The Miyagi Keicho Embassy Ship Museum, known as the San Juan Bautista Museum, is a museum located on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Watanoha, Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture.
The museum introduces the history of the Keicho Embassy to Europe, a diplomatic mission sent from Japan to Europe at the beginning of the Edo period, as well as the wooden Western-style sailing ship San Juan Bautista used for the voyage. Exhibits explore shipbuilding, maritime culture, international exchange, and life aboard a sailing ship more than 400 years ago.
In 1613, the delegation departed from Tsukinoura in Ishinomaki and crossed the Pacific Ocean to Mexico before continuing to Spain and eventually Rome. Today, visitors can experience the scale of this extraordinary journey through video, sound, graphics, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR).
The museum explains why Date Masamune sought contact and trade with overseas countries, the circumstances behind the mission led by Hasekura Tsunenaga, shipbuilding technology of the period, and what daily life was like aboard the vessel. Because many exhibits are interactive and easy to understand, the museum is also suitable for families and visitors who are new to Japanese history.
The San Juan Bautista Museum underwent a major renewal and reopened on October 26, 2024. The new exhibition combines traditional historical materials with digital technologies such as projection mapping, live-action footage, computer graphics, animation, and AR.
At the museum’s Observation Building on the hill, visitors can experience the history of the Keicho Embassy through images, light, and sound. In the Dock Building facing the sea, a 1/4-scale reconstruction of the San Juan Bautista can be viewed at close range.
The full-size reconstructed ship was dismantled in 2021, but parts of the former vessel and historical materials are preserved inside the museum. AR and VR experiences also allow visitors to visualize the ship and explore what it was like inside. These exhibits offer a new way to appreciate the ship even for people who remember seeing the former full-size reconstruction.
The Keicho Embassy to Europe was a diplomatic mission sent by Date Masamune, lord of the Sendai domain, to the King of Spain and the Pope in Rome. The mission was led by Hasekura Tsunenaga, who traveled overseas together with the Spanish missionary Luís Sotelo and other members of the delegation.
The delegation departed from Tsukinoura in Ishinomaki in 1613. After crossing the Pacific Ocean, they arrived in Acapulco, Mexico. They then traveled by land and sea to Spain, where Hasekura met King Philip III of Spain in Madrid.
The delegation continued to Rome and met Pope Paul V in 1615. Their journey lasted approximately seven years and involved crossing both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. For people living in Japan at the time, this was a remarkable journey into a largely unknown world.
At the San Juan Bautista Museum, visitors can follow this extraordinary expedition through historical documents as well as immersive displays combining light, sound, and moving images.
One of the highlights of the Keicho Embassy exhibition is a “World Globe” based on the 17th-century world map known as the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu. Visitors can follow a path illuminated on the floor, tracing the delegation’s route from Japan across the Pacific to Mexico, then to Spain and finally to Rome.
Following the route visually makes it easier to understand the enormous scale of the journey. It also helps visitors appreciate just how challenging it must have been to travel from Japan to Europe by sea more than 400 years ago.
One of the museum’s major attractions is the 1/4-scale reconstructed San Juan Bautista. Displayed in the Dock Building beside the sea, the model measures approximately 14 meters in length and 13 meters in height.
The original San Juan Bautista was a large galleon-style wooden sailing ship built by the Sendai domain at the beginning of the Edo period. It incorporated Western shipbuilding techniques and was used by the Keicho Embassy to cross the Pacific Ocean.
The reconstructed ship is equipped with an AR experience. By pointing a smartphone toward the vessel, visitors can see digital information showing the ship with its sails raised and learn more about its interior.
Although the full-size reconstructed ship is no longer on display, these digital features make it possible to imagine what the original vessel looked like during its historic voyage.
The Dock Building also explains how the ship was constructed, the navigation techniques used during long-distance voyages, and the daily life of the people aboard the vessel. Large illustrations and dioramas make these subjects accessible even to visitors who have little knowledge of maritime history.
Among the preserved elements on display are a life-size main mast, a dragon-shaped figurehead, and the Kyuyo crest associated with the Date family.
Seeing these large wooden components at close range provides a sense of the scale and craftsmanship required to build and operate a large sailing ship more than four centuries ago.
The San Juan Bautista Museum also offers a VR experience that recreates the interior of the San Juan Bautista. Using three-dimensional data, the virtual ship can be explored from different viewpoints, allowing visitors to experience the spaces where the crew lived and worked.
The VR experience provides views that would normally be difficult to see, including areas high above the deck near the masts. Detailed sections of the cabins and other parts of the ship are also reproduced, creating the feeling of stepping aboard the historic vessel.
Long voyages were carried out in very limited spaces, so every part of the ship had to be used efficiently. Exhibits introduce details of life aboard the ship, including beds used by senior crew members, meals eaten during the voyage, and the work of sailors who repaired and maintained the sails.
Food had to be preserved for long periods, so supplies included dried rice, dried fish, pickled foods, and miso. Wooden tableware was also used because it was less likely to break than ceramic dishes.
Visitors can also learn about practical measures developed for life at sea, including ways of coping with the ship’s movement and equipment designed to reduce the risk of fire.
The museum features an immersive San Juan Theater designed to evoke the interior of a wooden sailing ship. It screens an original short film titled “Yumeutsutsu”, transporting visitors into the world of Date Masamune and Hasekura Tsunenaga.
The film combines live-action footage, computer graphics, and animation to create the feeling of stepping aboard the ship. Rather than relying only on written explanations, the theater uses images and sound to make the events of the past easier to understand intuitively.
Families traveling with children can also enjoy the “Narikir i Passport,” or Role-Playing Passport. This interactive learning activity encourages visitors to think from the perspective of historical figures such as Hasekura Tsunenaga and Date Masamune.
Instead of simply looking at exhibits, children are encouraged to consider questions such as what they might have done if they had been Hasekura or why Date Masamune decided to send a mission overseas.
This approach makes the history of the Keicho Embassy more accessible and provides an opportunity for parents and children to discuss what they have discovered as they explore the museum together.
The San Juan Bautista was also a symbol of Date Masamune’s interest in overseas relations. Its construction reportedly involved not only shipwrights and metalworkers from the Sendai domain but also Spanish shipbuilders and Mukai Shogen, a ship official of the Tokugawa shogunate.
The ship is believed to have been constructed and launched at Tsukinoura in present-day Ishinomaki. Building such a large Western-style sailing ship in Japan was an ambitious undertaking that required the introduction and adaptation of foreign shipbuilding techniques.
The full-size reconstructed ship was completed in 1993 and moored at the museum’s dock when the San Juan Bautista Museum opened in 1996. It became a well-known symbol of Ishinomaki for many years.
However, because of deterioration and other factors, the full-size reconstruction was dismantled in 2021. Today, its history is preserved through the 1/4-scale reconstruction, surviving ship components, historical materials, and VR and AR experiences.
Next to the museum is Ishinomaki City San Juan Bautista Park, a scenic park surrounded by mountains and the sea. The park was designed with landscapes associated with Italy, the destination of the Keicho Embassy, in mind, and makes a pleasant addition to a museum visit.
From the elevated grounds, visitors can enjoy views of the sea around Ishinomaki and the Oshika Peninsula. After learning about the historic voyage, walking through the park and looking out toward the ocean provides an opportunity to imagine the landscape seen by the people who departed from Ishinomaki more than 400 years ago.
San Juan Bautista Park is also enjoyed as a relaxing outdoor space by local residents. Visitors can take a leisurely walk, admire the sea, or combine a stroll through the park with their museum visit.
Every year around the weekend in late May, the park also hosts the San Juan Festival, commemorating the launching of the San Juan Bautista. The event provides another opportunity to learn about the ship and the local history associated with it.
The San Juan Bautista Museum also explores the broader history of Ishinomaki and the Tohoku region. An important theme is the history of major disasters, including the 1611 Keicho Oshu earthquake and tsunami and the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
In 1611, a major tsunami struck the Pacific coast of Tohoku and caused extensive damage in the Sendai domain. The Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino, who was surveying the Sanriku coast at the time, is also recorded as having experienced the tsunami.
Approximately 400 years later, on March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck northeastern Japan. The tsunami reached the area around the San Juan Bautista Museum, damaging the facilities and the reconstructed ship.
The full-size reconstructed ship remained in the dock after the tsunami, but it was subsequently damaged by strong winds, including the breaking of its masts. These events became part of the site’s more recent history.
Today, the museum introduces the history of these disasters and the subsequent recovery efforts, serving as a place where lessons from the past can be passed on to future generations.
The San Juan Bautista Museum is not simply a place to learn about a remarkable overseas voyage from more than 400 years ago. It is also a place to reflect on the history of Ishinomaki, a city that has experienced major natural disasters and continues to preserve memories of them.
The story of the Keicho Embassy brings together many themes, including international exchange, diplomacy, trade, religion, shipbuilding, navigation, and cultural contact. At the same time, the museum’s exhibitions about the 2011 disaster connect the region’s historical memory with its ongoing recovery and future.
The San Juan Bautista Museum is a distinctive Ishinomaki attraction where maritime history, digital technology, local heritage, and memories of disaster come together. By exploring the reconstructed ship, experiencing the VR and AR exhibits, and looking out over the sea from the neighboring park, visitors can gain a deeper understanding of the extraordinary journey that began here more than four centuries ago.
The San Juan Bautista Museum is approximately five minutes by car from Watanoha Station and can be combined with sightseeing in central Ishinomaki and the Oshika Peninsula.
With exhibits covering the Keicho Embassy, wooden sailing ships, shipboard life, international exchange, disaster history, and reconstruction, the museum offers something for visitors of different ages and interests.
After exploring the museum, take a walk through San Juan Bautista Park and look across the sea. Standing in the same region from which Hasekura Tsunenaga and his companions set out for the unknown world, visitors can reflect on the courage and ambition behind one of Japan’s most remarkable international journeys.