MAGI The Tensho Boys’ Embassy

The Age of the Warring States. Valignano, a missionary, devises a plan to spread Catholicism in Japan by sending Japanese boys to the Vatican to meet the Pope as a manifestation of the bible’s MAGI “Wise Men from the Far East”. Valignano takes four boys to meet with Lord Nobunaga Oda.

Valignano takes the four boys to meet Nobunaga. He attempts to gain approval for an embassy sent by a Japanese king. Nobunaga commands Mancio, who still doubts the Christianity, to journey across the sea to an unknown land, then return to Japan. Together with a gold folding screen left in their care by Nobunaga, the boys embark on a long voyage to far-off Rome.

The boys cross the sea, survive a savage storm, and arrive in Goa, India. Here, an unexpected message from the Jesuit Society Headquarters arrives. Father Valignano, who had been leading the embassy, is ordered to remain in India. The boys, now filled with uneasiness, leave Goa to travel onwards to Rome, now accompanied by Dourado.

The Tensho Boys’ Embassy cross the Indian Ocean, round the Cape of Good Hope and arrive in Lisbon, Portugal. They are amazed to behold the grandness of Europe for the first time. They set out for Spain to meet King Philip the Second, known as the ruler of an empire on which the sun never sets. As they travel by night, they see a row of blazes. These are heretics being burnt at the stake.

After their audience with King Philip, Mancio alone is summoned and observes an unusually true side of the king of the world. The boys leave Spain and head across the Mediterranean Sea towards Italy. On the way, their ship rocks wildly to the sound of cannon fire. After meeting King Philip, the boys are mercilessly targeted by a strained Christian society, now divided by Protestant Reformation.

After disembarking in the Port of Livorno, Italy, Juliao collapses with a high fever and is taken to hospital. The remaining three boys continue to the “City of Flowers” – Florence. Along the way, they are surrounded by crowds cheering “MAGI!” Believed to be the Three Wise Men from the East that appear in the bible, the Tensho Boys’ Embassy receives a zealous welcome.

The boys meet the Duke of Tuscany of Medici Family. They are invited to a ball hosted by the Duchess Bianca, a woman of unsurpassable beauty. The young men dance for the first time ever. They leave Florence, a city of endless excitement, and head for Rome. But, a day’s journey from Rome, they are stopped by a messenger from the Vatican and ordered to wait in a nearby lodge.

A crowd shouting “MAGI!” gathers around the boys’ lodge. Forced to wait with the Vatican almost in their sights, the boys cannot hide their frustration. Meanwhile, in Japan, Hideyoshi has risen up from his beginnings as a beggar to rule Japan in place of Nobunaga, who has died in a revolt. He closes in on Christian missionaries summoned to Osaka Castle. A storm descends upon Christians in Japan.

At last, a messenger arrives from the Vatican and the boys are granted an audience with the pope. As a crowd of commoners cries out “MAGI!” in the belief that the three wise men of the Far East had come, the boys don elegant Japanese garbs and make their way to where the pope awaits them.

After their audience with the pope, the boys embark on their return voyage to their homeland. They are reacquainted with Father Valignano when they stop in Goa. But alas, the Japan that awaits them is one with intensifying oppression of Christians led by Hideyoshi, who has issued a Purge Directive Order to the Jesuits.

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