Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / The Portuguese Discovery of Japan: Nanban Trade and Cultural Clash
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about the Portuguese in India and Southeast Asia — the spice routes, the fortresses, the cartaz system. But there's one encounter that's maybe the most culturally electric of them all: the Portuguese arrival in Japan. Luna: Oh, the Nanban trade, right? I've seen those folding screens with the strange-looking ships. Lucas: Exactly. Nanban means 'southern barbarians' — that's what the Japanese called the Portuguese. And the first contact was almost accidental. In 1543, a Chinese junk carrying three Portuguese traders was blown off course and landed on the island of Tanegashima, off the southern coast of Kyushu. Luna: Wait, that's where the Portuguese first introduced firearms to Japan, isn't it? Lucas: That's the story. The local lord was fascinated by the matchlock muskets the Portuguese carried. He bought two of them on the spot and had his swordsmith reverse-engineer them. Within a few decades, Japan was producing its own arquebuses in huge numbers, and they completely transformed the Sengoku civil wars. The daimyo who got hold of firearms first had a massive advantage. Lucas: But the Portuguese weren't just bringing guns. They brought silk from Macau, and most importantly, they brought the Jesuits. Francis Xavier arrived in 1549, and he began a mission that would convert tens of thousands of Japanese — including powerful daimyo like Omura Sumitada, who gave the Jesuits land to build Nagasaki. Luna: So Nagasaki was essentially a Portuguese colony within Japan? Lucas: It was a fascinating arrangement. Omura Sumitada converted to Christianity — he took the name Dom Bartolomeu — and in 1580 he leased the port of Nagasaki to the Jesuits. It became the main hub of the Nanban trade, where Chinese silk was exchanged for Japanese silver. The Portuguese ships from Macau would arrive once a year, and the whole city would turn into a market. Lucas: But this prosperity came with tension. The Buddhist establishment was suspicious, and so were other daimyo. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified Japan in the 1580s, he initially tolerated the Christians — he even banned forced conversions — but then he saw the Portuguese as a potential fifth column. In 1587, he expelled the Jesuits from Kyushu, though the trade continued. Luna: And then came the Tokugawa shogunate and the sakoku isolation. Lucas: Right. Under Tokugawa Ieyasu, the persecution escalated. The Shimabara Rebellion in 1637–38, where mostly Christian peasants rose up, was the final straw. After that, the Tokugawa closed the country almost completely. Only the Dutch were allowed to remain, on a tiny island in Nagasaki Bay. The Portuguese were expelled, and for 250 years, Japan went into self-imposed isolation. Lucas: But that first century of contact left a deep imprint. Japanese art, language, even cooking — tempura is thought to come from Portuguese cooking techniques. And the Kirishitan underground survived in secret for centuries. Luna: It's amazing how much happened in just one hundred years. Lucas: It really is. And think about this — we're talking about a small European kingdom sending ships halfway around the world, not to conquer, but to trade. And they ended up changing Japan's trajectory forever. That's the kind of story that makes history feel alive. Lucas: You know, if you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you're part of what keeps this show going. We don't run ads, and that's because listeners like you choose to support us. If you'd like to help, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference. Every little bit helps keep these conversations ad-free and focused on the stories we love. Lucas: So, back to Japan. One of the most colourful figures of that era was Fernão Mendes Pinto. He was a Portuguese adventurer who claimed to have visited Japan multiple times, and he wrote a book called 'Peregrinação' that's full of wild stories — some true, some probably exaggerated. Luna: I've heard about him. Wasn't he one of the first Europeans to describe Japanese tea ceremonies? Lucas: That's right. His account is a mix of genuine observation and tall tales. He claimed he was shipwrecked, enslaved, and even fought in a Chinese battle. But he also gives us one of the earliest descriptions of the Nanban trade from a European perspective. He was there when Francis Xavier was in Japan, and he knew him personally. Lucas: Mendus Pinto's book was a bestseller in Europe, but it also made the Portuguese crown nervous. They didn't want too many adventurers getting ideas. So they tried to control the trade tightly through the Estado da Índia. But Japan was never a colonial possession — it was always a trading partner, and a prickly one at that. Luna: So the Portuguese were walking a fine line between profit and diplomacy. Lucas: Exactly. And for a while, it worked brilliantly. The Macau-Nagasaki route was the most profitable in the Portuguese empire. But when the Tokugawa shut it down, the Portuguese lost their most lucrative trade. It was a huge blow. Lucas: And yet, the legacy endures. Even today, you can find Portuguese loanwords in Japanese — words like 'pan' for bread, from pão, or 'bateren' for priest, from padre. That brief encounter left permanent marks. Luna: It's a reminder that history isn't just about battles and borders. It's about people meeting, trading, and exchanging ideas. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's what we try to bring out in these conversations. Thanks for joining us.