The ambassadors arrived back in Japan on July 21, 1590. On their eight-year-long voyage they had been instructed to take notes. These notes provided the basis for the De Missione Legatorum Iaponensium ad Romanam Curiam (“The Mission of the Japanese Legates to the Roman Curia”), a Macau-based writing by Jesuit Duarte de Sande published in 1590.
According to Derek Massarella, “Valignano conceived the idea of a book based on the boys’ travels, one that could also be used for teaching purposes in Jesuit colleges in Japan,” but “despite its authors’ intentions,” De Missione "made no lasting impact on Japanese perceptions of Europe.
The four were subsequently ordained as the first Japanese Jesuit fathers by Alessandro Valignano.
Mancio Itō died in Nagasaki on November 13, 1612. Martinho Hara was banished from Japan by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1614, and acted in Macau. He died in Macau on October 23, 1629. Miguel Chijiwa left the Society of Jesus before 1601, and died in Nagasaki on January 23, 1633. Although he is generally believed to have abandoned Christianity, the discovery of what appear to be rosary beads in his grave in 2017 place this in some doubt. Julião Nakaura was caught by the Tokugawa shogunate, and died a martyr by torture in Nagasaki on November 21, 1633. He was beatified on November 24, 2008.
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If anyone else was wondering whether they became christian because of what they saw in Europe or if they were already christian before they left for Europe … It’s the latter, this was not an embassy from the Shogunate, but from 3 christian daimyo and the young emissaries their tutor + mentor were Jesuits.
The idea of sending a Japanese embassy to Europe was originally conceived by the Jesuit Alessandro Valignano, and sponsored by the three Kirishitan daimyōs Ōmura Sumitada (1533–1587), Ōtomo Sōrin (1530–1587), and Arima Harunobu (1567–1612). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenshō_embassy
The emissaries were also not promptly exiled like the meme implies. Ito Mancio for example was exiled to Nagasaki 2 decades later, after he was caught doing outlawed missionary work.
Joining the order of Jesuit priests in 1608 he engaged in missionary work in northwest Japan but soon was expelled from the local Kokura domain and then moved to the Nakatsu Domain. He was finally exiled to Nagasaki and became a teacher at the seminary. Mancio died of an illness in Nagasaki in 1612, at the age of 43. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itō_Mancio
So yeah, never believe memes.
