A fascinating account of the life and the times of a unique historical character: a mysterious Japanese merchant-warrior who made his fame and fortune in the bustling city that was Ayutthaya in the early Seventeenth-Century. His deeds—historical and fictional—have been narrated in Japan for more than three hundred years. This study is the first published in English, bringing together all extant available material about Yamada Nagamasa. The book casts light on this intriguing character and the historical landscape that surrounded him during a unique period of Siamese and Japanese history.