Japan remained relatively isolated and therefore immune to Western influence at least until 1543, when a Portuguese ship containing Portuguese and Italian Jesuits was blown off course and landed in the Asian country. The Japanese Roman Catholic Christian daimyōs dispatched the Tenshō embassy to Pope Gregory XIII. This was the first Japanese mission in a foreign land on the initiative of the missionary Alessandro Valignano and the Christian daimyō Ōtomo Sōrin, Ōmura Sumitada and Arima Harunobu. The delegation consisted of four young dignitaries: Itō Mancio, Giuliano Nakaura, Martino Hara and Michele Chijiwa, joined by the Jesuit Diogo de Mesquita, who acted as their interpreter.
