author
Diego Collado
d. 1638
A Spanish Dominican missionary and early student of Japanese, he worked in secret during one of the most dangerous periods for Christians in Japan. He is also remembered for helping bring some of the earliest printed books on Japanese language study to Europe.
2 Audiobooks
Ars grammaticae Iaponicae linguae
by Diego Collado
Diego Collado's Grammar of the Japanese Language
by Diego Collado
About the author
Born in Miajadas, in Extremadura, in the late sixteenth century, Diego Collado entered the Dominican Order at San Esteban in Salamanca around 1600. In 1619 he traveled to Japan, where Christianity had already been banned, and carried out missionary work in hiding during a time of severe persecution.
After the martyrdom of fellow Dominican Luis Flóres in 1622, Collado went to Rome and Spain to argue for the needs of the missions in East Asia. He is especially notable for works connected with the Japanese language, including early printed studies that introduced European readers to Japanese grammar and vocabulary.
Sources differ on the exact year of his death, with references commonly giving 1638 and some noting 1641. Older Catholic encyclopedia accounts say he was shipwrecked in 1638 on a voyage toward Manila and stayed with other passengers to hear confessions and prepare them for death.