Nanban trade: Difference between revisions

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The Nanban trade (南蛮貿易, Nanban bōeki, "Southern barbarian trade") or the Nanban trade period (南蛮貿易時代, Nanban bōeki jidai, "Southern barbarian trade period") in the

Nanban (南蛮, "southern barbarian") is a

First contacts

Japanese accounts of Europeans

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Following contact with the Portuguese on Tanegashima in 1542, the Japanese were at first rather wary of the newly arrived foreigners. The culture shock was quite strong, especially due to the fact that Europeans were not able to understand the Japanese writing system nor accustomed to using chopsticks.

They eat with their fingers instead of with chopsticks such as we use. They show their feelings without any self-control. They cannot understand the meaning of written characters. (from Boxer, Christian Century).

The Japanese were introduced to several new technologies and cultural practices (so were the Europeans to Japanese, see

Renaissance Europeans were quite fond of Japan's immense richness in precious metals, mainly owing to Marco Polo's accounts of gilded temples and palaces, but also due to the relative abundance of surface ores characteristic of a volcanic country, before large-scale deep-mining became possible in Industrial times. Japan was to become a major exporter of copper and silver during the period.

Japan was also noted for its comparable or exceptional levels of population and urbanisation with the west (see List of countries by population in 1600), and at the time, some Europeans became quite fascinated with Japan, with Alessandro Valignano even writing that the Japanese "excel not only all the other Oriental peoples, they surpass the Europeans as well".^[3]

Early European visitors noted the quality of Japanese craftsmanship and metalsmithing. This stems from the fact that Japan itself is rather poor in natural resources found commonly in Europe, especially iron. Thus, the Japanese were famously frugal with their consumable resources; what little they had they used with expert skill though because of this, they had not reached European levels.

Japanese military progress was also well noted. "A Spanish royal decree of 1609 specifically directed Spanish commanders in the Pacific 'not to risk the reputation of our arms and state against Japanese soldier.'" (Giving Up the Gun, Noel Perrin). Troops of Japanese samurai were later employed in the Maluku Islands in Southeast Asia by the Dutch to fight off the English.

Portuguese trade in the 16th century

Ever since 1514 that the Portuguese had traded with China from Malacca, and the year after the first Portuguese landfall in Japan, trade commenced between Malacca, China, and Japan. The Chinese Emperor had decreed an embargo against Japan as a result of piratical wokou raids against China - consequently, Chinese goods were in scarce supply in Japan and so, the Portuguese found a lucrative opportunity to act as middlemen between the two realms.^[4]

Trade with Japan was initially open to any, but in 1550, the Portuguese Crown monopolized the rights to trade with Japan.^[5] Henceforth, once a year a fidalgo was awarded the rights for a single trade venture to Japan with considerable privileges, such as the title of captain-major of the voyage to Japan, with authority over any Portuguese subjects in China or Japan while he was in port, and the right to sell his post, should he lack the necessary funds to undertake the enterprise. He could charter a royal vessel or purchase his own, at about 40,000 xerafins.^[6] His ship would set sail from Goa, called at Malacca and China before proceeding to Japan and back.

In 1554, captain-major Leonel de Sousa

By far the most valuable commodities exchanged in the "nanban trade" were Chinese silks for Japanese silver, which was then traded in China for more silk.[18] Although accurate statistics are lacking, it's been estimated that roughly half of Japan's yearly silver output was exported, most of it through the Portuguese, amounting to about 18 - 20 tons in silver bullion.^[19] The English merchant Peter Mundy estimated that Portuguese investment at Canton ascended to 1,500,000 silver taels or 1,000,000 Spanish reales.^[20] The Portuguese also exported surplus silk from Macau to Goa and Europe via Manila.^{[21] [22]}

Nonetheless, numerous other items were also transactioned, such as gold, Chinese

The

In 1605, two of the Liefde's crew were sent to

The Dutch also engaged in piracy and naval combat to weaken Portuguese and Spanish shipping in the Pacific, and ultimately became the only westerners to be allowed access to Japan from the small enclave of Dejima after 1638 and for the next two centuries.

The Japanese were interested in Portuguese hand-held guns. The first two Europeans to reach Japan in the year 1543 were the Portuguese traders António da Mota and Francisco Zeimoto (Fernão Mendes Pinto claimed to have arrived on this ship as well, but this is in direct conflict with other data he presents), arriving on a Chinese ship at the southern island of Tanegashima where they introduced hand-held guns for trade. The Japanese were already familiar with gunpowder weaponry (invented by, and transmitted from China), and had been using basic Chinese originated guns and cannon tubes called "Teppō" (鉄砲 "Iron cannon") for around 270 years before the arrival of the Portuguese. In comparison, the Portuguese guns were light, had a matchlock firing mechanism, and were easy to aim. Because the Portuguese-made firearms were introduced into Tanegashima, the arquebus was ultimately called Tanegashima in Japan. At that time, Japan was in the middle of a civil war called the Sengoku period (Warring States period).

Within a year after the first trade in guns, Japanese swordsmiths and ironsmiths managed to reproduce the matchlock mechanism and mass-produce the Portuguese guns. Barely fifty years later, "by the end of the 16th century, guns were almost certainly more common in Japan than in any other country in the world", its armies equipped with a number of guns dwarfing any contemporary army in Europe (Perrin). The guns were strongly instrumental in the unification of Japan under

European ships (galleons) were also quite influential in the Japanese shipbuilding industry and actually stimulated many Japanese ventures abroad.

The Shogunate established a system of commercial ventures on licensed ships called

With the arrival of the leading

The first reaction from the

• Nanbandō (南蛮胴) designates a type of cuirass covering the trunk in one piece, a design imported from Europe.
• Nanbanbijutsu (南蛮美術) generally describes Japanese art with Nanban themes or influenced by Nanban designs(See Nanban art).
• Nanbanga (南蛮画) designates the numerous pictorial representations that were made of the new foreigners and defines a whole style category in Japanese art (See
  Namban art and an example at:[1] or [2]
  )
• Nanbannuri (南蛮塗り) describes lacquers decorated in the Portuguese style, which were very popular items from the late 16th century (See example at: [3]).
• Nanbangashi (
  Kasutera" (カステラ), named after Castile, and "Konpeitō" (金平糖 こんぺいとう), from the Portuguese word "confeito" ("sugar candy"), and "Biscuit
  "(ビスケット), etc. These "Southern barbarian" sweets are on sale in many Japanese supermarkets today.
• Nanbanji or Nanbandera (
  Shunkoin temple in Kyoto.Shunkoin Temple

After the country was pacified and unified by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1603 however, Japan progressively closed itself to the outside world, mainly because of the rise of Christianity.

By 1650, except for the trade outpost of

The term Nanban have its origin from Four Barbarians in the Hua–Yi distinction in the 3rd century in China. Pronunciation of Chinese Character is Japanised, the 東夷 (Dōngyí) "Eastern Barbarians" called "Tōi" (it includes Japan itself), 南蛮 (Nánmán) "Southern Barbarians" called "Nanban", 西戎 (Xīróng) "Western Barbarians" called "Sei-Jū", and Běidí 北狄 "Northern Barbarians" called "Hoku-Teki".

Nanban just mean southeast asia in the Sengoku and Edo period. and it was going through the time, the word of "Nanban" mean turnd into the meaning "Western person" and "From Nanban" means "Exotic and Curious".

Strictly speaking "Nanban" means "Portuguese or Spanish" who were the most popular western foreigners in Japan, other western person sometimes called "紅毛人"(Kō-mōjin) "red-haired people" but Kō-mōjin was not as widespread as Nanban. In China, "紅毛" pronounce Ang mo and means a racial descriptor, and Japan decided to Westernize radically in order to better resist the West and essentially stopped considering the West as fundamentally uncivilized. Words like "Yōfu" (洋風 "western style") and "Ōbeifu" (欧米風 "European-American style)" replaced "Nanban" in most usages.

Still, the exact principle of westernization was Wakon-Yōsai (和魂洋才 "Japanese spirit Western talent"), implying that, although technology may be more advanced in the West, Japanese spirit is better than the West's. Hence though the West may be lacking, it has its strong points, which takes the affront out of calling it "barbarian."

Today the word "Nanban" is only used in a historical context, and is essentially felt as picturesque and affectionate. It can sometimes be used jokingly to refer to Western people or civilization in a cultured manner.

There is an area where Nanban is used exclusively to refer to a certain style and that is cooking and the names of dishes. Nanban dishes are not American or European, but an odd variety not using soy sauce or miso but rather curry powder and vinegar as their flavoring, a characteristic derived from Indo-Portuguese Goan cuisine. This is because when Portuguese and Spanish dishes were imported into Japan, dishes from Macau and other parts of China were imported as well.

Timeline

• 1543 – Portuguese sailors (among them possibly Fernão Mendes Pinto) arrive in Tanegashima and transmit the arquebus.
• 1549 – Francis Xavier arrives in Kagoshima.
• 1557 – Establishment of Macau by the Portuguese. Dispatch of annual trading ships to Japan.
• 1565 – Battle of Fukuda Bay, the first recorded naval clash between the Europeans and the Japanese
• 1570 – Japanese pirates occupy parts of Taiwan, from where they prey on China.
• 1571 –
  Daimyō Ōmura Sumitada assists the Portuguese in establishing the port of Nagasaki
  .
• 1575 – Battle of Nagashino, where firearms are used extensively.
• 1577 – First Japanese ships travel to Cochinchina, southern Vietnam.
• 1579 – The
  Jesuit Alessandro Valignano
  arrives in Japan.
• 1580 – Ōmura Sumitada cedes Nagasaki "in perpetuity" to the
  Society of Jesus
  .
• 1580 –
  Franciscans from Japan escape to Vietnam
  .
• 1584 –
  Mancio Itō arrives in Lisbon
  with three other Japanese, accompanied by a Jesuit father.
• 1588 –
  Hideyoshi
  prohibits piracy.
• 1592 – Japan invades
  Seven-Year War
  with an army of 160.000.

- The Battle of Sekigahara unites Japan under Tokugawa Ieyasu.

• 1602 – Dutch warships attack the Portuguese carrack Santa Catarina near Portuguese Malacca.
• 1603 – Establishment of
  Bakufu
  government.

- Establishment of the English

Java

.

- Nippo Jisho Japanese to Portuguese dictionary is published by Jesuits in Nagasaki, containing entries for 32,293 Japanese words in Portuguese.

• 1605 – Two of William Adams's shipmates are sent to Pattani by Tokugawa Ieyasu, to invite Dutch trade to Japan.
• 1609 – The Dutch open a trading factory in
  Hirado
  .
• 1610 – Destruction of the Nossa Senhora da Graça near Nagasaki, leading to a 2-year hiatus in Portuguese trade
• 1612 –
  Siam
  .
• 1613 – England opens a trading factory in Hirado.

- Hasekura Tsunenaga leaves for his embassy to the Americas and Europe. He returns in 1620.

• 1614 – Expulsion of the Jesuits from Japan. Prohibition of Christianity.
• 1615 – Japanese Jesuits start to proselytise in Vietnam.
• 1616 – Death of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
• 1622 – Mass martyrdom of Christians.

- Death of Hasekura Tsunenaga.

• 1623 – The English close their factory at Hirado, because of unprofitability.

-

Siam to Japan, with an Ambassador of the Siamese king Songtham

. He returns to Siam in 1626.

- Prohibition of trade with the Spanish Philippines.

• 1624 – Interruption of diplomatic relations with Spain.

- Japanese Jesuits start to proselytise in Siam.

• 1628 – Destruction of Takagi Sakuemon's (高木作右衛門) Red Seal ship in
  Ayutthaya
  , Siam, by a Spanish fleet. Portuguese trade in Japan is prohibited for 3 years as a reprisal.
• 1632 – Death of Tokugawa Hidetada.
• 1634 – On orders of shōgun Iemitsu, the artificial island Dejima is built to constrain Portuguese merchants living in Nagasaki.
• 1637 – Shimabara Rebellion by Christian peasants.
• 1638 – Definitive prohibition of trade with Portugal as result of Shimabara Rebellion blamed on Catholic intrigues.
• 1641 – The Dutch trading factory is moved from Hirado to Dejima island.

Notes

References

• Giving Up the Gun, Noel Perrin, David R. Godine Publisher, Boston.
  ISBN 0-87923-773-2
• Samurai,
  ISBN 0-8048-3287-0
• The Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy. Development and Technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War, Christopher Howe, The University of Chicago Press.
  ISBN 0-226-35485-7
• Yoshitomo Okamoto, The Namban Art of Japan, translated by Ronald K. Jones, Weatherhill/Heibonsha, New York & Tokyo, 1972
• José Yamashiro, Choque luso no Japão dos séculos XVI e XVII, Ibrasa, 1989
• Armando Martins Janeira, O impacto português sobre a civilização japonesa, Publicações Dom Quixote, Lisboa, 1970
• Wenceslau de Moraes, Relance da história do Japão, 2ª ed., Parceria A. M. Pereira Ltda, Lisboa, 1972
• Charles Ralph Boxer
  , The Christian Century in Japan (1951)
• They came to Japan, an anthology of European reports on Japan, 1543–1640, ed. by Michael Cooper, University of California press, 1995
• João Rodrigues's Account of Sixteenth-Century Japan, ed. by Michael Cooper, London: The Hakluyt Society, 2001 (
  ISBN 0-904180-73-5
  )
• Dias, Maria Suzette Fernandes (2007), Legacies of slavery: comparative perspectives, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, p. 238,
  ISBN 1-84718-111-2
• Charles Ralph Boxer, The Great Ship from Amacon - Annals of Macau and the old Japan trade 1555-1640
  , Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, 1963, Lisbon
• Charles Ralph Boxer, Fidalgos on the Far-East 1550-1770
  , Oxford University Press, 1968

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nanban.

• The Christian Century in Japan, by Charles Boxer
• The Wakasa tale: an episode occurred when guns were introduced in Japan, F. A. B. Coutinho
• Nanban folding screens
• Nanban art (Japanese)
• Japanese Art and Western Influence
• Shunkoin Temple the Bell of Nanbanji
• Japan Mint: 2005 International Coin Design Competition, Jury's Special Award – "The Meeting of Cultures" by Vitor Santos (Portugal)