Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / Portuguese Traders in Japan: The Nanban Trade
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Portuguese expansion in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, but one of their most fascinating encounters was with Japan. It's a story of guns, faith, and how two distant empires shaped each other in just a few decades. Luna: Wait — when did the Portuguese actually get to Japan? Lucas: Officially, the first landing was in 1543 on the island of Tanegashima, south of Kyushu. A Portuguese ship, possibly with some Chinese crew, was blown off course during a storm. The locals were intrigued by the foreigners' matchlock muskets — what the Japanese would later call tanegashima after the island. Within a few years, Japanese smiths had mastered the technology and were mass-producing them. Lucas: This is right in the middle of the Sengoku period — the Warring States era — so daimyo everywhere wanted these guns. It gave the Portuguese incredible leverage. They weren't just traders; they were arms dealers in a civil war. Luna: So the Portuguese basically introduced firearms to Japan? That changed warfare completely. Lucas: Absolutely. There's some debate about whether earlier Chinese guns had trickled in, but the Portuguese matchlock was a game-changer. It was more reliable and easier to use. Daimyo like Oda Nobunaga used massed arquebusiers to devastating effect at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575. So the Portuguese arrival had a direct impact on Japanese unification. Lucas: But it wasn't just guns. Along with the traders came the missionaries — most famously Francis Xavier, who arrived in 1549. He was one of the founders of the Jesuit order, and he saw Japan as a promising field for conversion. Luna: Did he have any success? Lucas: Remarkably, yes. Xavier spent about two years in Japan, from 1549 to 1551. He learned some Japanese and adapted his message to the local culture. He met with daimyo, debated Buddhist monks, and left a small but growing Christian community. By the late 1500s, there were perhaps 300,000 converts in Japan — known as Kirishitan. Some daimyo even converted, partly for trade advantages. Lucas: The trade itself was managed out of Macau, which we've covered in a previous episode. The Portuguese had a monopoly on the Macau–Nagasaki route, carrying Chinese silk, gold, and other goods in exchange for Japanese silver. Nagasaki became the main port, and by the 1570s, it was practically a Portuguese colony — the daimyo Omura Sumitada granted the Jesuits control over the city. Luna: I didn't realize Nagasaki started as a Jesuit port. That's wild. Lucas: It's true. For decades, Nagasaki was a Christian city. But the situation changed as Japan unified under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He initially tolerated the missionaries, but by 1587 he issued an edict expelling them. He was suspicious of their influence and worried that the daimyo might become too powerful through foreign alliances. Lucas: Hideyoshi didn't enforce it fully at first, but in 1597 he crucified 26 Christians in Nagasaki — the famous twenty-six martyrs. Then Tokugawa Ieyasu, who took over after Hideyoshi, initially continued trade but gradually tightened restrictions. By the 1610s, the shogunate started persecuting Christians brutally, and in 1635 they issued the sakoku edicts, closing Japan to most foreign contact. Luna: So the Portuguese were kicked out? What about the Dutch? Lucas: The Dutch, who were Protestant, managed to stay. They proved they weren't interested in spreading Christianity, just trade. So they were confined to the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay. The Portuguese were expelled entirely after the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637–38, where Christian peasants rose up. The shogunate blamed the Portuguese missionaries, and that was the end. Lucas: It's a remarkable reversal. In less than a century, the Portuguese went from being welcomed as traders and missionaries to being seen as a threat to Japanese sovereignty. The sakoku policy lasted over 200 years. Luna: But the legacy of that contact — guns, Christianity, Western knowledge — didn't just disappear, right? Lucas: Exactly. The firearms changed warfare forever. The hidden Christians, or Kakure Kirishitan, kept their faith in secret for generations. And the Portuguese left a cultural imprint too — words like 'tempura' and 'pan' come from Portuguese. The Nanban trade was a brief but intense encounter that reshaped both sides. Lucas: And it's a reminder that even a small nation like Portugal could have a global impact. Which brings me to something — if you found this episode useful, the way these conversations stay ad-free is through listener support. If you'd like to help, you can buy me a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep the history coming. And we really appreciate it. Lucas: So that's the story of the Portuguese in Japan — a fleeting but transformative moment in world history. Thanks for listening.