Which European country opened Japan to the West?

We’ve all heard of the Silk Road, and how the East was connected to the West through trade routes. And some of you know of Marco Polo, who was one of the first Europeans to travel to China over land. But do you know that the first European arrival in Japan was accidental, and heavily influenced Japan’s history as a nation?

Welcome to Not Trivial! A podcast that takes a deeper dive into the stories behind the trivia questions you might’ve heard at the pub. My name is Liz, and I’ve been a trivia nerd since I was young. My parents and I would play Trivial Pursuit very often. Still do. I’ve hosted pub trivia, I’ve played pub trivia, and I’m a collector of random history, language, and world culture facts. One of my greatest passions is sharing what I’ve collected with others. I’m hopeful this podcast makes the trivia questions feel less trivial, and more important to understanding how the past creates the present, and subsequently the future. Let’s get started…

Japan. It’s a country many people around the world are eager to visit. Me included. For its culture and history and food and clothing and technology and and and. Japan seems to come across as a very specific culture, separate and different from its Asian neighbors; China and Korea. And yet, a majority of classrooms don’t learn a lot about its ancient roots. We’ve heard the terms samurai or ninja. We’ve seen some of Japanese culture represented in movies. But as we know, movies rarely ever get it fully accurate. However, I will say there is one recent movie that sparked my own interest in a specific time period of Japanese history: Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, and Liam Neeson.

I won’t speak to how historically accurate that film is, but watching it did make me think: OK, so these European Jesuit priests living in Macau hear about a missing mentor of theirs in Japan and are determined to return to Japan in order to save him? I have many questions: why were Jesuits in Macau or Japan in the mid 1600s? Is that how Christianity came to Asia? How’d the Europeans get there? And what was so bad about the mentor being missing in Japan of all places?

Well, this is where the story gets good. Because while the movie Silence takes place in the mid 1600s, our story today is about how Europeans accidentally arrived in Japan a hundred years earlier. 1543 to be specific. Let’s put the year 1543 into context. In Europe, King Henry VIII still sits on the throne of England. Copernicus publishes his major text stating that the sun is the center of our universe. And science essentially begins. The painting Mona Lisa is approximately 38 years old. In the Americas, Machu Picchu is fewer than 50 years old. Balboa had reached the Pacific Ocean thirty years prior and claimed it for Spain. And Coronado is about to reach Texas in search of gold. Which didn’t go very well, but that’s not for today’s episode.

Let’s get back to Japan. It’s a deep-rooted culture on a handful of islands. People have inhabited these islands for over 40,000 years. Initially hunter-gatherers, who then began to consistently live in one place while still hunting, and ultimately creating an increasingly complex culture. Some of the world’s oldest pottery is Japanese and dates to 10000 BCE. The population grew exponentially. By the early 3rd century CE, Japan had become more unified with central leadership. Some leaders created their own burial grounds, called kofun. Many were of massive scales, such as the Daisenryō Kofun, a 1600 foot-long keyhole-shaped burial mound surrounded by a lake - that took huge teams of laborers fifteen years to complete. Even back in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries, Japanese leaders were more prone to persuasion and diplomacy, rather than pure military conquest. Why lose men to battles when you simply offer another local leader a high position of influence in your government, right?

Buddhism came to Japan in the 6th century CE. It co-existed with Shintoism throughout much of Japan. One leader in particular, Prince Shōtoku, was a strong advocate of Buddhism and authored a Confucian-inspired constitution. In 607, Shōtoku offered a subtle insult to China by opening a letter to them with the phrase, "The ruler of the land of the rising sun addresses the ruler of the land of the setting sun" as seen in the kanji characters for Japan: Nippon. Yes, Japan lies to the east of China, so the prince was supported by how the sun sets and rises, but it was a pretty good burn. By 670, a variant of this expression, Nihon, established itself as the official name of the nation, which has persisted to this day. Also why the country is referred to as the “land of the rising sun”. Prince Shōtoku was overthrown by the Fujiwara clan, who quickly established dominance and started dividing land grants equally between all citizens. Not to be altruistic and fair, but to compile a household registry for taxation purposes. Sly moves.

There was continued infighting amongst leaders of the clan and their family members. A smallpox outbreak in 735 killed over a quarter of the entire population. The population continued to decline afterward. But in the meantime, great temples that still stand today were built, like Todai-ji in Nara, built in 752. Nara was the capital for a long while, but the seat of power shifted to the city of Heian-kyo. Otherwise known as Kyoto.

Going back to 794, the city of Kyoto was the center of the golden age of classical Japan, called the Heian period. Until 1185, Kyoto, Japan saw some of Japan’s most revered literature, poetry, and art. Murasaki Shikibu’s Tale of Genji was written in this time period and is considered a masterpiece still today. It is essentially one of the world’s first novels. On top of that, it was written by a woman. All before the year 1015. Some of the oldest temples in Kyoto still standing are from the Heian period. After this time, the culture and politics of Japan shifted and became feudal. Instead of one power center, there were multiple with a shogun ruling each region. However, Kyoto was still considered the capital city. There was still an emperor.

Feudal Japan is the one we’re likely to have seen on the big screen. Samurai, shogunate, strong military rule. As we can easily believe, because humans understand conflict, there was tension between the emperor and the shogunate. In 1221, Emperor Go-Toba started a rebellion war against the shogunate, an attempt to re-centralize power to the imperial court in Kyoto. But the shogunate had aligned themselves well with the aristocracy. Plus, they had the warriors, the samurai. The rebellion failed and the emperor was exiled. But the shogunate were anything but laid back after that. Famed conqueror Kublai Khan launched full-scale invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281. Even though the Japanese were outnumbered, they brought the Mongols to a standstill, with neither side able to claim victory. A stunning feat against one of the world’s most feared armies. It helps that typhoon winds, named kamikaze, sank the Mongol fleet as well.

The battles waged to defend Japan depleted the shogunate of its coffers, and it had not much to provide to the samurai once the Mongols left. This created an imbalance of power. So, when Emperor Go-Daigo wanted to launch a rebellion against the shogunate in 1333, this time the samurai sided with the emperor and the shogunate ended. By this point, Japan had seen population growth again and levels of prosperity it hadn’t seen for a long time. Smarter use of tools and crop rotations lead to larger harvests and stocked supplies over winter. Fewer famines and epidemics helped cities to grow and commerce to boom.

Naturally, because humans, the samurai didn’t continue their support of the emperor and civil wars broke out across Japan. Throughout the 1400s, especially into the late 1400s, feudal lords, called daimyos, stamped out their own independent states. They would ally themselves with another one day, and betray one another the next - all for the sake of competing to have “their clan” win. Kyoto was burned to the ground in the process. This period is called the Warring States period, and it’s also when the ninja plays a starring role. If you weren’t sure who to trust and your next door neighbor might go to battle with you, it would behoove you to have some spy, some skilled killer, to infiltrate and gather intel on your behalf. There were also warrior monks, who raised their own Buddhist armies, in order to maintain their rights and win acclaim from the daimyos.

Amidst this absolute anarchy, a trading ship in the East China Sea was blown off-course in the year 1543 and landed on the island of Tanegashima, which lies just south of Kyushu. It’s a small volcanic island, mostly flat, and only 3-6 miles wide for the most part. In length, Tanegashima is only 35 miles. It has a history of kofun, the ancient burial mounds. And due to it lacking a strong connection to the mainland, other than being claimed by various leaders on the island of Kyushu, the battles of the Warring States were not present on the island. A trading ship randomly and unexpectedly landing a small party on the shore would not have been unheard of. However, the men who disembarked this ship were not Japanese. They were not Chinese. Which struck the locals as odd. Tanegashima was a relay point for Japanese trade with China. But no, these traders had different types of goods to show. These traders were European. Specifically, Portuguese.

In 1543, there were some major players around the globe, and the Portuguese were high on that list. The 1500s were peak Portuguese Empire time. The First Portuguese Empire started in the early 1400s, when the Portuguese dared to venture into North Africa and besiege a Moorish fort. They didn’t hold the fort for long, but at that point, no European knew what was beyond Cape Bojador (a bit of modern-day Western Sahara that juts out into the Atlantic). And the Portuguese were curious.

They explored the Atlantic, settling the islands of Madeira and Azores before the year 1430. It was an attempt to see whether a route to the fabled “Indies” and lucrative spice trade origins could be discovered. Portugal was interested in trade, not colonization or conquest. Necessarily. And it wasn’t just by ship. Overland routes into Ethiopia, Arabia, and India were created. Their Empire grew due to the ivory, gold, cotton, pepper, sugar, and slaves they brought back to European markets. New types of ships were built, the caravel, making it easier to navigate swifter bodies of water with fast currents. It could also withstand strong winds, making journeys even faster than previous. Places like Senegal and Cape Verde were reached and traded with by the 1450s. The Portuguese would land somewhere, and if it was decided the trade would be beneficial to them, they built what they called feitoria. These were large free-trade fortified outposts that acted like little market cities, walled in and separate from the local population. Merchants could enter in order to trade, pay taxes, and create shipments that would sail to Europe. This also meant that the Portuguese traders had somewhere apart from the local populace to sleep, eat, and do business. Although some Portuguese did intermarry and mingle with the locals - it was clearly not an effort to colonize at this point.

By 1497, Vasco de Gama had sailed from Lisbon to Calcutta by navigating around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Once the Portuguese had landed in India and established trade there, it wasn’t long before they learned from the locals that if they kept sailing east, they’d end up in the longed-for “Indies”. In 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque landed in Malacca on the Malay Peninsula. Malacca was the largest spice market of the era. The Portuguese were in competition with the Persians, Turks, Tamils, Armenians, and they wanted to keep the Venetians and Muslims at bay. They wanted European control of the spice market. For the sake of establishing trade, the Portuguese were not above using force. These were deeply devout Catholics, who believed that God had ordained them to rule and acquire wealth, in order to promote their faith.

Jorge Alvares was the first European to reach Hong Kong. The Ming dynasty had a problem with this. Battles ensued and it was at least thirty years before the Portuguese could land safely in China. They initially rented the Macau peninsula from the Chinese for the purposes of trade, of course. The seemingly friendly relationship didn’t last long though. Portuguese pirates raided Chinese ships, so the Chinese retaliated by saying that the Portuguese kidnapped children to molest them. As the Portuguese trading ship was blown off course in 1543, tensions were continuing to rise between the Chinese and the Portuguese. It came to a point where Chinese would detain, torture, and execute Portuguese. The Chinese posted an edict that banned men with Caucasian features from entering Canton.

Now that we’ve heard a bit of what both Japan and Portugal were up to as this trading ship wandered onto Tanegashima’s shore, let’s dive into what that interaction was like. As you can imagine, both sides were wary, but for different reasons. The Japanese had never seen men who looked like this. The Portuguese could likely decipher these people were not Chinese, but were unsure if the Japanese would want to trade at all. If I were a Portuguese trader/sailor at this time, I’d have seen this as a golden opportunity. Being the first to establish trade with a foreign country would elevate the Portuguese Empire even further, right? Plus, I would know that the Chinese hated the Japanese pirates, that perhaps Portugal could step in as a middleman to ensure Chinese and Japanese goods could flow back and forth. Middlemen have historically and famously become very wealthy. I would have also noticed that the Japanese had curved swords that could cut paper by barely touching the surface. I would want to be on their good side with men who wielded weapons like that. But I’d also be thinking in the back of my mind… I’ve got guns and they don’t.

One of the more immediate comments on each side was how the others ate their food. The Japanese noticed how the Portuguese ate with their hands and fingers. The Portuguese didn’t understand what chopsticks were, but also commented on how few junks the Japanese had in their possession. They referred to the local leader as a vassal of China and a heathen. The Japanese likely mocked the Portuguese for not understanding their writing system, and for being overly emotional in public.

In many ways, the arrival of Europeans was a good omen for Japan, in terms of conveying its culture to others. Europeans were in awe of how much copper and silver Japan could mine, as well as how they urbanized their city populations. Ingrained in the culture is the efficient manner in which cities are laid out, with forethought and insight. As opposed to the European method of simply adding more land to then be fought over by the wealthy. There was a certain amount of respect the Japanese curried with Europeans, especially the Portuguese. But this is a fragile time period. Multiple nationalities vying for trade superiority and building up monies to keep large armies - for either offense or defense.

Speaking of armies, remember how 1543 was smack dab in the middle of the Warring States Period? This was of huge benefit to the Portuguese as well. 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. Trade with Japan was initially open to any, but in 1550, the Portuguese Crown monopolized the rights to trade with Japan. 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. 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 negotiated with Chinese authorities the re-legalization of Portuguese trade in China, which was followed by the foundation of Macau in 1557 to support this trade. In 1571, the fishing village of Nagasaki became the definitive anchorage of the Portuguese and in 1580, its lord, Omura Sumitada, the first Japanese lord to convert to Christianity, leased it to the Jesuits "in perpetuity". So now we have the first arrival of Christianity to the shores of Japan, a deeply Shinto-Buddhist culture. Something that would come back to haunt the Japanese, but we’ll get back to that later.

Let’s talk a bit about what was traded and how it was traded. Among the vessels involved in the trade linking Goa and Japan, the most famous were Portuguese carracks, slow but large enough to hold a great deal of merchandise and enough provisions to travel safely through such a lengthy and often hazardous (because of pirates) journey. These ships initially had about 400–600 tons burden but later on could reach as many as over 1200 or 1600 tons in cargo capacity, a rare few reaching as many as 2000 tons — they were the largest vessels afloat on Earth, and easily twice or three times larger than common galleons of the time. Many of these were built at the royal Indo-Portuguese shipyards at Goa, Bassein or Daman, out of high-quality Indian teakwood rather than European pine, and their build quality became renowned. The Portuguese referred to this vessel as the nau da prata ("silver carrack") or nau do trato ("trade carrack"); the Japanese dubbed them kurofune, meaning "black ships", on account of the color of their hulls, painted black with pitch for water-tightening.

In these enormous black vessels, the most valuable commodities exchanged were Chinese silks for Japanese silver, which was then traded in China for more silk. The Portuguese also exported surplus silk from Macau to Goa and Europe via Manila. Numerous other items were also traded, such as gold, Chinese porcelain, musk, and rhubarb; Arabian horses, Bengal tigers and peacocks; fine Indian scarlet cloths, calico and chintz; European manufactured items such as Flemish clocks and Venetian glass and Portuguese wine and rapiers; in return for Japanese copper, lacquer and lacquerware or weapons (as purely exotic items to be displayed in Europe). Japanese lacquerware attracted European aristocrats and missionaries from Europe, and western style chests and church furniture were exported in response to their requests.

The Japanese were introduced to several new technologies and cultural practices, most especially hand-held guns. The Japanese were already familiar with gunpowder weaponry (invented by, and transmitted from China), and had been using basic Chinese originated guns and 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. 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.

Japanese captured in battle were also sold by their compatriots to the Portuguese as slaves, but the Japanese would also sell family members they could not afford to sustain because of the civil-war. They were well regarded for their skills and warlike character, and some ended up as far as India and even Europe, some as concubines or slaves to other slaves of the Portuguese. In 1571, King Sebastian of Portugal issued a ban on the enslavement of both Chinese and Japanese, probably fearing the negative effects it might have on proselytization efforts, as well as the standing diplomacy between the countries. The Japanese however, initially desired to enforce the end of enslavement, but it was quickly bypassed. In the 1590s, when the de facto ruler of Japan at that time attempted to invade Korea, and picked up prisoners of war, Japan would subsequently sell those prisoners to the Portuguese for profit.

A captain-major who invested at Goa 20,000 cruzados to this venture could expect 150,000 cruzados in profits upon returning. The value of Portuguese exports from Nagasaki during the 16th century were estimated to ascend to over 1,000,000 cruzados. What’s a cruzado worth? Great question! Cruzados were Portuguese coins, made of either silver or gold. During the late 1500s, the silver cruzado was fixed at a worth of 400 réis. A gold cruzado was worth more, but also at a fixed price. We don’t know exactly what the cruzado would be worth today, but other Europeans of this time estimated that the Portuguese had made as much profit as what was used as seed capital to found the Dutch East India Company.

In the 1500s, Portugal was the leader in Europe when it came to world trade. Guarding its trade from both European and Asian competitors, Portugal dominated not only the trade between Asia and Europe, but also much of the trade between different regions of Asia and Africa. But Portugal had other concerns within its growing empire. In 1580, King Philip II of Spain invaded Portugal after a crisis of succession was brought about by King Sebastian of Portugal's death. Philip promised to keep the empires legally distinct, leaving the administration of the Portuguese Empire to Portuguese nationals. Philip even had the capital moved to Lisbon for a two-year period due to it being the most important city in the Iberian peninsula. However, the union of Spain and Portugal meant that Spain dragged Portugal into its conflicts with England (good ol’ Queen Elizabeth I), France and the Dutch Republic, countries which were beginning to establish their own overseas empires. The primary threat came from the Dutch, who had been engaged in a struggle for independence against Spain since 1568. In 1581, the Dutch gained independence from the Spanish Habsburg rule, leading Philip II to prohibit commerce with Dutch ships, including in Brazil where Dutch had invested large sums in financing sugar production. This wasn’t great because Portugal was already in Brazil and desiring to explore more, proselytize more, earn more trade profit.

The Anglo-Spanish war meant that carracks returning to Lisbon with their bellies full of silk, gold, and other sundries were at risk of being pirated by English privateers, like Sir Walter Raleigh. One such ship, the Madre de Deus was captured by the English - and the wealth from that one ship alone nearly doubled the size of England’s Treasury. Both English and Dutch merchants gathered as much information as they could about Portuguese trade routes. One Dutchman wrote and published a book in 1595 citing specific trade routes into China and Japan. Now anyone who could get their hands on the book could take advantage of and cut off Portuguese trade with Asia. Both the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company were founded at the beginning of the 17th century.

The Dutch took their fight for trade dominance to the sea, attacking Spanish and Portuguese colonies and trading ports. The Dutch attained victories in Asia and Africa with assistance of various indigenous allies, eventually wrenching control of Malacca and Ceylon. However, the battles and shuffling for trade supremacy didn’t last long. It was eventually found that neither the Dutch nor the Spanish could fully replace the Portuguese because Portugal had privileged access to Chinese markets and investors through Macau. However, even the Portuguese were now also on a ticking clock. And the Dutch would have the last word.

Stay tuned for why the Portuguese were eventually and ultimately barred from trading with Japan - as well as what their lasting impact on Japan has been.

During the Warring States period of Japan history, three significant men would make a large impact on the nation of Japan: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu Tokugawa. Nobunaga was the initial daimyo who was wise in battle, used the Portuguese-style guns, and became the first unifying leader in Japan. He took the city of Kyoto in 1568. With Tokugawa at his side, he defeated the Takeda clan in 1573, again using innovative tactics involving guns. By 1578, Nobunaga was declared Grand Minister of State and unified Japan under only his rule. Just a few years later, he is assassinated by a samurai general. Hideyoshi takes revenge for Nobunaga and defeats the samurai general’s army, thereby taking up the mantle of Japan’s sole ruler.

From the accidental beginning of the Portuguese landing in Japan, they brought their Catholic religion with them. Some fishing villages saw the value of accepting Christianity, in order to develop into larger cities of importance. Such as Nagasaki. By the end of the 16th century, Catholics in Japan numbered over 200k. This was seen as a threat to central power in Kyoto. Repeated attempts by Hideyoshi to push Christian Westerners out of Japan were not followed up with, it being during a time of instability and considered a low priority. Hideyoshi also desired to expand Japan’s lands. He attempts twice to invade Korea and fails. By 1597, Hideyoshi had had enough. A Spanish galleon wrecked on the island of Shikoku while en route from Manila to Acapulco. 26 Christians on board were crucified by the Japanese. Hideyoshi captured the goods from the ship, but also sent a signal that Japan was not to be trifled with.

Sadly, Hideyoshi died in 1598. Rivals in Kyoto vied for supremacy, culminating in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. It was the largest battle in feudal Japan and historically, the most important. The winner of the battle, Ieyasu Tokugawa, would not only consolidate rule over Japan, but his clan would continue to rule Japan for the next 268 years. This is referred to as the Edo period and is mostly known for its prosperity, peace, and cultural vibrancy. In 1614, Tokugawa officially banned Christianity from Japan and enforced the removal of missionaries from the country. This interdiction led to Jesuits taking their faith underground. They also participated in the last remaining opposition to Tokugawa in the 1615 siege of Osaka.

Repression of Catholicism became virulent after Ieyasu's death in 1616, leading to the torturing and killing of around 2,000 Christians (70 westerners and the rest Japanese) and the renunciation of Christianity of the remaining 200–300,000. The last major reaction of the Christians in Japan was the Shimabara rebellion in 1637. The daimyo of Shimbara enforced unpopular policies to drastically raise taxes and violently prohibit Christianity. Locals rose up in rebellion. A force of over 125k troops responded. A siege ensued and the rebels were broken months later. Following the successful suppression of the rebellion, an estimated 37,000 rebels and sympathizers were executed by beheading, and the Portuguese traders suspected of helping them were expelled from Japan.

It was during this time that Tokugawa central rule began enacting a policy called sakoku. This became the infamous isolationist foreign policy of Japan during the Edo period. Relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, and nearly all foreign nationals were banned from entering Japan, while common Japanese people were kept from leaving the country. Japan was not completely isolated under the sakoku policy. Sakoku was a system in which strict regulations were placed on commerce and foreign relations. There was extensive trade with China through the port of Nagasaki. The policy stated that the only European influence permitted was the Dutch factory at Dejima in Nagasaki. Western scientific, technical and medical innovations flowed into Japan through Rangaku ("Dutch learning"). Rangaku allowed Western ideas other than Christianity to be studied in Japan. Through Rangaku, some people in Japan learned many aspects of the scientific and technological revolution occurring in Europe through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, helping the country build up the beginnings of a theoretical and technological scientific base. This helps explain Japan's success in its radical and speedy modernization following the forced American opening of the country to foreign trade in 1854.

Little did the greedy and devout Portuguese traders from 1543 know that they would so greatly impact the country of Japan. Without this accidental culture shock, the introduction of hand-held guns, the Japanese disapproval of Christianity, the favoring of the Dutch, and the enactment of sakoku, Japan may have charted a very different course through history. It would not be the nation it is today.

And that is the answer to the trivia question: Which European country opened Japan to the West? I hope you’ve enjoyed this epic story of a proud and powerful nation - I’ll let you decide which country I’m talking about. Another episode of Not Trivial is on its way soon - so subscribe now, wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you!