I find it funny that Portugal is disappointed on not beheading Netherlands when he got stranded on the Islands of Japan Lol...
😂 lmao, Port tried—he and Johan/Jan (Ned) were technically at war back home then—Eighty Years War, and all, thanks to Port’s dynastic union with Spain that the fledging Dutch Republic was rebelling against. it seems to be the reason the Portuguese Jesuits in Japan were hostile to the crew of the De Liefde. for the Dutch, it probably helped that from the Japanese POV, they appeared fucking pathetic by that point; even though the ship had some impressive guns, like 4/5 of the original crew had died, and many of the survivors were weakened by scurvy and malaria and had to be helped off the ship when they reached Japan.
further, Kiku (and historically, the real soon-to-be shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu) is no stranger to this kind of political shit-stirring and rivalries between nations. Some things really are the same on either side of the Eurasian landmass. Hell, he himself recently got beaten up (deservedly) by Yong-soo and Yao (in Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s hubristic attempt to invade Korea and China). I like to think that puts Kiku in a more cautious mood when De Liefde gets shipwrecked. And from Kiku’s POV, he doesn’t owe Port anything, even if Jan was intending to fuck Port up (as he would later)—they’re not allies, it’s a more pragmatic trading dynamic (guns etc). He’s well aware of Port’s own imperial ambitions in the region, and if this new guy who washed up might be a good way to establish trade relations with other nations to counterbalance Port if he causes trouble...well why not make sure this strange new guy doesn’t die of scurvy and question him a little about European politics?
honestly, as I see it, it starts out rather pragmatic—and neither Kiku nor Jan realise just how enduring and deep their relationship is going to become. all of it beginning from that fateful meeting in 1600 that could so easily not have happened, or gone very differently.