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Mancio ItoMancio Ito (伊藤マンショ Itō Mansho), 1570 - 1612, a Japanese nobleman, was the first official Japanese emmissary to Europe. The idea of sending a Japanese embassy to Europe was originally conceived by the Jesuit Alessandro Valignano, and sponsored by the three christian daimyos Omura, Otomo and Arima. Mancio Ito was chosen to act as a spokesman for the group dispatched by Sorin Otomo, who was daimyo of the Bungo Province on Kyushu and a close relative to Mancio's father; Shurinosuke Ito. On the 20th February 1582, Mancio Ito left Nagasaki in company with three other noblemen:
- Miguel Chijiwa (千々石ミゲル Chijiwa Migeru)
- Julio Nakaura (中浦ジュリアン Nakaura Jurian)
- Martino Hara (原マルチノ Hara Maruchino)
Their mentor Valignano also accompanied them, together with two servants and their tutor and interpreter Diego de Mesquita. On their way to Lisbon, at which they arrived in August 1584, they spent 9 months visiting Macao, Cochin and Goa. From Lisbon, the ambassadors went on to Rome, which was the main goal of their journey. In Rome, Mancio Ito became an honorary citizen and taken into the ranks of european nobility with the title Cavaliere di Speron doro. During their stay in Europe, they met with King Philip II of Spain, Francesco I de' Medici; Grand Duke of Tuscany, Pope Gregory XIII and his successor Pope Sixtus V. The ambassadors arrived back in Japan on the 21st July 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, a macao-based writing by Jesuit Duarte de Sande published 1590. The four were subsequently ordained as the first ever Japanese Jesuit fathers by Alessandro Valignano. See also Hasekura Tsunenaga, another Japanese embassy to Europe in 1615. References "The Christian Century in Japan 1549-1650" C.R. Boxer, ISBN 1857540352
"Biographical Dictionary of Japanese History" Iwao, Seiichi (Tokyo 1978)
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