DOCSLIB.ORG

Of Thai-Portuguese Relations: a Festschrift

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Of Thai-Portuguese Relations: a Festschrift CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by ReCiL - Repositório Científico Lusófona of Thai-Portuguese Relations: A Festschrift L 1 I .0 471 " • t. B E A - ye • A PORTUGUESE EMBASSY TO SIAM IN 1595 AND SOME CURIOUS OBSERVATIONS Teotónio R.deSouza We have utilized here seven chapters of the First Book (fis. 21-53) of the original of La Vida de Jaques de Couttre, catalogued as Ms. 2780 in the National Library of Madrid. The account describes the diplomatic manipulations by a Dominican friar who took control of the embassy and many other intrigues and quarrels among the Portuguese officials and others. Couttre (also spelt Coutre) includes in his account of Siam many curious observations from his eight months' stay in Ayutthaya. Couttre, a Flemish jewel-trader, travelled to India as a soldier in September 1592 and spent nearly three decades in the Estado la India before he was arrested by the Goa Inquisition and packed off to Lisbon in 1623. He had travelled widely in South India and in South-East Asia, and was able to satisfy his desire to see places by combining the roles of a soldado, jewel-trader and member of some embassies of the Portuguese Malaccan authorities to the neighbouring kingdoms. We have made use of Couttre's account in our PhD thesis, published as Medieval Goa (1979). More recently G.D. Winius has given us an account of Couttre 's jewel-trading activities in India. 1 Our "A New Account of the Diamond Mines of the Deccan" has drawn further details from Couttre's text.' This complements Official sources and other contemporary private accounts giving insight into the Portuguese grande soltura, or the free trade and piracy that we can glean from the Peregrinação of Fernão Mendes Pinto. Early in the seventeenth century the Dutch arrived to contest the Malacca-based Portuguese control over the South-East Asian region.' Couttre narrates his participation in an embassy sent by the Portuguese captain (in effect governor) of Malacca, D. Francisco de Silva de Menezes, to Siam in 1595 and throws some light on the functioning of embassies and on Siam of the time. It was a period of Siamese military expansion in the region. In such a conflicting situation with its neighbours, Siam was looking eagerly for Indica n. 25, Bombay, March-1988, pp. 15-34. 'A.R. Kulkarni, M.A. Nayeem & T.R. de Souza, eds Medieval Deccan History (Commemoration Volume in honour of P.M. Joshi), Bombay, Popular Prakashan, 1996, PP. 124-134, thaws on Book 2, ch. 15-16, and Book 3, ch. 3 of Couttre's account. Peter Borschberg, Department of History, National University of Singapore, "Challenges from Early Modem Source Materials: Melaka and Adjacent Regions" can be consulted for the Sourcesinthiscontext;itincludesreferencestoCouttre'saccount. 60 TEOTONIO R. DE SOUZA • , cie. jalaa..scit Coutro. natural- dc la audad srvAas Concial ttei Pudlo en firno,1ue &IZ tor Don_szitcumt Lih-ro grimero De Como' Jan de la alga de, inalatire,s,7 mirlahlaiy fo rim MICCeiro caga frclar Capatil; 'Ironer& Ttuelor?airta nocLitna Cthhf tre Oruja.4 candado do.gmlesoix,r Adra j_ciltta b Cattroo eilAtiaLnazil naturafes. —Ida tni.rnia uu Manuscript copy of the Life of Jaques de Couttre, first page of first section A PORTUGUESE EMBASSY TO SIAM IN 1595 61 foreign allies, including the Europeans and the Japanese.' While the text contains interesting information specific to the region, the duplicity and diplomatic dissimulation demonstrated in it were by no means atypical. Sketchy and sporadic information about early Luso-Siamese relations is available in the correspondence of Afonso de Albuquerque (1510-1514), in The Suma Oriental of Tome Fires (1515), in Duarte Barbosa's A Description of East Africa and Malabar in the beginning of the Sixteenth Century (1516), in the mid-sixteenth century Lendas dci India of Gaspar Correia, the Décadas of Joao de Barros, the Chronica of Damiao de Gois, and in Feregrinacao of the famous merchant-traveller Fernäo Mendes Pinto (in Siam 1540-45). At the time of the Portuguese conquest of Malacca, Siam was engaged in a military campaign against Malacca, which had been defaulting on its payment of customary tribute to Siam. The Portuguese in Malacca maintained friendly contacts with Siam from the time Afonso de Albuquerque sent an ambassador, Antonio de Miranda de Azevedo, bearing gifts for the King of Siam and with instructions to draw up a trade agreement with Siam. The Dominicans had begun the early missionary contacts in the region in 1566. The Christians and missionaries in Siam had to face intermittent persecutions provoked by local Muslims, and later by the intrigues of the Dutch and the English. After a treaty in 1616 the King of Siam had even engaged Portuguese guards for the royal establishment in Ayutthaya, where the soldiers married local women and founded a Portuguese settlement, which the missionaries and merchants of Macao did much to develop after the fall of Malacca. Until the fall of Malacca to the Dutch, Luso-Siamese relations were regu- lated from Malacca, whose captain was often also the captain of the armada do sul (the southern fleet) in charge of patrolling the straits and navigation in the South China Sea. The captain of Malacca could sell trading voyages to the Coromandel coast, Bengal, Burma, Siam, Sunda, Timor and Borneo. While the captains of all Portuguese forts had a bad reputation for pressuring local merchants and thereby discouraging them from frequenting Portuguese ports, the captains of Malacca seem to have been even more notorious in this respect, as testified by frequent documen- tary references to their abuses. In addition to many other instructions, there was Somdet Phra Naresuan, r.1590-1605. The reign of his successor and brother, Ekathotsarot (16 _1520), saw a large influx of foreigners into Siam as traders and mercenaries. Eka- thotsarot established Krom Asas (i.e. volunteer regiments) of foreign soldiers, for example; ICrom Asa Mon, Krom Asa Chain, Krom Asa Yipun (Japanese mercenaries), and Krom Asa Maen Puen (A.rquebusiers - the Portuguese and Dutch). Ekathotsarot had a close relationship with the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Ieyasu, who commissioned Red Seal Ships to Slam. Around this time Siamese metallurgists learned the arts of forging mortars from the Westerners. 62 TEOTONIO R. DE SOUZA generally a clause requiring information and threatening with severe punishment the involvement of the Malacca captains in the illegal trade with Manila. The embassies sent to different countries were not always of the same importance and the local captains often sent personal envoys to neighbouring chieftains. They usually had to report decisions to Goa, but it was understood that the difficulties of communication required flexibility in urgent situations. As a rule the foreign policy decisions were taken in Goa and regimentos or instruçJes to guide the embassies were issued by the viceroy. But, for instance, when the city of Macao decided to send an embassy to the emperor of China in 1678, taking a lion from East Africa as a gift, the city issued its own instructions, drawn up in the name of the crown. A year later the authorities in Goa wrote praising the efforts of the city and asking to be informed about the instructions issued to the ambassador. Given this background, we can consider the details of an embassy sent by Francisco de Silva de Menezes, captain of Malacca, to Siam in 1595. Couttre was included in this embassy. He had endeared himself to the captain from the time he arrived in Malacca and was introduced to the captain by Sequin Martinella, an old Venetian, who seems to have been the resident "business manage?' of Malacca fort captains. Within six months the captain had sent Couttre to Pahang with an embassy under Martin Teixeira in 1594. Couttre's main and secret mission was to purchase diamonds and sapphires for the captain. An embassy to Siam in 1595 An embassy had arrived from Siam in Malacca after Siam had captured the kingdom of Cambodia and taken captive many Christians and Portuguese, includ- ing persons from different religious orders, such as Franciscans, Augustinians and Dominicans. One Dominican friar named Fr Jorge de Mota, whom Couttre describes as astuto y terrible (cunning and terrible), had succeeded in bribing an influential courtier named Prachidech and had himself sent as an envoy of the King of Siam to the captain of Malacca to open negotiations for the release of the prisoners. Couttre says that the unscrupulous friar dangled visions of cut-rate dia- monds, rubies and sapphires of Siam before the captain of Malacca in exchange for textiles and foodstuffs. Silva Menezes was eager to combine a mission of mercy with the opportunity to enrich himself. Not many were keen to join this embassy, fearing the King of Siam, but there were some who were too ambitious to resist an opportunity of making material gain. Couttre avers that he himself was initially very reluctant to go when the captain asked him to accompany the mission, which was to consist of a favourite of the captain as ambassador, a factor, and nine other Portuguese. Couttre agreed to join the embassy when the captain acceded to some of his demands. A PORTUGUESE EMBASSY TO SIAM IN 1595 63 The embassy left in a junco, a vessel described as of nearly a thousand tonnes burthen and with sails made of palm leaves, on S May 1595. The crew was all Chinese, and the friar Jorge was not just accompanying the embassy but had taken full control of it. Couttre expresses his resentment that everyone had to dance to his tune.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Opening of Japan
    i i i i West Bohemian Historical Review VI j 2016 j 1 The Opening of Japan Eliška Lebedová∗ Since the first half of the 17th century Japan closed itself against the influence of the outside world. Only the Dutch traders could under strict restrictions enter the port of Nagasaki. This policy of so-called sakoku (isolation) was one of the cornerstones of the Tokugawa bakufu. However, since the turn of the 18th and 19th century the ships of the western pow- ers started to gain interest in the seas around Japan. The ruling Tokugawa regime was nevertheless anxious of the internal consequences of the opening of the country and turned away any effort of western Great Powers to open Japan to foreign trade. This policy was not however backed by military ability to repulse the foreigners if they came and tried to open Japan by force. The arrival of powerful fleet of Commodore Perry in 1853 therefore compelled the bakufu to sign a first treaty opening its ports to western country. Treaties with other countries followed soon and at the end of the 50s Japan had to sign a series of unequal treaties under the pressure of the Great Powers. This was a start of a whole new period of Japanese history. [Japan; Great Britain; United States; Russia; France; diplomacy; international relations; trade] Japan1 had always been an isolated and insular country due to its remote location. Foreign relations were limited to its relatively close neighbours in Asia. Trade agreements concluded in the 15th century with Korea and China led to the brisk exchange of goods, which was, however, accompa- nied by increased activities of Japanese pirates (wako¯) and Chinese smug- glers on the Chinese-Korean coast.2 Traders also sailed from Japan to Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.
    [Show full text]
  • Keynote Speech〉 Japan‒Vietnam Relations and Indochina: a Perspective from the Historical and Political Context of East Asia (1939‒1945)
    Nguyễn Văn Kim Part One: Opening and Preliminary Session 〈Keynote Speech〉 Japan‒Vietnam Relations and Indochina: A Perspective from the Historical and Political Context of East Asia (1939‒1945) Nguyễn Văn Kim Vice-Rector, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU-Hanoi 1. The Position of Japan in Asia In 2006, Prof. Kenichi Ohno of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Japan and a number of young Vietnamese scholars translated Tadao Umesao’s book An Ecological View of the History of Japanese Civilization in the World Context. We were very impressed by Prof. Umesao’s unique interpretation of Japanese culture in the context of the Asian and world civilization. He argues that the world consists of two regions. The first region covers both coastal and island na- tions, one of which is Japan. The second region comprises continental nations that in the past were dominated by great empires such as China, India, the Ottomans and Russia. Those empires always sought to conquer other agricultural and nomadic peoples. Meanwhile, the coastal and island states of the first region absorbed advanced culture. Thus, originally “peripheral and uncivilized” states could rise and finally establish their own empires. Prof. Umesao argues that the Western Pacific region, where Japan is located, has similar characteristics and conditions to the Mediterranean region.1 In the history of Asia, cultural exchanges always went hand-in-hand with cultural conflict. Many na- tions became the victims of political pressure by great powers and regional empires. The great powers’ territorial expansionism and pursuit of natural resources often disrupted traditional relations and de- stroyed cultural heritages.2 As for the case of Japan, from the Nara period (710‒794) through the Heian (794‒1185), Kamakura (1185‒1333), Muromachi (1336‒1590) and Edo periods (1600‒1867), its rulers always looked towards continental China.
    [Show full text]
  • The End of a Commercial Era: from the English Junk Affair to the Vietnamese Maritime Embargo in 1693 1 ©2018 by RCHSS, Academia Sinica
    Journal of Social Sciences and Philosophy Volume 30, Number 2, pp. 1–24 The End of a Commercial Era: From the English Junk Affair to the Vietnamese Maritime Embargo in 1693 1 ©2018 by RCHSS, Academia Sinica. All rights reserved. The End of a Commercial Era: From the English Junk Affair to the Vietnamese Maritime Embargo in 1693✽ Hoang Anh Tuan✽✽ Associate Professor of History University of Social Sciences and Humanities Vietnam National University, Hanoi ABSTRACT According to the English records, on Christmas Day 1693, the King of Tonkin issued an edict forbidding Vietnamese people from leaving the country on board foreign ships. Subsequent developments depicted the Vietnamese Court’s strict regulation, ending an era of relatively liberal maritime trade and travel. Surprisingly, the Vietnamese Court’s maritime embargo was not recorded anywhere in the Vietnamese chronicles. Using new data retrieved from the English archives, this article highlights the “English Junk Affair” in 1693 which subsequently led to the Vietnamese Court’s imposition of a maritime embargo, practically ending the commercial era of Tonkin. It also places the English mis- fortune in the context of local socio-economic changes as well as the transfor- mation of the regional maritime commerce which largely contributed to the English withdrawal from northern Vietnam during the late seventeenth century. Key Words: Tonkin/Vietnam, East Asia, early modern period, maritime trade, English East India Company ✽Acknowledgment: This research is supported by Gerda Henkel Stiftung in the research project AZ 60/V/17. The author wishes to thank Professor Femme Gaastra and Professor Leonard Blussé (Universiteit Leiden), Professor Luise Schorn-Schütte (Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main), Professor Jürgen Osterhammel (Universität Konstanz), Prof.
    [Show full text]
  • Portuguese Ships on Japanese Namban Screens
    PORTUGUESE SHIPS ON JAPANESE NAMBAN SCREENS A Thesis by KOTARO YAMAFUNE Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2012 Major Subject: Anthropology Portuguese Ships on Japanese Namban Screens Copyright 2012 Kotaro Yamafune PORTUGUESE SHIPS ON JAPANESE NAMBAN SCREENS A Thesis by KOTARO YAMAFUNE Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Approved by: Chair of Committee, Luis Filipe Vieira de Castro Committee Members, Kevin J. Crisman Molly Warsh Head of Department, Cynthia Werner August 2012 Major Subject: Anthropology iii ABSTRACT Portuguese Ships on Japanese Namban Screens. (August 2012) Kotaro Yamafune, B.A., Hosei University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Luis Filipe Vieira de Castro Namban screens are a well-known Japanese art form that was produced between the end of the 16th century and throughout the 17th century. More than 90 of these screens survive today. They possess substantial historical value because they display scenes of the first European activities in Japan. Among the subjects depicted on Namban screens, some of the most intriguing are ships: the European ships of the Age of Discovery. Namban screens were created by skillful Japanese traditional painters who had the utmost respect for detail, and yet the European ships they depicted are often anachronistic and strangely. On maps of the Age of Discovery, the author discovered representations of ships that are remarkably similar to the ships represented on the Namban screens.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 3: Premodern Japan - the Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo Periods
    | 137 Chapter 3: Premodern Japan - The Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo Periods Section 1 – From warring states to national unification Topic 31 – The warring states daimyo What were the distinguishing characteristics of the new style of government instituted by | 138 the warring states daimyo? The emergence of the daimyo The protector-daimyo lost their positions of strength during and after the Onin War. Gekokujo became widespread as more and more of the powerful retainers and village samurai toppled the protector-daimyo through force of arms and installed themselves as masters of their provinces. These new feudal lords are called the warring states daimyo.1 *1=The major daimyo families included the Hojo clan of Sagami Province (modern-day Kanagawa Prefecture), the Asakura clan of Echizen Province (modern-day Fukui Prefecture), the Imagawa clan, whose power extended from Suruga Province (modern-day Shizuoka Prefecture) to Mikawa Province (modern-day eastern Aichi Prefecture), the Uesugi clan of Echigo Province (modern-day Niigata Prefecture), the Takeda clan of Kai Province (modern-day Yamanashi Prefecture), and the Mori clan, which was based in Aki Province (modern-day Hiroshima Prefecture) and extended its influence across southern Japan, including Shikoku and Kyushu. Japan's farming villages had already been forming their own governing bodies called so and asserting their autonomy since the time of the War of the Northern and Southern Courts, which had loosened the grip of the shogunate and the protectors over rural communities. Some of these so had been organizing ikki to achieve common ends. Under the leadership of local samurai, they often succeeded in making their demands heard.
    [Show full text]
  • United States
    Hanoi 191208 Wikipedia SyHung2020 United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses of terms redirecting here, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation) The United States of America (commonly referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to its east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories, or insular areas, scattered around the Caribbean and Pacific. At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with about 305 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and third largest by land area and by population. The United States is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[7] The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with an estimated 2008 gross domestic product (GDP) of US$14.3 trillion (23% of the world total based on nominal GDP and almost 21% at purchasing power parity).[4][8] .. The nation was founded by thirteen colonies of Great Britain located along the Atlantic seaboard.
    [Show full text]
  • Redalyc.A Great Merchant in Nagasaki in 17Th Century. Suetsugu Heizô II
    Bulletin of Portuguese - Japanese Studies ISSN: 0874-8438 [email protected] Universidade Nova de Lisboa Portugal Mihoko, Oka A great merchant in Nagasaki in 17th century. Suetsugu Heizô II and the System of Respondência Bulletin of Portuguese - Japanese Studies, núm. 2, june, 2001, pp. 37-56 Universidade Nova de Lisboa Lisboa, Portugal Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=36100203 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative BPJS, 2001, 2, 37 - 56 A GREAT MERCHANT IN NAGASAKI IN 17TH CENTURY Suetsugu Heizô II and the System of Respondência Oka Mihoko Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Kyoto University Introduction In the last few decades, many articles have been devoted to the study of the Nagasaki merchants and their relationship with ports all over the world. But only few attempts1 have so far been made for other commercial cities in Japan involved in overseas trade, for example Sakai and especially Hakata. Hakata is located on the northern top of Kyûshû Island and flourished as an important port for overseas trade with China and Korea from ancient times. In the Middle Ages, a group known as Nengyôji, consisting of some elected citizen including great merchants, had an autonomous power in town politics. In other words, Hakata had been “the city of commerce” in Japan. However, in the missionary documents and letters of 16th century and 17th century, the name of Hakata or Facata do not appear as frequently as Nagasaki or Nangasaque, as they were often written then.
    [Show full text]
  • GLOBAL HISTORY and NEW POLYCENTRIC APPROACHES Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History
    Foreword by Patrick O’Brien Edited by Manuel Perez Garcia · Lucio De Sousa GLOBAL HISTORY AND NEW POLYCENTRIC APPROACHES Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History Series Editors Manuel Perez Garcia Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China Lucio De Sousa Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Tokyo, Japan This series proposes a new geography of Global History research using Asian and Western sources, welcoming quality research and engag- ing outstanding scholarship from China, Europe and the Americas. Promoting academic excellence and critical intellectual analysis, it offers a rich source of global history research in sub-continental areas of Europe, Asia (notably China, Japan and the Philippines) and the Americas and aims to help understand the divergences and convergences between East and West. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15711 Manuel Perez Garcia · Lucio De Sousa Editors Global History and New Polycentric Approaches Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System Editors Manuel Perez Garcia Lucio De Sousa Shanghai Jiao Tong University Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Shanghai, China Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan Pablo de Olavide University Seville, Spain Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History ISBN 978-981-10-4052-8 ISBN 978-981-10-4053-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4053-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017937489 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018. This book is an open access publication. Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
    [Show full text]
  • Volume 10 Spring 2010
    EXPLORATIONS a graduate student journal of southeast asian studies Volume 10 Spring 2010 IN THIS ISSUE: Buffalo Crimes and Modernization in King Chulalongkorn’s Siam MATT REEDER | Seals of Red and Letters of Gold: Japanese Relations with Southeast Asia in the 17th Century TRAVIS SEIFMAN | “Encek Peng Kun” by Remy Sylado, Translated by NEURENZIA YANNUAR | Lava Casting in Thailand JOHN WALTERS EXPLORATIONS: a graduate student journal of southeast asian studies Volume 10 | Spring 2010 Articles Seals of Red and Letters of Gold:!!!!!!!! Japanese Relations with Southeast Asia in the 17th Century!!!!! ! Travis Seifman!!!!!!!!!5 Sovereign Yet Subordinate: The Use of Buddhist Discourse!!!!! During the Reigns of King Rama IV, V, and VI in Siam (1851-1925)! !! ! Brooke Schedneck!!!!!!!!23 Buffalo Crimes and Modernization in King Chulalongkorn’s Siam ! Matt Reeder!!!!!!!!!33 Socially Engaged Buddhism and the “Just War”: A Contradiction in Terms? ! Jordan Johnson!!!!!!!!!55 Translation Remy Sylado’s “Encek Peng Kun”!!!!!!!! ! Nurenzia Yannuar!!!!!!!!73 Photo Essay Lava Casting for Sculptural Applications at Thamkrabok Monastery in Phra Puttabath, Thailand! ! John Walters!!!!!!!!!79 Archaeology in Cambodia ! Shawn Fehrenbach!!!!!!!!87 Interacting with Archaeological Landscapes in Cambodia ! Alison Carter!!!!!!!!!91 Book Review Justin McDaniel’s Gathering Leaves & Lifting Words: Histories of Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Thailand ! Quentin Pearson!!!!!!!!!95 Dear Readers We proudly welcome you to the tenth anniversary issue of EXPLORATIONS graduate student journal of Southeast Asian studies. The scholarship contained in these pages covers a variety of pertinent regional issues. Buddhism and war, buffalo theft, and seventeenth-century cross-cultural contact with Japan are all addressed. These pages also contain a newly translated Indonesian poem, as well as photo essays on modern lava casting sculptural techniques at a monastery/drug rehabilitation center in Thailand and the realities of archaeological work in Cambodia.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nanban and Shuinsen Trade in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Japan
    The Nanban and Shuinsen Trade in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Japan Mihoko Oka 1 BACKGROUND TO THE NANBAN TRADE Traditionally, the word nanban (南蛮 lit. ‘southern barbarian’) meant vaguely the uncivilized peoples belonging to the south of China. In six- teenth-century Japan, this word probably signifed the general area in the Indochina peninsula of modern Thailand and Cambodia. When the Japanese frst encountered people from the Iberian Peninsula, they called them ‘nanban-jin’ (南蛮人 southern barbarians) because they had arrived along with the people traditionally so called from Indochina and because they brought goods associated with those areas. In 1498, the Portuguese were the frst European power to round the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point of Africa, entering the Indian Ocean with the guidance of Islamic sailors who were thoroughly familiar with the sea lanes, to successfully join in the Indian Ocean trade. They established fortresses at important points in order to protect that trade. While maintaining a delicate balance with local ruling powers, they M. Oka (*) University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan © The Author(s) 2018 163 M. Perez Garcia and L. de Sousa (eds.), Global History and New Polycentric Approaches, Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4053-5_8 164 M. OKA developed a trade network structured around points and lines. This was the so-called Estado Português da Índia, or Portuguese India.1 The Portuguese Age of Discovery has been commonly conceived of as an absolute maritime dominance of the Indian Ocean as far as the seas around Indochina, but that is simply an impression.
    [Show full text]
  • Reseña De" the Junk Trade from Southeast Asia. Translations from the Tôsen Fusetsu-Gaki, 1674-1723" De Ishii Yoneo (Ed.)
    Bulletin of Portuguese - Japanese Studies ISSN: 0874-8438 [email protected] Universidade Nova de Lisboa Portugal Ribeiro, Madalena Reseña de "The Junk Trade from Southeast Asia. Translations from the Tôsen Fusetsu- Gaki, 1674- 1723" de Ishii Yoneo (ed.) Bulletin of Portuguese - Japanese Studies, núm. 2, june, 2001, pp. 158-160 Universidade Nova de Lisboa Lisboa, Portugal Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=36100210 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative 158 Book Reviews Edition by Ishii Yoneo. had no possibility of returning to their Preface by Anthony Reid. country of origin. In effect, at the same time that The Junk Trade from Southeast Asia. the ships of the go-shui-sen ploughed Translations from the Tôsen Fusetsu- the seas, internal Japanese politics Gaki, 1674-1723 underwent a profound change with the (Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asia advent of the Tokugawa Shogunate Studies, 1998) (1603-1868). In the second quarter of the seventeenth century the dynasty In the mid sixteenth century, implemented the policy of the sakoku Japan initiated the process that would and effectively closed Japan’s doors to culminate in the centralization of the rest of the world during more than power and, at the same time, came into two centuries2. The Shogunate did not contact with foreigners coming from intend to isolate the country by this abroad. A little later, at the end of the policy but, rather, aimed to eradicate sixteenth century and the beginning of Christianity and control external rela- the seventeenth century, a commercial tions so as to avoid any possible expansion also took place, that encom- revival3.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    SIAM AND THE POTTERY TRADE OF ASIA By Oharles Nel.~on 8pink8 Introduction My first introduction to Sawankalok ware, a ,type of pottery made in Siam from the middle of the 14th to perhaps the middle of the 15t.h eentnry, was both a('.cident.al and inauspicious. Shortly after the war we had the occasion to visit the nnbornbed Tokyo home of Mr. !ida Shi'iichi, President of the Keihin Electric: Railway Company, who had a large collection of old potte1•y and porcelain. After showing us some fine specimens of Snng and Ming wares and several exquisite pieces of o1c1 Kntani and Orihe, the proud collector asked if I were interested in Sonlw?·oht-ya1ci ( 5}-:. i!JHHk ). I hnd to confess I had never heard of this wat•e before. It looked like celaclon, but the glaze had more of a greyish tone than tb e typical olive green, and it lacked that smooth almost pliable feel of the Chinese pottery. Several pieces also loolted as if they had been damaged while being fired in the kiln. Nevertheless, this Sonkoroku had a quiet, simple, beauty, although many of the bowls and vessels were of unusual shapes, unlike the work of any Japanese or Chinese · potter. The decorated pieces had rather conventional floral patterns or occasionally a stylized fish, either incised under the grey-gt•een glaze or painted in brown or black against a soft yellowislJ-grey ground. One little vessel looked exact.ly like a clzoshi ( ~~ -T ), the Japanese bottle fOl' serving rice wine. On a russet base a rich, dark brown glaze had been allowed to flow la;dly down the sides f01·ming an irregular coating.
    [Show full text]