Momonosuke knew he shouldn’t be here, the
foreigners' harbour was no place for a child. But his curiosity had gotten the better of
him. Now hiding behind a barrel, he watched the southern barbarians disembarking large crates
from their large black ship. He wondered what they could be bringing. Silk, no doubt, he
thought, and maybe some of those new weapons they call guns. Gods! He wished he could have one
of those… But Momonosuke couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed while looking at the strange men.
They looked and talked funny that much was true, but where were the horns and the raven-like noses
the others had told him about? He kept observing them, trying to at least find a horned one among
them, until he heard the voices of his friends calling him to play stick fights. The arrival of
the Europeans in Japan in the mid-16th century heralded the beginning of a new era for the
land of the rising sun. Today we will look into Japan's relations with the Western powers
both on its own turf as well as on European soil. This video is made available for free thanks to
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and we hope you’ll consider joining in too. The Portuguese
“This is a very large island, fifteen hundred miles from the continent….Gold is very
abundant, and no man being allowed to export, while no merchant goes thence to
the mainland, the people accumulate a vast amount.”
-Marco Polo When the first Europeans arrived on the
islands that Marco Polo had described as ‘Zipangu’ more than two hundred years
earlier, they did not find the mythical land of gold and pearls the Venetian merchant
had described in his books. They did find, however, a land that was rich in silver
and, more importantly, willing to trade it. In 1543, two Portuguese sailors, Antonio da Mota
and Francisco Zeimoto, using Chinese guides and ships, arrived on the island of Tanegashima, just
south of Kyushu. They were the first Europeans to have ever set foot in Japan, and their arrival
would forever change the land of the rising sun. This was not only the beginning of Japan’s foreign
relations with the West, but also the introduction of matchlock firearms in samurai warfare.
Portuguese arquebuses fascinated the Japanese and the samurai, as keen warriors, were quick
to acknowledge their value on the battlefield. However, firearms, while an important new
technology for the Japanese, did not constitute a large portion of their trade with the West, as
within only one year, they learned to replicate the mechanism and began producing their own
rifles. The Tanegashima teppo, as they came to be known from the island that introduced them to the
rest of Japan, became so popular that within half a century, Japanese blacksmiths were producing
more arquebuses than their European counterparts. Instead, the Japanese market hungered for
Chinese silk and porcelain, as well as exotic luxury goods, wine, musk, horse breeds like the
Arabian, textiles and dyes and European artifacts such as clocks, glass trinkets, swords and even
armour. From the Jesuit missionary Luis Frois, we are informed that Oda Nobunaga, a powerful
daimyo of the era, was often gifted European and Indian-made clothes from his subjects who wanted
to get on his good side and that his chests were overflowing with such treasures. We can’t be
certain if he dressed in them often, if at all, but such items were undoubtedly expensive, and
even if not to a lord’s personal taste, they were still considered status symbols and demonstrated
a daimyo’s wealth and power over the others. On the other hand, Europeans were fascinated
by Japanese lacquerware and weapons, which, as exotic items, were also used to elevate
the prestige of their owners. Of course, for the Portuguese merchants, there was
also much more immediate profit in the forms of silver and copper. For Portuguese
traders, Japan was a honey pot. Not only did they monopolize trade relations with the
island nation for more than half a century, but they also got to act as the middleman
between China and Japan after the former had issued an embargo on the latter due
to the piratical activities of the wokou . But there was also one more aspect of the
Portuguese trade in Japan that we haven’t touched yet, and it would prove to be catalytic to the
land’s future: the slave trade. The slave trade in Japan was not as large as the transatlantic
or trans-Saharan slave trade. Nevertheless, Japanese men and women were sold off by the
hundreds, either as a result of their capture during a war or because their families couldn’t
afford to sustain them. The slave traders would, in turn, sell them to buyers in
Southeast Asia, India or even Europe, where they would serve as labourers, guards and
concubines. While profitable, the enslavement of Japanese subjects was actually driving a stake
between the Portuguese and Japanese nations and was undermining the Jesuit’s attempts at
proselytization. The rulers of both countries took action against this phenomenon, with King
Sebastian of Portugal banning the enslavement of Chinese and Japanese people in 1570,
which seems to have been largely ignored, judging by future testimonies. On the other side,
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, regent and de facto ruler of Japan, took a more drastic measure in 1587 by
prohibiting the enslavement of his subjects and banning all Christian missionaries
from the land. Quite hypocritically, he didn't have any moral qualms about selling
off hundreds of captured Koreans as slaves after his invasion of the peninsula in 1592.
In that same edict, Hideyoshi also banned official Jesuit missions and retook control
of the city of Nagasaki from the Portuguese. Before the coming of the southern barbarians,
Nagasaki was not the big and vibrant city of today but a humble fishing village under the
control of the Omura clan. That changed with the arrival of the Portuguese in Kyushu.
The lord of the clan, Omura Sumitada, understood that the Europeans could prove
valuable trade partners and allies in his wars against his much more powerful neighbours, so
he quickly converted to Christianity, adopting the name Bartolomeu and offered land near Nagasaki
to the Jesuits, where they would establish a permanent Christian quarters. Thanks to the trade
activities, Nagasaki expanded rapidly and in 1580, Dom Bartolomeu, as he had become known, granted
the entire city to the Jesuits in perpetuity in order to avoid it falling into the hands of the
rival clan of Ryuzoji. As the years passed by, what was once a cluster of fishermen’s huts
became a buzzing port, housing 15 thousand people by the end of the century and serving as
Portugal’s base of operations in Japan, whether that was trade or the evangelism of the
natives. Indeed, the city was a micrography of Portugal in the Far East. It was built in
European fashion, with a church, a town hall and houses painted in white in accordance
with Portuguese fashion. More importantly, the city’s code of law was European in character, and
the population was almost exclusively Christian. The city’s prosperity continued even after
the ownership of the land changed hands and returned to the Omura, but the rise of the
Tokugawa shogunate would also bring the end of Portuguese activities in the land. In
1614, Jesuit missionaries were expelled, with Tokugawa authorities being far more zealous
in this task than their Hideyoshi [toyotomi] predecessors, perhaps due to the Shogun’s
greater anti-Christian sentiment. In 1639, as a response to the failed Shimabara
rebellion, a revolt of Christian peasants in the south of Japan, the shogunate
expelled the Portuguese merchants as well, bringing an end to a century of Iberian
and Catholic presence in the land. However, the expulsion of the Portuguese and the
Spanish and the beginning of sakoku, or national isolation, did not bring an
end to all foreign presence in Japan. The Dutch
Following Tokugawa Iemitsu’s harsh anti-Christian edicts of 1633, Portuguese traders
were confined to the artificial island of Dejima, just off the coast of Nagasaki, until
their expulsion. Dejima would not remain uninhabited for long, and soon, it would house
the employees of the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch arrived in Japan at the beginning of
the century, with the first mission being the famous ship Liefde, which also carried the first
Englishman to Japan, William Adams. Adams proved pivotal for the acquisition of trading rights on
the Dutch’s behalf, as he was on rather good terms with Tokugawa Ieyasu and convinced him that the
Protestants would not spread their Christian views like the Catholics. So, in 1609, the Dutch set
up shop in Hirado and, enjoying relative freedom in their activities, were able to expand and grow
their business rather quickly. Four years later, competition arrived, as the British East India
Company also set up a trading factory in the area. Contrary to the Dutch, the British
endeavour resulted in an economic failure, and they abandoned their trading post just
a decade later, in 1623. A few years later, in 1641, the Dutch would also leave Hirado,
though this was a forced relocation of their business by the shogunate, in an effort to save
Nagasaki’s failing economy, as the Portuguese were no longer welcomed. The Dutch, therefore,
became the sole Western traders in Japan and would continue their enterprises through their
factory in Dejima up until the mid-19th century when Japan’s borders were forcefully opened
by Matthew Commodore Perry’s armada. Though strictly controlled by Shogunal authorities, trade
was very lucrative for both sides. For Japan, Dejima wasn’t just a place where imported
goods came in but also an eye to the outside world. Through the Dutch merchants, Japan,
despite its isolation, was able to keep up with Western scientific, medical and technological
advancements. Being aware of these advancements was a key proponent in the rapid and successful
industrialization of Japan during the Meiji era. Japan’s expeditions
So far, we have talked about Westerners visiting the Land of the
Rising Sun in the from of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English traders and missionaries who
arrived upon their black ships. It was easier for Western merchants to travel to Japan than for the
Japanese to travel to Europe. This was due to the extensive network of trading posts that European
colonial powers had established across Asia and their larger ships that were more suitable for
ocean-faring missions. However, this didn’t mean that the Japanese were not also willing to send
their own representatives to these lands and learn more about these foreigners and their way
of life. The first Japanese to have set foot on European soil was probably a man known as Bernardo
the Japanese. He was one of the two disciples the Spanish missionary Francis Xavier took with him on
a journey to Lisbon and then Rome. The other man, named Matthew, unfortunately never made it to
Europe as he died in India during their brief stop at Goa. After spending almost four years in
Portugal and Italy, Bernando passed away as well. Bernardo might have the honour of being the
first, but he was just one man visiting as a Jesuit trainee. In 1582, more of his countrymen
would travel west in an official capacity as the first Japanese Embassy began its journey
to meet the kings of Europe and the Pope. The Tensho Embassy, as it came to be known, was
the brainchild of the Italian Jesuit Alessandro Valignano, who discussed the idea with the three
Christian daimyos of Kyushu: Dom Bartolomeu, Arima Harunobu and Otomo Sorin. Sorin, the
most powerful of the three and, therefore, the head of the embassy, with the twelve-year-old
nobleman, Ito Mancio, representing him on the journey. Accompanying young Mancio were
three other teenage boys: Miguel Chijiwa, Juliao Nakamura and Martinho Hara. All of
them, as you might have guessed by their names, were Christians and in some way related to one
of the three Christian daimyos. Two years later, on the 11th of August 1584, the four Japanese
teenagers and their custodians arrived in Lisbon, and following a brief sightseeing of the city’s
wonders, they continued their journey to Spain. In Madrid, they met with King Phillip II, who
recently had also received the Portuguese crown, making him arguably the most powerful man in
Europe. They also visited the Escorial and the University of Alcala. After a little tour of
Spain, they embarked on a ship that brought them to Tuscany, the land of Francesco de Medici.
In Pisa, they personally met the Grand Duke, who showed great interest in them. After lodging
for a few days in Firenze, they moved southwards toward the climax of their journey to Rome. Their
meeting with the head of the Holy See was almost like a Roman triumph. Dressed in their traditional
kimonos, riding on their black steeds and accompanied by a regiment of Swiss guards, they
marched through the streets of the eternal city towards the Vatican hill. Bells heralded their
procession, and as they approached Castel Sant Angelo, the cannons of the fort fired a salute.
The Pope welcomed them very warmly as he was quite interested in the missionary work of the Jesuits
in Japan. The teenage ambassadors were also able to witness one of the Catholic Church's rarest
occasions, the papal conclave, as the already bad health of Pope Gregory XII declined rapidly,
and the Pontifex passed on the 10th of April 1585. Gregory’s successor, Sixtus V, also met with
the Japanese youths and welcomed the boys into the ranks of European nobility by making them
Knights of the Order of the Golden Spur. In June, the young men left Rome and toured Italy
for a while, visiting Venice, Padua, Verona, Milan and Genoa before returning to Spain
and Portugal to make their way back to Japan. During their entire journey, they were carefully
guided by the Jesuits so as not to see anything embarrassing or anything that could lead them
to form a bad opinion about Catholic Europe, as Valignano wanted to use the boys’ stories
for propaganda purposes back in Japan. It was necessary for the Jesuits that the accounts
of these boys upon their return confirmed the spiritual and cultural superiority of Catholic
Europe. The Europeans, for their part, were quite enchanted by the Japanese mission. Suddenly,
everyone was interested in Japan, and the sending of envoys was discussed among various circles,
not just in catholic Iberia and Italy, where they had visited, but in France, Germany and even
Poland. But while Europe was experiencing a frenzy over Japan, back in the land of the rising sun,
everything had changed. When the four ambassadors, now grown men, arrived back in their homeland on
the 21st of July 1590, they found a land hostile to Christianity. While Oda Nobunaga was friendly
towards Christian missionaries, or at least tolerated them, his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi,
had decreed that Japan was the land of the kami, not the Christian God. But even his anti-Christian
stance would not be as bad as Tokugawa’s, who systematically hunted down Christian converts. By
the time of the first general persecution launched by Ieyasu in 1613, the four men had become Jesuit
padres, and Mancio had already passed away due to illness the year prior. Martinho was forced into
exile in 1614 and lived the rest of his days in Macau until his death in 1629. Four years later,
Juliao would become a martyr in Nagasaki. In the same year, Miguel died too, having abandoned
the Jesuits and Christianity before 1603, though recent evidence suggests that he might have been a
crypto-Christian or re-converted on his deathbed. But as the Tokugawa regime was turning
increasingly hostile towards Christianity, another ambassador was sent to Rome. His name
was Hasekura Tsunenaga, a samurai in the service of the daimyo of Sendai, Date Masamune. Contrary
to the former Tensho embassy, Tsunenaga followed a different route, sailing first to the Americas
and New Spain and then making his way to Europe to meet with the Spanish crown and the Pope. Because
the Japanese vessels of the time were not suitable for transoceanic travel, a galleon in the European
fashion was made. Named San Juan Bautista, the ship set sail on the 28th of October 1613 for
Acapulco with more than one hundred Japanese on board; these included samurai, merchants,
and servants who accompanied Tsunenaga. After spending a few days in Mexico City,
the procession continued to Veracruz from where they sailed to Europe, making first
a small stop in Cuba. Tsunenaga arrived in Sevilla on the 23rd of October 1614, almost
a year after he had begun his journey. On the 30th of January of the following year, he
was granted an audience with King Philip III, to whom Tsunenaga presented a letter of
his lord Masamune, who requested a trade agreement and Spanish missionaries to preach
on his domain. To sweeten the deal even more and to showcase the sincerity of his lord’s
words, which more or less went opposite to the regime’s stance on Christianity, Tsunenaga
agreed to be baptized on the 17th of February. Having secured some vague promises from
Philip, the entourage continued for Rome while making a forced stop at the French city
of Saint-Tropez due to bad weather. But finally, on the 3rd of November, Tsunenaga, now also called
Felipe, was able to meet Pope Paul V. Once more, Tsunenaga presented a letter written by his
lord, this time addressed to the Pontifex, asking for Franciscan missionaries to intervene
for a trade agreement between Spain and Japan. Just like Philip, the Pope, who by that time had
heard of the news of the Christian persecutions in Japan, gave no meaningful reply. Tsunenaga was
forced to return to Spain, where, after some time, he received King Philip’s official reply in
the form of a letter. The Spanish monarch was friendly towards Date Masamune, but
there was no mention of a trade agreement, only a pledge of support for the Catholic faith.
Essentially, King Philip was sending his thoughts and prayers. Defeated, Tsunenaga embarked on the
return journey to Japan following the same route, albeit taking a little detour in the end and
visiting the Spanish governor of the Philippines in 1618. When he arrived in Nagasaki two years
later, Tsunenaga found a completely different Japan. What was once suspicions had turned
into open hostility against the Christians. Even his own lord, Masamune, who once was open
and friendly towards the missionaries and the new religion they preached, was now executing
them to appease the shogun. His 7-year-long journey to bridge Japan and Spain had been for
nothing. Two years later, Tsunenaga passed away. Following Tsunenaga, no other Japanese ambassador
would visit Europe until the 19th century, when in 1862, the Tokugawa shogunate sent an official
embassy across many European nations. Japan would enter two centuries of isolation, with the
only outside contact being the port of Nagasaki, until US President Millard Fillmore tasked
Matthew Commodore Perry to open Japan to trade, even with the force of guns if necessary. More
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