Nanban trade
gigatos | February 7, 2022
Summary
Nanban trade (南蛮貿易, Nanban-bōeki?, “Trade with southern barbarians”) or Nanban trade period (南蛮貿易時代, Nanban-bōeki-jidai? “Period of trade with southern barbarians”) is the period in Japanese history from the arrival of the first Europeans (originating from Portugal) in the year 1543, until their almost total expulsion from the archipelago between 1637 and 1641, on the occasion of the promulgation of the “Sakoku” expulsion edict.
Nanban trade began with Portuguese explorers, missionaries and traders in the Sengoku period and established long-distance overseas trade routes with Japan. The resulting cultural exchange included the introduction of refined sugar, hand-held firearms, galleon-style shipbuilding, and Christianity to Japan. Nanban trade declined in the early Edo period with the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate which feared the influence of Christianity in Japan, particularly the Roman Catholicism of the Portuguese. Tokugawa issued a series of Sakoku policies that increasingly isolated Japan from the outside world and limited European trade to Dutch merchants on Dejima Island.
Communities are campaigning for the influential Nanban route to be included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Also read, battles – Second Battle of St Albans
Japanese stories about Europeans
After contact with the Portuguese at Tanegashima in 1542, the Japanese were at first quite wary of the newly arrived foreigners. The culture shock was quite strong, especially due to the fact that the Europeans were not able to understand the Japanese writing system and were also not used to using chopsticks.
They eat with their fingers instead of with chopsticks like the ones we use. They show their feelings without any self-control. They cannot understand the meaning of written characters.
The Japanese were introduced to several new technologies and cultural practices (so were the Europeans to Japanese, see Japonisme), whether in the military area (arquebuses, European-style breastplates, European ships), religion (Christianity), decorative art, language (Japanese from a Western vocabulary) and culinary: the Portuguese introduced tempura and especially valuable refined sugar, creating nanbangashi (南蛮 菓子), “southern barbarian confectionery,” with confectioneries such as castella, konpeitō, aruheitō, karumera, keiran sōmen, bōro and bisukauto.
Many foreigners were favored by the Japanese rulers, and their ability was sometimes recognized to the point of promoting one to the rank of samurai (William Adams), and giving him a fief on the Miura Peninsula, south of Edo.
Also read, history – Eumenes Cardianus (362 BC – 316 BC)
European stories about the Japanese
The island of Japan (Jampon), according to what all the Chinese say, is larger than that of the Lechians, and the king is more powerful and larger, and does not engage in trade, nor with his subjects. He is a heathen king, a vassal of the king of China. They do not usually trade in China because it is far away and they have no reeds, nor are they men of the sea.
Renaissance Europeans were very fond of Japan”s immense wealth in precious metals, mainly due to Marco Polo”s accounts of golden temples and palaces, but also due to the relative abundance of surface minerals characteristic of a volcanic country. Japan would become a major exporter of copper and silver during this period.
Japan was also noted for population and urbanization levels comparable or exceptional with the West (see List of countries by population in 1600), and at the time, some Europeans were quite fascinated with the country, with Alessandro Valignano even writing that the Japanese “not only surpass all other Oriental peoples, but also surpass the Europeans.”
Early European visitors noticed the quality of Japanese craftsmanship and goldsmithing. This was due to the fact that Japan itself was quite poor in natural resources commonly found in Europe, especially iron. Therefore, what little they had they used with great skill, because of this, they had not reached European standards.
Japanese military progress was also well noted. “A 1609 Spanish royal decree specifically directed Spanish commanders in the Pacific ”not to risk the reputation and state of our arms against the Japanese soldiery”” (Giving Up the Gun, Noel Perrin). Subsequently, the Dutch employed Japanese samurai troops in the Maluku Islands in Southeast Asia to fight the British.
Since 1514 the Portuguese had been trading with China from Malacca. The Chinese emperor had decreed an embargo against Japan as a result of the wakō pirate raids against China; consequently, Chinese goods were scarce in Japan and, therefore, the Portuguese found a lucrative opportunity to act as middlemen between the two kingdoms.
Trade with Japan was initially open to anyone, but in 1550, the Portuguese Crown monopolized the rights to trade with Japan. Henceforth, once a year, a fidalgo was granted the rights for a single trading venture to Japan with considerable privileges, akin to the title of captain major to travel to Japan, with authority over any Portuguese in China or Japan while in port, and the right to sell the latter”s position, should he lack the necessary funds to undertake the venture. He could charter a royal ship or buy his own, at about 40 000 xerafinas. His ship would sail from Goa, stopping by Malacca and China before proceeding to Japan and returning.
In 1554, Captain Major Leonel de Sousa negotiated with the Chinese authorities the re-legalization of Portuguese trade in China, followed by the foundation of Macao in 1557 to support this trade.
The civil war in Japan was also very beneficial to the Portuguese, as each lord sought to attract trade to his domain by offering better conditions. In 1571, the fishing village of Nagasaki became the final anchorage of the Portuguese and in 1580, its lord, Ōmura Sumitada, the first Japanese lord to convert to Christianity, leased it to the Jesuits “in perpetuity. Subsequently, the town grew from an unimportant fishing village to a thriving, cosmopolitan, all-Christian community. Eventually, the town would have a painting school, a hospital, a charitable institution (the Misericórdia) and a Jesuit college.
Also read, biographies – Claude Adrien Helvétius
The vessels
Among the vessels involved in the trade linking Goa and Japan, the most famous were the Portuguese carracks, slow but large enough to store a lot of goods and enough provisions safely through such a long and often dangerous voyage (due to pirates). These ships initially had a cargo of around 400-600 tons, but later could reach up to 1200 or 1600 tons of cargo capacity, a few reached up to 2000 tons: they were the largest vessels afloat on Earth, and easily twice or three times larger than the common galleons of the time, only rivaled in size by the Spanish Manila galleons. Many of these were built in the royal Indo-Portuguese shipyards in Goa, Bassein or Daman, of high quality Indian teak wood rather than European pine, and their quality of construction became famous: the Spanish in Manila praised the Portuguese-built ships, and commented that they were not only cheaper than theirs, but that they “lasted ten times as long”.
The Portuguese referred to this ship as the nau da prata (the Japanese called them kurofune, meaning “black ships,” because of the color of their hulls, painted black with pitch to narrow the water, and later the name spread to refer to Matthew C. Perry”s black warships that reopened Japan to the world in 1853.
In the 16th century, large junks belonging to private owners in Macao, about two or three in number, often accompanied the carrack to Japan. These could reach around 400 to 500 tons of cargo. After 1618, the Portuguese switched to the use of smaller, more maneuverable pinnaces and galleots, to avoid interception by Dutch raiders.
Also read, biographies – Simone Martini
Goods traded
The most valuable commodities exchanged in the “nanban trade” were Chinese silks for Japanese silver, which was then exchanged in China for more silk. Although precise statistics are lacking, it is estimated that about half of Japan”s annual silver production was exported, mostly through the Portuguese, amounting to about 18-20 tons in silver bullion. The English merchant Peter Mundy estimated that Portuguese investment in Canton amounted to 1 500 000 taels of silver or 1 000 000 Spanish reais. The Portuguese also exported surplus quantities of silk from Macao to Goa and Europe via Manilas.
However, many other items were also transacted, such as gold, Chinese porcelain, musk and rhubarb; Arabian horses, Bengal tigers and peacocks; fine scarlet Indian fabrics, calico and cintz; European-made items such as Flemish clocks, Venetian glass and Portuguese wines and rapiers. in exchange for Japanese copper, lacquer or weapons (as purely exotic items for display in Europe).
The Japanese captured in battle were also sold by their countrymen to the Portuguese as slaves, but the Japanese would also sell family members they could not afford to keep because of the civil war. According to Prof. Boxer, ancient and modern Asian authors have “conveniently overlooked” their part in the enslavement of their compatriots. They were well regarded for their skills and warlike character, and some ended up as far away as India and even Europe, also as armed servants, concubines or slaves of slaves of slaves of Portuguese. In 1571, King Sebastian of Portugal issued a ban on the enslavement of Chinese and Japanese, probably fearing the negative effects it could have on proselytizing efforts as well as ongoing diplomacy between the countries. Japan”s shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi imposed an end to the enslavement of his compatriots beginning in 1587 and it was abolished shortly thereafter. However, Hideyoshi later sold Korean prisoners of war captured during the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598) as slaves to the Portuguese.
According to contemporary authors such as Diogo do Couto, Jan Huygen van Linschoten and William Adams, it is estimated that the overall profits from the Japan trade, which was conducted through the black ships, amounted to more than 600,000 crusaders. A senior captain who invested 20 000 crusaders in Goa for this venture could expect 150 000 crusaders in profits on his return. The value of Portuguese exports from Nagasaki during the 16th century is estimated to have amounted to over 1 000 000 crusaders, reaching as high as 3 000 000 crusaders in 1637. The Dutch estimated this to be the equivalent of about 6 100 000 guilders, almost as much as the entire founding capital of the VOC (6 500 000 guilders). VOC profits in all of Asia amounted to “only” about 1 200 000 guilders, all of its assets worth 9 500 000 guilders.
After 1592, the Portuguese trade was challenged by Japanese red seal ships, Spanish Manila ships after 1600 (until 1620), the Dutch after 1609, and the English in 1613 (until 1623). However, it was found that neither the Dutch nor the Spanish could effectively replace the Portuguese, due to the latter”s privileged access to Chinese markets and investors through Macau. The Portuguese were definitively banned in 1638 after the Shimabara Rebellion, due to their smuggling of priests into Japan aboard their ships.
The Dutchman, who instead of “Nanban” was called Kōmō (紅毛, lit. Red Hair?) by the Japanese, first arrived in Japan in 1600, aboard the Liefde (“liefde” means “love”). Her pilot was William Adams, the first Englishman to reach Japan.
In 1605, two crew members of the Liefde were sent to Patani by Tokugawa Ieyasu to invite Dutch trade to Japan. The head of the Dutch trading post at Patani, Victor Sprinckel, refused because he was too busy dealing with Portuguese opposition in Southeast Asia. However, in 1609, the Dutchman Jacques Specx arrived with two ships at Hirado, and through Adams obtained trading privileges from Ieyasu.
The Dutch also engaged in piracy and naval combat to weaken Portuguese and Spanish shipping in the Pacific, and eventually became the only Westerners allowed access to Japan from the small enclave of Dejima after 1638 and for the next two centuries.
The Japanese were introduced to various new technologies and cultural practices (also vice versa, see Japonisme), whether in military (the arquebus, European-style cuirasses, European ships), religion (Christianity), decorative art, language (integration into Japanese of a Western vocabulary) and culinary: the Portuguese introduced tempura and especially valuable refined sugar, creating nanbangashi (南蛮菓子, lit. Southern barbarian pastries?), with desserts such as castella, konpeitō, aruheitō, karumera, keiran sōmen, bōro and bisukauto.
Also read, battles – Second Battle of Ypres
Tanegashima Harquebuses
The Japanese were interested in Portuguese firearms. The first two Europeans to arrive in Japan in 1543 were Portuguese merchants António da Mota and Francisco Zeimoto (Fernão Mendes Pinto also claimed to have arrived with them, but this is in direct conflict with other data he presents), arriving on a Chinese ship to the southern island of Tanegashima, where they introduced handguns for trade. The Japanese were already familiar with gunpowder weaponry (invented and transmitted from China), and had been using basic weapons originating in China and cannon tubes called Teppō (鉄砲, Iron Cannon?) for about 270 years before the arrival of the Portuguese. In comparison, Portuguese guns were light, had a wick-key mechanism, and were easy to aim. Because Portuguese-made firearms were introduced in Tanegashima, the arquebus was eventually called Tanegashima in Japan. At that time, Japan was in the midst of a civil war called the Sengoku period (Warring States period).
A year after the first exchange of arms, Japanese swordsmiths and blacksmiths succeeded in reproducing the wick-key mechanism and mass-producing Portuguese weapons. Just 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,” their armies equipped with various weapons dwarfing any contemporary army in Europe (Perrin). Weapons were instrumental in the unification of Japan under Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, as well as in the invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597. The daimyo who initiated the unification of Japan, Oda Nobunaga, made extensive use of guns (arquebus) when he plays a key role in the Battle of Nagashino, as dramatized in Akira Kurosawa”s 1980 film, Kagemusha (Shadow of the Warrior).
Also read, biographies – Andrea Mantegna
Shuinsen
European ships (galleons) were also very influential in the Japanese shipbuilding industry and actually stimulated many Japanese companies abroad.
The Shogunate established a system of trading companies on licensed ships called red seal ships (朱印船, shuinsen?), which sailed around East and Southeast Asia for trade. These ships incorporated many elements of galleon design, such as sails, rudder, and gun arrangement. They brought many Japanese traders and adventurers to Southeast Asian ports, who sometimes became quite influential in local affairs, such as the adventurer Yamada Nagamasa in Siam, or later became popular Japanese icons, such as Tenjiku Tokubei.
By the early 17th century, the shogunate had built, usually with the help of foreign experts, several ships of purely Nanban design, such as the galleon San Juan Bautista, which crossed the Pacific twice on embassies to New Spain (Mexico).
Also read, biographies – Gediminas
Catholicism in Japan
With the arrival of Jesuit leader Francis Xavier in 1549, Catholicism progressively developed as a major religious force in Japan. Although the tolerance of the Western “fathers” was initially linked to trade, Catholics could claim around 200,000 converts by the end of the 16th century, mainly located on the southern island of Kyūshū. The Jesuits succeeded in gaining jurisdiction over the trading city of Nagasaki.
The first reaction of the kampaku Hideyoshi came in 1587 when he promulgated the prohibition of Christianity and ordered the departure of all “fathers”. However, this resolution was not followed (only 3 out of 130 Jesuits left Japan), and the Jesuits were able to continue their activities. Hideyoshi wrote:
1. Japan is a country of the gods, and for parents to come here and preach a devilish law is reprehensible and devilish…2. For parents to come to Japan and convert people to their creed, destroying Shinto and Buddhist temples for this purpose, is unheard of and unheard of…to commit outrages of this kind is something that deserves severe punishment.
Hideyoshi”s reaction to Christianity became stronger when the Spanish galleon San Felipe was shipwrecked in Japan in 1597. The incident led to twenty-six Christians (6 Franciscans, 17 of his Japanese neophytes and 3 Japanese Jesuit lay brothers, included by mistake) being crucified in Nagasaki on February 5, 1597. It appears that Hideyoshi”s decision was made after the Jesuits encouraged him to expel the rival order, upon being informed by the Spanish that military conquest generally followed Catholic proselytizing, and out of his own desire to take over the ship”s cargo. Although nearly a hundred churches were destroyed, most of the Jesuits remained in Japan.
The final blow came with Tokugawa Ieyasu”s firm ban on Christianity in 1614, which led to clandestine activities by the Jesuits and their participation in Hideyori”s revolt at the siege of Osaka (1614-15). Repression of Catholicism became virulent after Ieyasu”s death in 1616, leading to the torture and murder of some 2,000 Christians (70 Westerners and the rest Japanese) and the apostasy of the remaining 200-300,000. The last major reaction of Christians in Japan was the Shimabara rebellion in 1637. From then on, Catholicism in Japan was driven underground as the so-called “hidden Christians”.
Also read, biographies – Ellsworth Kelly
Other Nanban influences
The Nanban also had several other influences:
However, after the country was pacified and unified by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1603, Japan became progressively closed to the outside world, mainly due to the rise of Christianity.
By 1650, with the exception of the Dejima trading outpost at Nagasaki for the Netherlands and some trade with China, foreigners were subject to the death penalty and Christian converts were persecuted. Guns were almost completely eradicated to return to the more “civilized” sword. Foreign travel and the building of large ships were also banned. From there began a period of seclusion, peace, prosperity and mild progress known as the Edo period. But not long after, in the 1650s, Japanese export porcelain production increased enormously when civil war put the main Chinese porcelain production center, at Jingdezhen, out of commission for several decades. For the remainder of the 17th century, most Japanese porcelain production was carried out in Kyūshū for export through China and Holland. Trade declined under renewed Chinese competition in the 1740s, before resuming after the opening of Japan in 1850.
The “barbarians” would return 250 years later, strengthened by industrialization, and end Japan”s isolation with the forced opening of Japan to trade with a U.S. military fleet under Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854.
Nanban is a Sino-Japanese word derived from the Chinese term Nánmán, which originally referred to the peoples of South Asia and Southeast Asia. The Japanese usage of Nanban took on a new meaning when it came to designate the first Portuguese who first arrived in 1543, and then the term was extended to other Europeans who came to Japan. The term Nanban originates from the Four Barbarians in the Hua-Yi distinction in 3rd century China. The pronunciation of the Chinese character is Japanized, the Dōngyí (東夷, Barbarians of the East?) called Tōi (includes Japan itself), Nánmán (南蛮, Barbarians of the South?) called Nanban, Xīróng (西戎, Barbarians of the West?) called Sei-Jū and Běidí (北狄, Barbarians of the North?) called Hoku-Teki. Although Nanban only referred to Southeast Asia during the Sengoku and Edo periods, over time the word came to mean “Western person,” and “of Nanban” means “exotic and curious.”
Strictly speaking, Nanban means “Portuguese or Spanish”, which were the most popular Western foreigners in Japan, while other Western people were sometimes called Kō-mōjin (紅毛人, Redheaded people?), but Kō-mōjin was not as widespread as Nanban. In China, 紅毛 is pronounced Ang mo in Hokkien and is a racial slur against whites. Later, Japan decided to become radically Westernized in order to better resist the West and essentially stopped regarding the West as fundamentally uncivilized. Words like Yōfu (洋風, Western style?) and Ōbeifu (欧米, 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 while the technology may be more advanced in the West, the Japanese spirit is better. Therefore, although the West may have shortcomings, it has its strengths, which takes away the hassle of calling them “barbarians”.
Today the word Nanban is only used in a historical context, and is essentially felt to be quaint and affectionate. Sometimes it can be used in jest to refer to Western people or civilization in a cultured way.
There is one area where Nanban is used exclusively to refer to a certain style and that is the cuisine and the names of the dishes. Nanban dishes are not American or European, but a strange variety that does not use soy sauce or miso, but curry powder and vinegar as a flavoring, a characteristic derived from the Indo-Portuguese cuisine of Goa. This is because when Portuguese and Spanish dishes were imported to Japan, dishes from Macau and other parts of China were also imported.
(The Christian Secularism in Japan, Charles Boxer
Nambanjin: About the Portuguese in Japan
The Wakasa story: an episode that occurred when firearms were introduced in Japan, F. A. B. Coutinho
Spiritual Saga: The Japanese Mission to Europe, 1582-1590, Author: Michael Cooper
Os capitães mores da carreira do Japão author: Vítor Luís Gaspar Rodrigues
The Case of Christóvão Ferreira
Diary of Richard Cocks, merchant in Japan in 1615-1622
The Portuguese influence on Japanese civilization, Armando Martins Janeira
Sources
