Kadoya Shichirobei

Kadoya Shichirobei (born March/April 1610, Matsuzaka, Ise province, Japan—died Feb. 7, 1672, Annam [now part of Vietnam]) was a Japanese trader who became a leader in the overseas Japanese community of Annam (modern Vietnam). Kadoya left Japan for Annam in 1631 and settled in a Japanese community near Tourane (now Da Nang). When, two years later, the Tokugawa shogunate issued a decree forbidding Japanese subjects to travel or trade abroad, Kadoya chose to remain in...