In 1873, as Japan emerged from centuries of isolation, a diplomatic mission known as the Iwakura Embassy arrived in Venice, Italy, with the goal of studying Western politics. What they found instead was a remarkable link to a forgotten chapter of Japanese history: two letters signed by a samurai, written in Latin, dating back to 1615. This discovery revealed a story that had been erased from Japanese memory for over 250 years—the journey of the Keicho Embassy, led by the samu