Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / The Portuguese in Japan: A Hundred Years of Trade and Conflict
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about Portugal's empire in Africa, India, and Brazil. But one of the most fascinating chapters is their unexpected arrival in Japan. It's a story that starts with a shipwreck in 1543. Luna: Wait, a shipwreck? That's how they found Japan? Lucas: Exactly. Three Portuguese merchants were on a junk heading from Siam to China when a storm blew them off course. They landed on the island of Tanegashima, south of Kyushu. And they weren't carrying silks or spices—they had arquebuses, early firearms. Luna: And the Japanese had never seen guns before? Lucas: Not at all. The local daimyo, Tanegashima Tokitaka, was fascinated. He bought two of the guns and ordered his swordsmith to copy them. Within a few years, Japanese smiths were mass-producing matchlock rifles, which they called tanegashima after the island. It completely changed warfare in Japan. Lucas: But the Portuguese weren't just arms dealers. They soon realized Japan was a huge market for Chinese silk, and they had a monopoly on that trade through Macau, which they'd established in 1557. So the pattern became: Chinese silk from Macau to Nagasaki, Japanese silver back to Macau, and then that silver funded the spice trade in India. Luna: So Nagasaki became the center of it all? Lucas: Eventually, yes. But initially, the Portuguese traded at various Kyushu ports. The Jesuits, led by Francis Xavier, had arrived in 1549, and they were using trade to fund their missions. Xavier learned Japanese, adapted to the culture, and by the 1570s there were tens of thousands of Japanese converts—Kirishitan, they were called. Lucas: The local daimyo in Kyushu often welcomed the Portuguese because trade brought wealth. Some daimyo even converted to Christianity, like Omura Sumitada, who granted the Jesuits land in Nagasaki in 1580. That gave the Portuguese direct control of the port, which became the hub of the Nanban trade—Nanban means 'southern barbarians,' their term for Europeans. Luna: So it was a partnership of convenience—trade and religion. Lucas: Right. But as Japan unified under Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1580s, things got tense. Hideyoshi initially tolerated the Jesuits, but he feared they were a fifth column for European colonization. In 1587 he issued an edict expelling the missionaries—though it wasn't strictly enforced. Then came the San Felipe incident in 1596: a Spanish galleon shipwrecked off Japan, and its pilot boasted that missionaries were the vanguard of conquest. Hideyoshi had had enough. Lucas: He ordered the crucifixion of 26 Christians in Nagasaki in 1597—the Twenty-Six Martyrs. That was the first major persecution. But trade continued. After Hideyoshi died, Tokugawa Ieyasu took over and initially encouraged the Portuguese. He wanted the silver trade. But he also distrusted the Christians. Luna: What exactly was he afraid of? Lucas: He saw Christianity as a threat to social order. The Jesuits taught that God was above the shogun, and they often sided with daimyo who converted. Also, the Spanish and Portuguese were competing, and the Dutch and English, who were Protestant, were now showing up. The Tokugawa wanted to control all foreign contact. Lucas: In 1614, Ieyasu's successor, Hidetada, banned Christianity outright. Churches were destroyed, missionaries expelled, and Japanese Christians forced to apostatize. Many went underground—they became Kakure Kirishitan, hidden Christians, who practiced in secret, sometimes using Buddhist statues with hidden crosses. Luna: That's incredible—so they hid their faith for generations? Lucas: Yes, for over 200 years. But the real breaking point was the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637-1638. That was a peasant uprising in Kyushu led by mostly Christian samurai and farmers. They were angry about high taxes and religious persecution. The shogun sent 125,000 troops to crush them at Hara Castle, and after that, the Tokugawa decided to seal Japan completely. Lucas: In 1639, the shogun expelled all Portuguese. Only the Dutch—who were seen as less religiously threatening—were allowed to stay, confined to the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay. And that was it. Japan closed its doors for over two centuries, until Commodore Perry in 1853. Luna: So the Portuguese were the first Europeans to open Japan, and also the first to be kicked out. Lucas: Exactly. But their impact was lasting. They introduced firearms, which helped unify Japan. They brought Western medicine, astronomy, and printing. The word 'tempura' comes from the Portuguese 'tempero,' meaning seasoning or cooking technique. And the Japanese obsession with castella cake? That's a Portuguese sponge cake from the region of Castile. Luna: I had no idea. And what about the hidden Christians—did they survive? Lucas: Amazingly, yes. When Japan reopened in the 19th century, thousands of Kakure Kirishitan came forward in places like the Goto Islands and Nagasaki. They had preserved their own version of Christianity, mixing it with Buddhist and Shinto elements. It's a testament to how deep the Portuguese influence ran in just a hundred years of contact. Lucas: So that's the story—a century of trade, faith, and conflict that ended with the sakoku, the closed country. It's a reminder that Portugal's empire wasn't just about controlling oceans, but about those fleeting moments of encounter that reshaped the world.