A love story across the ocean.

For generations, the people of Hoi An ancient town in Quang Nam province have passed down the deeply moving love story of a Japanese-Vietnamese couple.

The story goes that when Hoi An became a major trading port, ships from many countries came and went in large numbers. One day, a merchant ship belonging to a Japanese father and son docked at the port to sell goods.

Because he had to stay in Hoi An for several days for trading, the Japanese man had time to socialize with many people in the town. One day, as the sun was setting, the father saw his son holding hands with a Vietnamese girl next to the Japanese Bridge and guessed that his son's love was blossoming. During dinner that evening, the son told his father everything about his relationship and hoped for his approval.

With his father's approval, the young man was overjoyed. He immediately met the girl and told her that after returning to Japan, his family would bring gifts to propose marriage. However, when the merchant ship carrying the father and son docked in Hoi An with the complete engagement gifts, bad news spread: the Japanese Emperor had issued a decree closing the ports, and all Japanese people had to return to their homeland. The son begged his father to hold the wedding immediately so he could stay in Hoi An, but the father refused, advising him to return home and wait for a more opportune time to hold a proper wedding ceremony.

The tomb of Tani YaJirobei has stood in the middle of the Trường Lệ field for hundreds of years.

Before parting ways, the young man promised the girl he would return no matter the circumstances, and she vowed to wait for him. However, upon returning home, their trading licenses were revoked, prohibiting all ships from sailing abroad. Living far from his lover, the young man was constantly tired, depressed, and increasingly desperate knowing he would likely never see her again. Finally, he devised a plan: he sought work on a Japanese fishing boat that regularly operated for extended periods in the southwestern waters.

After many days adrift at sea, the young man guessed the ship was near the waters off Hoi An and prepared to escape when he saw Cu Lao Cham island appear. Due to hunger, cold, and the pounding waves, he fainted. When he woke up, he found himself washed ashore at Bai Ong beach, where the locals on Cu Lao Cham island took him home to care for him. Fulfilling his wish, the locals rowed him to Hoi An, but upon meeting his lover, he only smiled contentedly before passing away again. And so, the Japanese young man rests forever in the land of Hoi An. That young man's name was Tani YaJirobei.

This love story is linked to historical events in the late 16th and early 17th centuries when Hoi An became a major trading port of the Southern Kingdom of Vietnam, a transit point for trade, attracting a large number of foreign merchants, most notably the Japanese. The Nguyen lords allowed these foreign merchants to establish two residential areas; the Japanese settlement was the Japanese encampment, commonly known as the Japanese Quarter in Hoi An. The village of these Japanese merchants became increasingly bustling because, at that time, most Japanese traders who settled in Hoi An married Vietnamese women and had children.

According to documents from the Institute for International Cultural Studies - Showa Women's University (Japan), from 1601, Lord Nguyen Hoang established a partnership with Japan. From then until early 1635, 71 ships bearing the Shogunate's seal (the Shogunate was the head of the Japanese feudal government) carried many Japanese merchants to Hoi An port for trade. At the end of 1635, the Shogunate ordered all Japanese to return to their country, and from then on, Japanese merchants gradually left Hoi An to return to their homeland. The last ship carrying Japanese people back to Japan was in 1637.

Today, the tomb of Tani YaJirobei, located in the middle of Truong Le field, Cam Chau ward (Hoi An city), has been classified as a provincial-level historical site. Unlike many other ancient tombs, Tani YaJirobei's tomb has four tombstones inscribed in four languages: Vietnamese, Japanese, English, and French, with the following content: "Due to the Japanese Emperor's policy of closing off trade with foreign countries, he had to return to his homeland from Hoi An, but later found every way to return to live with his lover, a girl from Hoi An..."

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/van-hoa-du-lich-van-hoc-nghe-thuat/202506/chuyen-tinh-vuot-dai-duong-5d40fdd/