Latest / The History of Portugal: The Small Nation That Built a Global Empire — Fexingo History / The Portuguese and the Samurai: Why Japan Expelled Its Western Allies
Transcript
- Luna: So last episode we left off with the Portuguese settling into Macau, running that smoke trade. But I've always wondered — how did it all end in Japan? I mean, they were so close with the daimyo, the shogun, and then suddenly, nothing. Lucas: Right — it's one of the most dramatic reversals in the whole Portuguese story. For about a hundred years, from the 1540s to the 1630s, the Portuguese were the key European power in Japan. They brought firearms, which changed samurai warfare, and they brought Christianity, which changed — well, everything. But the shogunate eventually decided the cost was too high. Lucas: To understand why, you have to look at the Tokugawa shogunate's priorities. Tokugawa Ieyasu unified Japan after centuries of civil war — the Sengoku period. He was deeply suspicious of any foreign influence that could destabilize his new order. And Christianity, with its allegiance to a foreign pope, looked like a threat. Luna: So they didn't just see it as a religion — they saw it as a political fifth column. Lucas: Exactly. And there were real incidents that fed that fear. In 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi — Ieyasu's predecessor — had twenty-six Christians crucified in Nagasaki. That was the first major crackdown. But it wasn't sustained. The real turn came under Ieyasu's grandson, Tokugawa Iemitsu, in the 1630s. Lucas: By then, the Portuguese had been in Japan for nearly a century. The Nanban trade — "Southern Barbarians" was what the Japanese called them — was hugely profitable. Silk, silver, pepper, spices. But the shogunate started imposing tighter controls. They banned Christianity outright in 1614, expelled missionaries, and forced Japanese converts — the Kirishitan — to renounce their faith publicly. Luna: And that's where the fumi-e comes in, right? The trampling ceremonies. Lucas: Yes. From the 1620s on, authorities made suspected Christians trample on an image of Christ or the Virgin Mary — a fumi-e — to prove they weren't believers. If you refused, you were tortured or killed. Thousands died. But what really sealed the Portuguese fate was the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637-38. Lucas: Shimabara was a revolt by mostly Christian peasants and ronin — masterless samurai — in a region near Nagasaki. They were driven by heavy taxation and religious persecution. They holed up in Hara Castle and held out against a shogunal army for months. The rebellion was crushed, with over thirty thousand rebels killed. Luna: And the Portuguese were blamed? Lucas: The shogunate claimed Portuguese Jesuits had instigated the rebellion. Whether that was true or just a convenient pretext is debated — but the result was final. In 1639, the shogunate expelled all Portuguese. Only the Dutch — who had no missionary agenda — were allowed to stay, confined to the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay. Lucas: So Japan closed itself off — sakoku, "locked country" — for over two hundred years. No foreign contact except through Dejima. The Portuguese trade was gone. The Kirishitan went underground, practicing their faith in secret, often for generations. It's a remarkable, tragic end to what had been a vibrant exchange. Luna: It really is. And I guess it shows how even a successful trading relationship can collapse when one side feels threatened. Lucas: Exactly. And here's something that ties back to the present in an odd way — we're able to have these conversations, episode after episode, digging into stories like this, because listeners like you support the show. If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, and you find value in these deep dives, you can help keep them ad-free and accessible. It's as simple as buying me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a small way to keep the history flowing. Luna: Yeah, it's a great community — everyone who chips in makes it possible for us to keep going. Lucas: So back to Japan — one figure I want to mention is the Jesuit Alessandro Valignano. He arrived in Japan in 1579 and really understood Japanese culture. He insisted missionaries adapt to local customs — wear silk robes, use polite language, respect hierarchy. His approach won many converts, including powerful daimyo. Luna: Was he the one who set up the seminary in Arima? Lucas: That's right. He established schools and printing presses, even sent a Japanese embassy to Europe in 1584. But after his death, the policy shifted. Less culturally sensitive missionaries followed, and the samurai class grew more wary. By the 1610s, the window had closed. Lucas: One of the most famous Kirishitan daimyo was Dom Justo Takayama, also known as Takayama Ukon. He was a samurai lord who refused to renounce his faith, even when it cost him his domain. He was exiled to Manila in 1614 and died there a year later. He was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2017. Luna: That's incredible — a samurai becoming a blessed. Lucas: It shows how deeply Christianity had taken root. At its peak, there were perhaps 300,000 converts in Japan. But that very success made the shogunate nervous. They saw a parallel allegiance to a foreign authority — the pope — as a threat to their absolute control. And after Shimabara, they didn't take chances. Lucas: So the Portuguese left, the Dutch stayed, and Japan entered its long isolation. The Kirishitan kept their faith in secret, sometimes passing it down through generations without priests, using adapted prayers and rituals. When Japan reopened in the 1850s, tens of thousands emerged from hiding. Luna: So the story doesn't really end in the 1600s — it echoes all the way to the modern era. Lucas: Exactly. And that's what makes this episode of Portuguese history so poignant. A partnership that started with a shipwreck and a matchlock gun ended in persecution and exile. But the cultural traces — words, art, even some culinary influences — survived in Japan, just like the Kirishitan themselves.