Salaams Jim,
Thank you for bringing the thread back to track. Your suggestion of the two weapons being procured not presented is well placed as no proof appears in the meetings of Hasekura on his travels having been presented with these items moreover there are several details indicative of
the purchase or acquired nature of these weapons viz;
Japan in Philippine history
By Ambeth R. Ocampo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
10:42 pm | Thursday, October 31st, 2013
Quote"Hasekura Tsunenaga was a Japanese samurai who was received in Mexico, Spain, the Vatican, and the Philippines as a Spanish ambassador in a romantic seven-year journey. He was given an audience by King Philip III in Madrid, was baptized at the Real Monasterio de Descalzas Reales where the Duke Lerma stood as ninong, then was received by Pope Paul V and granted honorary citizenship by the City of Rome.
Hasekura’s last stop was Manila, where he wrote a cheerful letter to his son in 1619 saying he was shopping and preparing to sail home.
The original letter is displayed in the Sendai City Museum together with an Indonesian kris and a dagger from Sri Lanka that Hasekura acquired in the Philippines. I was disappointed that no Philippine artifacts were extant. Not in the exhibition are archival documents on the Hasekura mission from the Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla written during Hasekura’s stay in Manila: an inventory of presents sent to the Shogun by the Governor-General of the Philippines, reports from the Bishop of Cebu and the Archbishop of Manila regarding the rivalry between the Jesuits and the other religious orders doing missionary work in Japan, and reports on the continued persecution of Christians in Japan".Unquote
There is an interesting background description to the Kris at forum on
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...t=kris+kastane by A.G. MAISEY that is essential background reading and from which I have recovered the picture below.
Wikepedia carries the same artwork and under it states that they were
"acquired" from The Philippines. Please see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasekura_Tsunenaga
See also
http://www.japanartsandcrafts.com/8212.html Indonesian kris and Ceylonese dagger (
acquired in the Philippines), presented by Hasekura to Date Masamune upon his return;
Quote"Sendai City Museum Hasekura reported his travels to Date Masamune upon his arrival in Sendai. It is recorded that he remitted a portrait of Pope Paul V, a portrait of himself in prayer (see website), and a set of Ceylonese and Indonesian daggers
acquired in the Philippines, all preserved today in the Sendai City Museum."Unquote
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.