Coria del Río is a small town near Seville

Seville

Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

, on the shores of Guadalquivir river.

It is popularly known because there are some descendants of the first-ever Japanese official envoy to Spain. In early 17th century, Daimyo

Daimyo

is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

 Date Masamune

Date Masamune

was a regional strongman of Japan's Azuchi-Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful daimyo in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai...

 of Sendai sent a delegation led by Hasekura Tsunenaga

Hasekura Tsunenaga

Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga or was a Japanese samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, the daimyo of Sendai....

 to Europe. An embassy was then set up and six samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 stayed on. Approximately 700 of Coria's 25,000 residents use the surname Japón (originally Hasekura de Japón), identifying them as their descendants.

A statue of Hasekura Tsunenaga was donated to the city by Japan in 1992 and stands watch over the river.

The football club Coria CF

Coria CF

Coria Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team based in Coria del Río, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1923, it plays in Tercera División Group 10, holding home matches at Estadio Guadalquivir, with a capacity of 6,000 seats....

hails from Coria del Río.

External links

• "Spain's Japon clan has reunion to trace its 17th century roots" from the Japan Times, December 11, 2003 (registration required)
• "Coria del Río"