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Art of Asia
Course: Art of Asia > Unit 4
Lesson 11: Edo period (1615–1868)- Edo period, an introduction
- Tea bowl with dragon roundels
- Scenes from The Tale of Genji
- Genji Ukifune
- Dog chasing
- A portrait of St. Francis Xavier and Christianity in Japan
- Ogata Kōrin, Red and White Plum Blossoms
- Hon’ami Kōetsu, Folding Screen mounted with poems
- Archery practice
- The evolution of ukiyo-e and woodblock prints
- Utagawa Kunisada I, Visiting Komachi, from the series Modern Beauties as the Seven Komachi
- Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave)
- Beyond the Great Wave — Hokusai at 90
- Hokusai’s printed illustrated books
- Hokusai, Five Beautiful Women
- The Floating World of Edo Japan
- Hunting for fireflies
- Street scene in the pleasure quarter of Edo Japan
- Courtesan playing with a cat
- Courtesans of the South Station
- An introduction to Kabuki theater
- The actor Ichikawa Danzo IV in a Shibaraku role
- Fire procession costume
- Arrival of a Portuguese ship
- Matchlock gun and pistol
- Military camp jacket
- Military leader's fan
- An American ship
- The steamship Powhatan
- Conserving the Gan Ku Tiger scroll painting at the British Museum
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Arrival of a Portuguese ship
In 1543, three Portuguese travelers aboard a Chinese ship drifted ashore on Tanegashima, a small island near Kyushu. They were the first Europeans to visit Japan. In 1548, Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, arrived from Goa to introduce Christianity to the Japanese. Thereafter a stream of Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries came to Japan. The Japanese called them nanban (southern barbarians) because they sailed to Japan from the south. Portuguese merchants brought tin, lead, gold, silk, and wool and cotton textiles, among other goods, to Japan, which exported swords, lacquer ware, silk, and silver.
Portuguese trade with Japan prospered until 1641, when Christianity was banned by the Japanese government, and Portuguese traders were replaced by the Dutch, who did not engage in missionary work. The Dutch and Chinese had exclusive trade rights with Japan until 1859, when five nations-the United States, England, France, Russia, and Netherlands began commercial relations with Japan.
The Japanese were fascinated by the Portuguese because of their ships, exotic appearance, costumes, language, and merchandise. They depicted these foreigners in great detail in paintings and screens. This work portrays the arrival of a Portuguese ship at the port of Nagasaki. On the left are the captain and his crew, who have just landed; some cargo is still being unloaded. On the right, they are proceeding to a Christian church. At its entrance, Jesuit priests welcome the party. Some Japanese townsfolk are observing them curiously.
Want to join the conversation?
How did the Japanese first respond to the Portuguese trying to teach them about Christianity?(4 votes)
The first known appearance of organized Christianity in Japan was the arrival of the Portuguese Catholics in 1549. Francis Xavier arrived in Japan with three Japanese Catholic converts intending to start a church in the Nagasaki area. The local Japanese people initially assumed that the foreigners were from India and that Christianity was a new "Indian faith". These mistaken impressions were due to already existing ties between the Portuguese and India; the Indian city of Goa was a central base for Portuguese India at the time, and a significant portion of the crew on board their ships were Indian Christians.[28] Later on, the Roman Catholic missionary activities were exclusively performed by Portuguese-sponsored Jesuits and Spanish-sponsored mendicant orders, such as the Franciscans and Dominicans. Francisco Xavier (a Catholic Saint),[29] Cosme de Torres (a Jesuit priest), and John Fernandez were the first who arrived in Kagoshima with hopes to bring Christianity to Japan. Xavier and the Jesuit order was held in good esteem and his efforts seemed to have been rewarded with a thriving community of converts.[30] At baptism, these converts were given Portuguese "Christian names" and encouraged to adopt Western culture. This practice contributed to suspicions that the converts were in reality foreign agents working to subvert social order.[note 1][30] Under Oda Nobunaga, the Jesuits enjoyed the favor of the shogunate, but the situation began to change once Toyotomi Hideyoshi's suspicions were aroused against Christianity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Japan#Missions_to_Japan(2 votes)
how did the Portugese effected the Marchent of Peasant Japanese??(2 votes)
How did the Europeans affect the Japanese Economy when they first came?(2 votes)
Well when they brought over new goods we can assume that it helped them boost there economy because they were trading with more people.(1 vote)
- how were the daimyo's life affected by the arrival of the Europeans?(1 vote)
- The Daimyo was obviously okay with this at first until the missionaries started spreading their religion to the others, this would cause the daimyo to create the exclusion laws so that he could maintain his power as well as keep the main religion of Japan Shintoism.(1 vote)
- Who was the leader of the military(1 vote)
- the senior officer or non-commissioned military officer from the ship was the leader. For the non-military side, the captain of the ship was the leader. For the commercial side, the chief of the trading mission was the leader. These three may have all been the same person, wearing three separate "metaphorical" hats.(1 vote)
- What was the response to the Portuguese travellers from the Tanegashima people(0 votes)
Who wrote this and is there a link to the original text?(0 votes)- Look here: https://education.asianart.org/explore-resources/artwork/arrival-portuguese-ship-1620-1640 and then explore more from what you find at the Asian Art Museum.(1 vote)