Luís de Almeida

Luís de Almeida is a Jesuit physician from Portugal who pioneered Western medicine in Japan. He built the country's first hospital and treated patients from all walks of life free of charge.

Luís appears as a minor NPC in Nobunaga's Ambition, Taiko Risshiden, and Uncharted Waters Online.

Role in Games
Geten no Hana has him as a traveling Portuguese merchant who provides imported goods to interested buyers. He performs minor surgeries as a side business. During his short audience with Nobunaga, he displays a mechanical clock, peacock feather, and a Western style mirror. Luis enjoys their cultural differences and the young daimyo's charisma. Both he and the warlord share the dream of living in a peaceful and united Japan.

Yumeakari has him walk with Nobunaga in Azuchi's castle town to share his experiences with one of the foreign settlements within the country. After they witness Hideyoshi capture a mischievous monkey, the merchant wishes to inspect the beast unknown to his homeland, a revelation which surprises his Japanese friends. Nobunaga seeks to demonstrate the monkey's tameness to his hesitant guest by reaching out to it and unknowingly triggers a trap set in advance.

Historical Information
Luís de Almeida was born to a Marrano Family in Lisbon, Portugal. He studied medicine at a local university before traveling to Goa and Macau as an international trader. Eventually, his work brought him to Japan sometime between 1552 and 1556 where he joined the Society of Jesus upon meeting Father Cosme de Torrès.

While spreading Christianity throughout Kyūshū, he was shocked by the amount of casualties caused by the constant warfare between rivalling clans. To ease their suffering, Luís opened a hospital in 1557 using funds from his organization. It was built on Bungo Province with permission from Ōtomo Sōrin while construction costs were allegedly worth 5,000 cruzados.

Unlike the other missionaries, Luís was a licensed surgeon who made use of his medical knowledge to treat patients without charging them. Most of his operations were done outdoors due to poor indoor lighting conditions; it also helped expel the notion of foreigners being bloodthirsty cannibals. His facilities were equipped with European tools, Chinese herbs, and various faith-based implements. He even used the hospital as a shelter to accommodate the needs of orphans and lepers. Converted Japanese believers also assisted Luís in his endeavor to manage everything.

By 1559, the hospital's reputation as well as the amount of converts increased. Even nobles and other dignitaries from around the country came to receive treatment, some of which included believers like Uku Sumisada, Ōmura Sumitada, and Konishi Yukinaga. Although Luís intended to keep the hospital running, he was eventually besieged by numerous problems such as rising expenses and lack of financial sustainability. Moreover, the Vatican was displeased with the missionary for violating his vows not to medicate non-believers despite his best efforts to hide it from them.

Still believing the hospital would benefit the Jesuit movement, Luís left it to his students in 1561 and resumed evangelizing the locals. He also helped construct several churches in Nagasaki before passing away at Amakusa. Three years after his death, the hospital he opened was razed during a battle. In 1969, a hospital in Ōita Prefecture was named in his honor.

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