The Second Japanese Embassy to Europe, also called the Ikeda Mission, was sent on February 6, 1864 by the Tokugawa shogunate. The head of the mission was Ikeda Nagaoki, governor of small villages of Ibara, Bitchū Province. The assistant head of the mission was Kawazu Sukekuni. It followed the so-called First Japanese Embassy to Europe (1862), even though the Tensho Embassy (1582–1590) and the expedition led by Hasekura Tsunenaga had previously reached Europe centuries earlier.