Itō Mancio (Itō Mansho, 伊東 マンショ, c.1569 – 13 November 1612) was a JapaneseJesuit, head of theTenshō embassy; the first Japanese diplomatic mission toEurope, and aCatholicpriest.

Itō Mancio
伊東 マンショ
Itō Mancio, by Italian painterDomenico Tintoretto (1585)
Born	Itō Sukemasu (1569-01-01)January 1, 1569 Hyūga Province,Tonokōri, Japan
Died	November 13, 1612(1612-11-13) (aged 43) Nagasaki, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Occupations	Head ofTenshō embassy Jesuit Catholicpriest
Years active	1582–1612
Parents	Itō Sukeharu (伊東祐青) (father) Ito Machinoue (町の上) (mother)
Family	Itō clan,Itō Yoshisuke (grandfather)

He was born inHyūga Province,Tonokōri (nowSaito, Miyazaki) to anoble family in 1569.^[1][2] His official birthname was Itō Sukemasu (伊東 祐益).^{[citation needed]} His father was Itō Sukeharu (伊東祐青) and his mother was Machinoue (町の上) the daughter ofdaimyoItō Yoshisuke.^{[citation needed]} He was a member of theItō clan.^{[citation needed]}

Itō Mancio studiedtheology andLatin at the seminary inNagasaki. As leader of theTenshō embassy (1582–90) he traveled to Europe where he met PopesGregory XIII andSixtus V inRome.^[3]

The idea of sending a Japanese embassy toEurope was originally conceived by the JesuitAlessandro Valignano.^[4] and sponsored by the ChristiandaimyōŌtomo Sōrin,Ōmura Sumitada andArima Harunobu. Itō Sukemasu was placed at the head of the group by Ōtomo, daimyō of theBungo Province ofKyūshū^[5] and close relative of Sukemasu's father, Itō Shurinosuke.^[6]

In 1580 Itō wasbaptized with the name Mancio (Mansho, マンショ).^[7] On February 20, 1582 Itō left Nagasaki in the company of three other nobles: Michele Chijiwa, Giuliano Nakaura and Martino Hara.^[8] They were accompanied by two servants and their tutor and interpreter Diego de Mesquita,^[9] as well as by Valignano himself, who escorted them toGoa inIndia before taking on a new post.^[10] On the way toLisbon they spent nine months betweenMacau,Kochi and Goa.^[11][12] From Lisbon they left forRome,^[13] the main destination of the trip. In Rome Mancio was nominated honorary citizen and adorned with the title ofOrder of the Golden Spur.^[14] During the return journey from Rome they headed for Venice and along the way they stopped for a day inImola (June 18, 1585). A manuscript was drawn up in their honor and as evidence of the event, which is still preserved in the municipal historical archive of the city.^[15]

The ambassadors returned to Japan on 21 July 1590.^[8] During their stay in Europe the group met KingPhilip II of Spain,^[16] the Grand Duke of TuscanyFrancesco I de 'Medici,^[17]Pope Gregory XIII and his successor,Sixtus V.^[18]

Joining the order of Jesuit priests in 1608^[19] he engaged in missionary work in northwest Japan but soon was expelled from the localKokura domain and then moved to theNakatsu Domain. He was finally exiled toNagasaki and became a teacher at the seminary. Mancio died of an illness in Nagasaki in 1612, at the age of 43.^[20]

A portrait depicting Itō Mancio was discovered in 2008 and entrusted to the care of experts who identified its authenticity and attributed its creation toDomenico Tintoretto. The painting, anoil oncanvas 53 centimeters high by 43 centimeters wide, depicted a young man with oriental features dressed in the Spanish fashion of the late sixteenth century, with a brown suit, black hat and whiteruff. On the back of the work there was the inscription «D. MANSIO NIPOTE DEL RE DI FIGENGA AMB[asciator]E DEL RE FRA[nces]CO BVGNOCINGVA A SUA SAN[tit]A. MCXXCV. DGH 393».^[21]

The painting was commissioned by the Senate ofVenice toJacopo Tintoretto in 1585 on the occasion of the passage of the ambassadors in the city. In reality, the portrait was made by his sonDomenico, remaining in stock in the Tintorette workshop until the Spanish collectorGaspar Méndez de Haro, Marquis del Carpio, bought the entire collection of the two artists. Due to his debts, however, he was forced to sell all his assets and the work ended up in the hands of the Florentine banker Giovanni Francesco del Rosso who in turn ceded it to the Rinuccini family ofFlorence. In 1831 Marianna Rinuccini married Giorgio Teodoro Trivulzio, bringing as a dowry the portrait of Itō Mancio into the Trivulzio collection inMilan.^[21]

The painting was restored in 2009 and exhibited inTokyo, Nagasaki andMiyazaki (Mancio's place of origin) on the occasion of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the beginning ofdiplomatic relations between Italy and Japan in 2016.^[22]

• Hasekura Tsunenaga
• Christianity in Japan

• C. R. Boxer: The Christian Century in Japan 1549-1650. Carcanet Press,ISBN 1-85754-035-2

Primary sources

• Guido Gualtieri, ed. (1586).Relationi della venuta degli ambasciatori Giaponesi a Roma sino alla partita di Lisbona. Zannetti.
• Paolo Meietto (1585).Relatione del viaggio et arrivo in Evropa et Roma de' principi giapponesi: venuti à dare obedienza à Sua Santità l'anno MDLXXXV all'Eccell. Sig. Girolamo Mercvriale. Venezia.
• Duarte de Sande (1590).De missione legatorum Iaponensium ad Romanam Curiam (in Latin).

Secondary sources

• "Japan Quarterly".The Asahi Shimbun. RetrievedAugust 21, 2022.
• Benzoni, Maria Matilde (2012).Americhe e modernità. Un itinerario fra storia e storiografia dal 1492 ad oggi.Franco Angeli Edizioni.ISBN 978-88-204-0408-6.
• Gunji, Yasunori."La missione degli Ambasciatori Giapponesi del 1985 a Bagnaia"(PDF).Biblioteca Consorziale Viterbo. RetrievedDecember 28, 2014.
• Iannello, Tiziana (2013)."Una legazione giapponese alla corte di Alfonso II d'Este (22-25 giugno 1585): documenti e testimonianze".Il Giappone. Vol. LI. pp. 22–50. RetrievedDecember 29, 2014.
• Massarella, Dereck (February 2013)."The Japanese Embassy to Europe"(PDF).The Journal of the Hakluyt Society.ISSN 0072-9396. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on August 26, 2014. RetrievedJuly 20, 2016. Estratto dal libro diDuarte de Sande (2013). Dereck Massarella (ed.).Japanese Travellers in Sixteenth-Century Europe: A Dialogue Concerning the Mission of the Japanese Ambassadors to the Roman Curia (1590). Ashgate Publishing.ISBN 978-1-4094-7223-0.
• Luigi Mezzadri (2006).La Chiesa tra Rinascimento e illuminismo. Città Nuova.ISBN 88-311-0340-7.
• Murdoch, James (2004).A History of Japan. Vol. 2. Psychology Press.ISBN 978-0-415-15416-1.
• Musillo, Marco (2012). "Travelers from Afar through Civic Spaces: The Tenshō Embassy in Renaissance Italy". In Christina H. Lee (ed.).Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657. Ashgate Publishing.ISBN 978-1-4094-0850-5.
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2002).Japan Encyclopedia. Harvard University Press. pp. 405–406.ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5.
• Schütte, Josef Franz.Valignano's mission principles for Japan (5th ed.). Institute of Jesuit Sources.
• Sestili, Daniele (2001). "La prima introduzione della musica europea in Giappone tra Cinque e Seicento". In A. Boscaro; e M. Bossi (eds.).Firenze, il Giappone e l'Asia orientale. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi (Firenze, 25-27 marzo 1999) Copertina flessibile – 1 aprile 2001. Firenze: Olschki. pp. 57–65.doi:10.1400/186692.ISBN 88-222-4998-4.