Editing Samurai (section)

====Samurai in Southeast Asia====
[[File:Yamada-Nagamasa-Portrait-Shizuoka-Sengen-Shrine.png|thumb|Portrait of [[Yamada Nagamasa]], circa 1630]]

In the late 1500s, trade between Japan and Southeast Asia accelerated and increased exponentially when the Tokugawa shogunate was established in the early 1600s. The destinations of the trading ships, the [[red seal ships]], were Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. Many Japanese moved to Southeast Asia and established Japanese towns there. Many samurai, or [[rōnin]], who had lost their masters after the Battle of Sekigahara, lived in the Japanese towns. The Spaniards in the Philippines, the Dutch of the [[Dutch East India Company]], and the Thais of the [[Ayutthaya Kingdom]] saw the value of these samurai as mercenaries and recruited them. The most famous of these mercenaries was [[Yamada Nagamasa]]. He was originally a palanquin bearer who belonged to the lowest end of the samurai class, but he rose to prominence in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, now in southern Thailand, and became governor of the [[Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom]]. When the policy of national isolation (''[[sakoku]]'') was established in 1639, trade between Japan and Southeast Asia ceased, and records of Japanese activities in Southeast Asia were lost for many years after 1688.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://worldhistorycommons.org/japanese-mercenaries-and-dutch-east-india-company|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208072323/https://worldhistorycommons.org/japanese-mercenaries-and-dutch-east-india-company|title=Japanese Mercenaries and the Dutch East India Company|publisher=World History Commons|archive-date=8 February 2023|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jafame/11/0/11_61/_pdf/-char/ja|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240214233332/https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jafame/11/0/11_61/_pdf/-char/ja|script-title=ja:Relationship of Japan and the Netherlands in Asia Market in 17th Century and Today|language=ja|publisher=[[Wako University]]/J Stage|pages=61–67|archive-date=14 February 2024|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hirogin.co.jp/lib/kaigai/bangkok/report/b2107/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824133456/https://www.hirogin.co.jp/lib/kaigai/bangkok/report/b2107/|script-title=ja:「異国で王になった男」山田長政|language=ja|website=The Hiroshima Bank |archive-date=24 August 2022|access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref>