eastiseverywhere: “Letter from King James I of England to the ‘Emperor’ of Japan UK (1611) [Source] The British Library says: “In January 1611 the East India Company dispatched the Clove under the command of Captain John Saris to establish trading...

eastiseverywhere:

Letter from King James I of England to the ‘Emperor’ of Japan
UK (1611)
[Source]

The British Library says:

In January 1611 the East India Company dispatched the Clove under the command of Captain John Saris to establish trading links with Japan. After an eventful voyage of over two years the Clove reached the island of Hirado in south-west Japan in June 1613.  Captain Saris brought letters and gifts from King James I for the Shogun including the first telescope to have left Europe. With the aid of fellow Englishman William Adams, who had lived in Japan since 1600, Saris was able to obtain audiences with the Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada and the retired Shogun Ieyasu and successfully negotiated permission to trade. He also received two suits of armour and painted screens as official gifts for King James and this exchange marks the beginning of formal relations between the two countries.

The East India Company set up a trading post or ‘factory’ in Hirado but the venture proved a failure. Advice from Adams over its location and the most profitable goods was ignored and the factory was abandoned in 1623 after only a decade.

Proposal for an alternate history fiction where Stuart England develops a deep and mutually respectful relationship with the Tokugawa Shogunate, and William Shakespeare totally hits it off with Izumo no Okuni, the woman who invented kabuki.

That sounds like a fun AU