Nanban trade: Difference between revisions

| caption = ACultural groupexchange ofbetween the [[Portugal|Portuguese]] ''Nanban'' foreigners, 17thand centuryJapanese

{{nihongo|'''''Nanban'' trade'''|南蛮貿易|Nanban bōeki|"Southern barbarian trade"}} or the {{nihongo|'''''Nanban'' trade period'''|南蛮貿易時代|Nanban bōeki jidai|"Southern barbarian trade period"}} was a period in the [[history of Japan]] from the arrival of [[Europeans]] in 1543 to the first ''[[Sakoku]]'' Seclusion Edicts of [[isolationism]] in 1614 and then in later decades.{{NoteTag|Frequently referred to today in scholarship as ''kaikin'', or "maritime restrictions", more accurately reflecting the booming trade that continued during this period and the fact that Japan was far from "closed" or "secluded."}} {{nihongo|'''''Nanban''' (''|南蛮 Lit. ||"Southern barbarian")}} is a Japanese word borrowed from Chinese ''[[Nanman]]'', which had been used to designate people from [[Nanman|Southern China]], the [[Ryukyu Islands]], the [[Indian Ocean]], and [[Southeast Asia]] centuries prior to the arrival of the first Europeans. For instance, according to the {{nihongo|''[[Nihon Kiryaku]]'' (|日本紀略)}}, [[Dazaifu (government)|Dazaifu]], the administrative center of [[Kyushu|Kyūshū]], reported that the Nanban (southern barbarian) pirates, who were identified as [[Amami Islands|Amami]] islanders by the [[List of Japanese classical texts|Shōyūki]] (982–1032 for the extant portion), pillaged a wide area of Kyūshū in 997. In response, Dazaifu ordered {{nihongo|[[Kikaijima]] (|貴駕島)}} to arrest the Nanban.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2016 |title=太田淳 著『近世東南アジア世界の変容――グローバル経済とジャワ島地域社会』名古屋大学出版会 2014年 ix＋505頁 |journal=Southeast Asia: History and Culture |volume=2016 |issue=45 |pages=164–167 |doi=10.5512/sea.2016.45_164 |issn=0386-9040|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The ''Nanban'' trade as a form of European contact began with [[Portugal|Portuguese]] [[Portuguese discoveries|explorers, missionaries, and merchants]] in the [[Sengoku period]] and established long-distance overseas [[trade route]]s with Japan. The resulting technological and [[cultural exchange]] included the introduction of [[matchlock]] firearms, [[Cannon|cannons]], [[galleon]]-style shipbuilding, and [[Christianity]] to Japan, among other cultural aspects. The ''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. The Tokugawa issued a series of ''Sakoku'' policies that increasingly isolated mainland Japan from the outside world and limited European trade to [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] traders on the artificial island of [[Dejima]], under total scrutiny.

Trade with Japan was initially open to any, but in 1550, the Portuguese Crown monopolized the rights to trade with Japan.{{sfn|Boxer|1951|page=91}} 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[[xerafin]]s.{{sfn|Boxer|1951|page=303}} His ship would set sail from Goa, called at Malacca and China before proceeding to Japan and back.

The Japanese were introduced to several new technologies and cultural practices (so were the Europeans to Japanese, see [[JaponismJaponisme]]), whether in the military area (the [[arquebus]], [[Cannon|cannonscannon]], European-style [[cuirass]]es, European ships such as [[Galleon|galleons]]), religion ([[Christianity]]), [[Art of Europe|decorative art]], language (integration to Japanese of a [[Japanese language#Vocabulary|Western vocabulary]]) and culinary: the [[Portugal|Portuguese]] introduced the [[tempura]] and European-style confectionery, creating {{nihongo|[[Wagashi|''nanbangashi'']]|南蛮菓子}}, "southern barbarian confectionery", with confectioneries like ''[[castella]]'', ''[[konpeitō]]'', ''aruheitō'', ''karumera'', ''keiran sōmen'', ''bōro'' and ''[[Biscuit|bisukauto]]''. Other traded goods brought by Europeans to Japan were clocks, soap, tobacco, among other products.

The Shogunate established a system of commercial ventures on licensed ships called {{nihongo|[[red seal ships]] | 朱印船|shuinsen}}, which sailed throughout East and Southeast Asia for trade. These ships incorporated many elements of [[galleon]] design, such as sails, rudder, and gun disposition. They brought to Southeast Asian ports many Japanese traders and adventurers, who sometimes became quite influential in local affairs, such as the adventurer [[Yamada Nagamasa]] in [[Siam]], or later became Japanese popular icons, such as [[Tenjiku Tokubei]].

{{Main|Kirishitan|Christianity in Japan|History of the Catholic Church in Japan}}

With the arrival of the leading [[Jesuit]] [[Francis Xavier]] in 1549, Catholicism progressively developed as a major religious force in Japan. Although the tolerance of Western "padres" was initially linked to trade, Catholics could claim around 200,000 converts by the end of the 16th century, mainly located in the southern island of [[Kyūshū]]. The Jesuits managed to obtain jurisdiction over the trading city of [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]].

In 1639, trade with Portugal was definitively prohibited and the Netherlands became the only European nation to be allowed in Japan. By 1650, except for the trade outpost of [[Dejima]] in [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|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 revert to the more "civilized" sword.{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} Travel abroad and the building of large ships were also prohibited. Thence started a period of seclusion, peace, prosperity and mild progress known as the [[Edo period]]. But not long after, in the 1650s, the production of [[Japanese export porcelain]] increased greatly when civil war put the main Chinese center of porcelain production, [[Jingdezhen porcelain|in Jingdezhen]], out of action for several decades. For the rest of the 17th century most [[Japanese porcelain]] production was in [[Kyushu]] for export through the Chinese and Dutch. The trade dwindled under renewed Chinese competition by the 1740s, before resuming after the opening of Japan in the 1850s.<ref>[[David Battie|Battie, David]], ed., ''Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Porcelain'', pp. 71-78, 1990, Conran Octopus. {{ISBN|1850292515}}</ref>

The "barbarians" would come back 250 years later, strengthened by industrialization, and end Japan's isolation with the forcible opening of Japan to trade by an American military fleet under the command of Commodore [[Matthew C. Perry (naval officer)|Commodore Matthew Perry]] in 1854.

* 1622 – Mass martyrdom of 55 Christians ([[Great Genna Martyrdom]]).