A World Elsewhere: Europe's Encounter with Japan in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

456 Pages·1990·44.761 MB·English

by  Derek Massarella

A WORLD ELSEWHERE

A WORLD
ELSEWHERE
Europe's Encounter with Japan in the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Derek Massarella
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HA VEN AND LONDON 1990
TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER AND MOTHER
The Publication of this book' has been generously assisted by a subsidy from
The Japan Foundation.
Copyright© 1990 by Yale University
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole
or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections
107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers
for the public press), without written permission from the
publishers.
Set in Linotron Bembo by Best-set Typesetter Ltd, Hong Kong.
Printed and bound at the Bath Press, Avon, Great Britain.
Library ofC ongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ma11arella, Derek, 1950-
A world elsewhere: Europe's encounter with Japan in the sixteenth and SC'VC'lltC'C'llth
centuries/Derek Massarella.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Europe-Foreign economic relations-Japan. 2. Japan - Forri~11 rrnnomk
relations - Japan. 3. East India Company-History. 4. NedcrlamlNr Jl~l"lnrU 111 Japan
- History. 5. Hirado-shi Oapan) - Industries - History. 6. Eururra11M - Japan -
Hi•tory - 16th century. 7. Europeans - Japan - History - 17th l'C'ntury. I. Title.
tlfll532.19.J3M37 1990
337.4052'00'031 - dc20 HIJ-22639
. CIP
.
.., ..
Contents
Acknowledgements
Xll
Glossary
lX
Notes for Readers
Xl
Introduction 1
6
CHAPTER 1 FIRST ENCOUNTERS WITH JAPAN
Earliest Contacts 6
1
The Portuguese reach Japan, 1543 15
11
The Empire ofJ apan 24
111
The Portuguese in Japan 35
lV
49
CHAPTER 2 STRIKING OUT: THE ENGLISH AND THE AGE
OF RECONNAISSANCE
From Privateering to Trading 49
1
Company
The Establishment of the East India 58
11
, Trading Company 71
William Adams and the Dutch in Japan
111
89
CHAPTER 3 THE EAST INDIA COMPANY REACHES JAPAN
The Eighth Voyage 89
1
The Establishment of the Hirado
11
Factory, 1613 107
131
CHAPTER 4 FIRST YEARS IN JAPAN
The Trading World ofJ apan the
1 ~nd
Organisation of the Factory 131
vi CONTENTS
First Steps, 1614 145
11
The Changing Situation in Japan 160
lll
.180
CHAPTER 5 HOPES, ILLUSIONS AND DISAPPOINTMENT
Hirado, Treasury of the Indies 180
1
Trade Restricted, 1616-1617 201
11
217
CHAPTER 6 LIVING AND SURVIVING IN HIRADO
Private Trade and Private Lives 217
Years of Drift, 1618-1620 242
11
267
CHAPTER 7 THE MANILA VOYAGES AND WITHDRAWAL
FROM JAPAN
The First Manila Voyage, 1620-1621 267
1
Between Voyages, 1621 283
11
The Second Manila Voyage, 1621-1622 298
lll
The Closure of the Hirado Factory, 314
lV
1623
329
CHAPTER 8 FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT DIRECT TRADE
1623
AFTER
The Hirado Factory and Knowledge of
1
Japan in Seventeenth-Century
England 329
Japan, The Summum Bonum of the
11
Indies 335
The Return to Japan, 1673 355
lll
Notes 371
Bibliographical Essay 430
Index 435
Acknowledgements
My debts in writing this book are many. Imai Hiroshi first suggested
to me the importance of worlds elsewhere during an early stage of
my stay in Japan and encouraged me to explore the subject with the
attention it deserves. The late lwao Seiichi readily shared his
formidable knowledge of Japanese and European sources. Leslie Le
Clair, the Librarian of Worcester College, Oxford, has taken a keen
interest in my work since my days as a research student. She
provided the essential link in the chain of events which made this
book possible for which I am grateful.
I would also like to thank a number of friends and colleagues
whose encouragement, support and help over the years has been
invaluable: C. R. Boxer, Alexander Bruce, Michael Cooper, Guy
Faure, Leslie and Susan Fearns, Sheelagh Fullerton, Genevieve Guth
Kitts, Philip Healy, Christopher Hill, Robert and Sunae Hinton,
Kanai Madoka, Oba Torno, Geoffrey Parker, Ivan Roots, Michael
Strachan, Tamaura Hideo, Mariko Yandell and Austin Woolrych.
My colleagues in the Faculty of Economics at Chuo University have
been generous in their support; my students have taught me more
than they realise. My editors at Yale, Robert Baldock and Elaine
Collins, have been immensely supportive. Robert suggested that the
seed of the original idea for the book should grow into something
bigger and has nurtured the project to see that it did. Elaine cast a
'sharp, objective eye over the final typescript and saved me from a
number of infelicities and unclear modes of expression.
Thanks are also due to the Japan Foundation for awarding a
grant under its Publication Assistance Program and the staff of the
various archives and libraries where the research was undertaken, in
particular the India Office Library and Records, especially the
Deputy Director, Anthony Farrington, the British Library the Public
Record Office, Chuo University Library and the Shiryo Hensan-jo
of the University of Tokyo.
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My obligation to my father who many years ago crossed the seas
which figure so largely in this book is evident from the dedication.
Finally I would like to acknowledge the huge debt I owe to Gerald
Aylmer. Although this book is about a subject removed, but not
entirely so, from army politics during the English Revolution I have
tried to maintain the standards which he would expect. Any short
coming is entirely my responsibility.
Glossary
bakufu 'tent government', the shogun's government or
shogunate
daikan deputy. The Nagasaki daikan was appointed by the
bakufu and governed Nagasaki. The English
referred to him as the Nagasaki governor or
bongew, a corruption of bugyo, magistrate.
daimyo feudal lord
godown warehouse
itowappu or itowappu nakama, silk yarn allotment guild,
established in 1604; regulated the purchase price of
silk brought by the Portuguese to Nagasaki. The
Portuguese called it the pancado.
jito land steward
jurabasso interpreter, from the Malay jurubahasa, language
master
mestizo a Eurasian
nanbanjin southern barbarian, original name for the
Europeans who arrived in Japan in the sixteenth
century. During the course of the seventeenth
century it was used only for the Roman Catholic
Europeans, that is the Portuguese and Spanish.
nfo ndo do trato, great ship of commerce, or carrack as
the English styled these Portuguese ships which
varied between 600 and 1,600 tons.
nihonmachi name applied to the communities of Japanese who
formed the Japanese diaspora in southeast Asia.
pancado see itowappu
pangeran Javanese prince
x GLOSSARY
roju elders, the senior councillors of the shogun
shuinjo vermilion seal document, important documents
bearing the shogun's official seal.
shuinsen vermilion seal vessels, Japanese authorised to sail
overseas because they carried a shuinjo.
voc
Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, the Dutch East
India Company.
wako Japanese pirates or bandits, the term applied to
Japanese pirates who attacked the coastal areas of
China and Korea from the thirteenth to the
seventeenth centuries; from the Chinese wo-k'ou.