Daikokuya Kōdayū

Who was Daikokuya Kōdayū?

Daikokuya Kōdayū was a Japanese castaway who spent eleven years in Russia. His ship landed at Amchitka, in the Aleutian Islands. The crew managed to travel to the Russian mainland and Catherine the Great allowed them to go back to Japan. This was made possible through the efforts of Kirill Laxman, Alexander Bezborodko, and Alexander Vorontsov. Two of the crew made it back to Japan alive, though one died while they were detained in Yezo. Of the original crew, two converted to Christianity and stayed in Irkutsk, and 11 others died.