Sendai City Museum (仙台市博物館) 仙台市博物館
The portrait of Hasekura, painted in Rome in 1615, is the oldest oil painting of a Japanese person.
Founded to collect and display the historical heritage of Sendai and of the Date domain, the museum is in the area of the castle's third enclosure, at the foot of the hill where the keep stood. Among the permanent collections, the most important core is that of the ‘Keicho Mission’ (慶長遣欧使節): about 40 objects brought back by Hasekura Tsunenaga on his return from his embassy to the Pope and the King of Spain, between 1613 and 1620, on behalf of the daimyo Date Masamune. Among these, three pieces (the portrait of Hasekura, the portrait of Pope Paul V and the certificate of Roman citizenship) were declared a National Treasure on 22 June 2001 and are registered in UNESCO's Memory of the World. The museum also holds armour that belonged to Date Masamune and to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Miyagi
International Center, Omachi Nishi-koen
