ABSTRACT
The Japanese had long been coming to the Philippines and many were settled there, but the advent of a new, uniting leader who wanted to show his strength produced a significant threat to the Philippines. The events of 1592–3 involving Japan and the Philippines were, for the people of the newly united nation of Japan, tiny incidents, but they had severe consequences for Christians in Japan and clearly made a very big impression on Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas. 1 The only foreign artefacts that the governor mentions in his will are the letters from the Emperor of Japan and the sword or spear with a golden hilt (una arma en asta dorada) that he gave Dasmariñas. 2 The will was written on 30 September 1592, less than a year before his death. Clearly these artefacts had a very special significance for him. Yet history books say almost nothing about the episodes surrounding these artefacts.
