San Juan Bautista, Replica galleon at Ishinomaki, Japan

San Juan Bautista is a 1/4-scale fiberglass replica of the 1613 galleon, displayed outdoors at the Miyagi Sant Juan Bautista Museum in Ishinomaki. The 14.2-meter ship has three masts and a dragon figurehead, and visitors cannot board it. A dock wing shows original timbers, including the main mast and the nine-star crest.

A Japanese feudal lord commissioned a sailing ship in 1613 for an embassy voyage to Mexico and Europe. The current reconstruction was built centuries later and renewed in more durable material following the 2011 earthquake.

This vessel carries the name of Saint John the Baptist and represents the diplomatic exchange between Japan and Spain during the early 1600s. Today it serves as a museum where visitors can trace how European and Japanese maritime traditions met.

The museum stands at Watanoha in Ishinomaki, near the harbour where the ship was built. The 1/4-scale fiberglass successor cannot be boarded; its deck and interior are off limits. An AR function on the outdoor ship shows the sails and interior through a smartphone, and the east wing offers a VR experience with views from above the masts.

The full-size wooden replica, launched in 1993, was dismantled in 2022 after tsunami damage and corrosion left it with about five years of life; boarding had been banned since March 2017. Its successor, completed on 31 May 2024, measures 14.2 metres, a quarter of the original scale, and visitors cannot go inside it. Parts of the dismantled ship, including the main mast, the dragon figurehead and a nine-star crest, are displayed in the museum's west wing.