Earl of Dorset).

Provenance:
Sir Thomas Wilson
Lionel, 1st Baron Cranfield and Earl of Middlesex; thence by descent through the Sackville family of Knole (Kent)
Christie’s Valuable Printed Books and Manuscripts, including Maps and Atlases, 16 November 2005, lot 159.