10 Euro - Juan Carlos I Japan-Spain Relations

Issued to mark the 400th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Spain and Japan, this coin commemorates the 1613 embassy led by Hasekura Tsunenaga, a Japanese samurai dispatched by Date Masamune to negotiate trade and missionary access with the Spanish Crown. The mission reached Madrid in 1615 but ultimately failed — Tokugawa Ieyasu had already begun suppressing Christianity in Japan, making any agreement with Catholic Spain politically untenable before the envoy even returned home.

Hasekura died in 1620, likely under suspicion of practicing Christianity. The diplomatic thread he carried took nearly three more centuries to formally resume.