They knew the ruler well—Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Taikō, the Retired Imperial Regent—and they knew that he needed the good offices of the Jesuit clergy in Japan to smooth his acquisition of Chinese silk and European guns from the Portuguese traders who brought those goods to Nagasaki from Canton and beyond.
The difficulty is that even if the figure were Mahākāśyapa, the surrounding images offer no supporting clues.
The Silla people believed in the potency of the sacred mountains.
I wasn't sure whether Captain Sugamasa put any hope in them, or whether he was simply giving them their wish, to die as kaiten men should.