Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga (baptized as Francisco Felipe Faxicura in Spain) (1571–1622) was a veteran Japanese samurai and retainer of Date Masamune (founder of the city Sendai, a statesman of great political vision, considered among the most skilled warriors of the time). He was the hero of Sendai and pioneer in Japanese history, who strived for internationalization.

Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga is best known by the diplomatic mission that he has undertaken from 1613 to 1620 to open new doors in Europe for the commercial future of Japan. His objective was to persuade Vatican to send Christian missionaries to Japan, and thus to persuade the superpower Spain to make trade agreements with his country. The route to Spain was passing through the New World, so that he arrived in Acapulco, Mexico, and departed from Veracruz, Mexico. Before arriving in Spain, he stopped on his ship San Juan Bautista at Havana in 1614, thus he became the first Japanese known that had set foot on the Cuban soil. He stayed 6 days in Havana and changed the ships. He is considered also the first Japanese ambassador in the Americas, as well as in Spain. He followed the route by land through Seville, Madrid, and Barcelona, and visited ports of call in the Mediterranean Sea, like St. Tropez where he met with the French authorities. It was the first contact between France and Japan. Travelling along the Italian coast, he arrived in Rome where he met with Pope Paul V that agreed to send missionaries, however, left the decision for commercial exchange to the King of Spain. Even though the Japanese delegation was cordially hosted in Spain, it was the time when the Christianity was under oppression in Japan, so that Philip III, King of Spain, refused to seal the trade agreements with Japan. With a few success, Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga returned to Japan, following the same route, but also visiting Manila. Japan that adopted an isolationist policy, assigned the next embassy to Europe after more than 200 years, in 1862.

Many years had to pass that Cuba would be again the home for some Japanese. Some dekadegui (the name given to the Japanese that emigrated and live scattered around the world) that had left for North America, arrived in Cuba in small groups from 1898 to 1943. In the period of 1924-1926 the largest wave of immigration of Japanese occurred in the history of Cuba, as a travel company, called Oversea, was facilitating the transit to the island. The Japanese did not stay limited in a certain area, but they settled throughout the island. They worked in different fields of business life, but above all in productive sectors such as agriculture, mines, sugar industry, fishing, agriculture, mechanics, electricity and services. It is estimated that currently about 250 Japanese are residing in Cuba.

The monument was established with the cooperation of the Japanese Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School that was founded by Rikichi Katoh in Sendai, Japan in 1905, and the bronze statue of Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga was erected on a granite platform, as a symbol of fraternity and perpetual peace between Cuba and Japan. Some stones brought from the Castle of Sendai are placed in the area of the monument. The statue is the work of the Japanese artist Mizuho Tsuchiya and the monument was in augurated in 2001.

The sculpture represents Tsunenaga, dressed typical of a medieval Japanese samurai, with a long, slightly curved Samurai sword katana. With his outstretched arm he holds a traditional fan, pointing at the direction of Sendai.