I prefer “historical books” to “history books.” That is to say I want first hand accounts of the times being described and thus be drawn as fully as possible into that time period. By reading first hand accounts I am able to connect with the feelings, the mindset, the zeitgeist of the times, whereas history books leave me feeling detached: A history book is like someone describing a movie who instead of seeing it themselves read a few reviews of it in the newspaper: It is often dry, fact based, and hits on the main events. A “historical book” would be like someone who has not only seen the movie but was part of the film itself and describes it to me with all the emotions, feelings and energy that come with the show. I want a direct connection, a meeting of the minds traversing time and space with no relay, filter or middleman.
Furthermore, history books cannot help but portray the past through the lens of the present. A great quote by Mikhail Pokrovsky says “History is politics projected into the past.” Paging through any high school history textbook is an easy confirmation of this fact. This “history” is a version approved by committee designed to avoid as much controversy as possible. The black marks of the host in the historical record are glossed over, if mentioned at all, while the rest reads more like propaganda or the “Disney version” of events than what actually happened.
I came across Hildreth’s “Japan as it was and is” that was written in 1855. That was the oldest history book on Japan that I have found and even better, it was on Project Gutenberg for free which I could download to my Kindle. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the first hand accounts in regards to the “discovery of Japan” – from a European perspective – were plentiful.
I’ve been absolutely fascinated with history, and specifically to the European “age of discovery,” ever since my studies in the ancient town of Toledo, Spain opened my eyes. Reading this book adds another piece to the puzzle of history I’m trying to understand. This book begins by explaining the first contact with Japan by the Portuguese and later the Spanish *attempt*. Not long ago I read a book about the Spanish on the other side of the world in “Hispaniola” and wrote a post about it here. I’m fascinated that such a relatively small, agricultural based country were conquering *devastating/destroying* two different sides of the world way back in the 1500s.
So without further delay, here are my highlights, many of them with my comments and thoughts.
Volume 1
From which it may be known what this nation is, and how naturally inclined to military exercises, in which it delights itself more than any other of these distant nations yet discovered.
The appetite for war seems embedded into the DNA of Japan. I wonder how it came to be that this island nation was so warlike (up until WWII) whereas other island natives were gentle. This would stretch back tens of thousands of years when tribes migrated to lands that had never known humans. Very interesting to think and wonder about.
In fact, all sects seemed to be brought together in southern India, including even an ancient form of Christianity, a remnant of the followers of Zoroaster, from Persia………..
where there already existed the remains, before referred to, of an ancient Christianity, originally propagated, it seems probable, by Nestorian missionaries of the fifth or sixth century, but which the Portuguese insisted upon ascribing to St. Thomas, the apostle, about whose life and labors in the East a whole volume of fables was, between them and the native Christians, speedily manufactured.
Here I’m interested in the “remnants” of Christianity, of the Zoroaster sect. An ancient tribe whose history has been lost that wandered into this part of the world and melded into the population cut off over the centuries from their source.
…letters from Japan gave encouraging information of the desire there for Christian instruction, on the part of a prince of the country who had been much impressed by the efficacy of the sign of the cross, as employed by certain Portuguese merchants, in driving the evil spirits from a haunted house.
My mind wants to scoff at a primitive Japanese king believing that a foreigner’s bodily movement would rid his imaginative “evil spirt” from a house. That is until I realize religion and its “superstition” is just as strong today! Interesting to think about isn’t it!
…that some leading ideas of the Catholic Church have been derived from Buddhist sources, whose missionaries, while penetrating, as we know they did, to the East, and converting entire nations, may well be supposed not to have been without their influence also on the West.
I went to a Catholic school for 12 years and not once was this mentioned. Of course ideas are borrowed and integrated; you throw out what doesn’t work and include that which does. Religion is ever evolving (Council of Nicaea for example), but even today the masses in religion will insist “the Word” has always been true and that their beliefs are the correct ones while all the others are wrong. It is persistent human folly, like a virus that has taken over its host where the medicine of scientific knowledge is ineffectual.
On the other hand, the religion of the Kami, by its doctrine of the apotheosis of all great saints and great heroes, gave like the old pagan religions, a hospitable reception to all new gods, so that even the rival demigod, Buddha, came to be regarded by many as identical with Tenshōdaijin, – a circumstance which will serve to explain the great intermixture of religious ideas found in Japan, and the alleged fact, very remarkable, if true, that, till after the arrival of the Portuguese missionaries, religious persecution had never been known there.
An amazing concept for a European who for as long as anyone can remember delights in killing each other over religion of which many were really power struggles in a religious cloak. My first experience with this was on a tour group in Hiroshima when an American asked about religions in Japan and the host said Japanese were open to many religions to which the American laughed. In his mind Christianity would be the only true religion and being open to other ones would seem absurd to him.
Though it is not at all easy to distinguish what, either of ceremony or doctrine, was peculiar or original in the system of Shintō yet in general that system seems to have been much less austere than the rival doctrine of Buddha, which teaches that sorrow is inseparable from existence, the only escape from it being in annihilation. The adherents of Shintō were, on the other hand, much more disposed to look upon the bright side of things, turning their religious festivals into holidays, and regarding people in sorrow and distress as unfit for the worship of the gods, whose felicity ought not to be disturbed by the sight of pain and misery. And this, perhaps, was one of the causes that enabled the religion of Buddha, which addresses itself more to the sorrowing hearts of which the world is so full, to obtain that predominance of which the Portuguese missionaries found it in possession.
If this is the case then I much prefer the Shinto religion. I love the summer festivals in Japan and enthusiastically participate in the hometown summer festival of my wife. The fireworks, beer and illuminated toys provide a modern, shiny gloss over an ancient tradition where most probably do not know the festival has its origins in Shinto. I am the only gaijin at the “matsuri” dancing around what I think is a portable shrine immersed in the energy of a sacred experience.
If we are to believe them, Xavier was not only always victorious in his disputes with bonzes; he went even so far, shortly after his arrival in Japan, as to raise the dead – a miracle which furnished Poussin with a subject for a celebrated picture. Xavier, we are told, had been charged in India with a similar interference with the laws of nature; it is true he attempted to explain it away, as, perhaps, he would have done this Japanese miracle; but that denial the historian Maffei thinks, instead of disproving the miracle, only proves the modest humility of Xavier.
This is fascinating because this would be the first (known) priest in Japan. It is also interesting because it demonstrates how these “magical” feats were so effective in converting a naive and simple populace. Right. He raised someone from the dead, just like Moses parted the Red Sea and stuck two of every available animal on the boat. Many religious of today still regard these as fact, while others do mental gymnastics to maintain their core belief while trying to explain away the absurd. Any good Christian of today knows that only Jesus could rise from the dead. Unless of course there were others their “Fathers” just didn’t tell them about yet because the story continues to evolve of course. That is why the Sun no longer revolves around the Earth.
Great attention, according to the policy of the Catholic Church, and especially of the Jesuits, was bestowed on the education of the young.
This remains true today, just look at all the high schools with the name Jesuit in them. What is not often taught is how troublesome the Jesuit sect could be. Just do a Google search in how many times they were expelled from different countries.
The lord of Shimabara (afterwards famous as the last stronghold of the Catholics) invited the missionaries to his city.
All real authority remained, however, with Nobunaga, who showed himself very hostile to the Buddhist bonzes, they having generally taken the side of the late rebels. He even destroyed many of their temples, using the idols which they contained as materials for a new palace.
This prince had allowed certain Portuguese merchants to establish themselves at Nagasaki, then a mere fishing village, but having a capacious harbor, the port of Japan nearest to China and the Indies, at the head of a deep bay, opening to the west. Presently he built a church there, and A.D. 1568, invited the missionaries to make it their headquarters, with a promise that no religion but theirs should be allowed. This invitation was accepted; many converts flocked thither, and Nagasaki soon became a considerable city.
Nature has separated Japan from the countries in which we now are, by such an extent of land and sea, that, before the present age, there were very few persons who had any knowledge of it; and even now there are those who find it difficult to believe the accounts of it which we give. It is certain, nevertheless, most holy Father, that there are several Japanese islands, of vast extent, and in these islands numerous fine cities, the inhabitants of which have a keen understanding, noble and courageous hearts, and obliging dispositions, politeness of manners, and inclinations disposed towards that which is good. Those who have known them have decidedly preferred them to all the other people of Asia, and it is only their lack of the true religion which prevents them from competing with the nations of Europe.
Father Gaspard Gonzales
An ancient example of how the Japanese really are different from the rest of Asia. Deeply embedded into the DNA of Japan is the idea that there are the Japanese and everyone else is barbarian. Uchi – Soto or the idea of inside the house being clean and sacred whereas outside is wild and untamed. Even my own wife when settled back into the comforts of her culture called me “mukonohito,” translated loosely as a “person from over there.”
One theory as to why the Japanese are so tight-nit and cooperative is that there is very little arable land in Japan since the country is so mountainous. Therefore getting along in the villages was not only convenient but necessary for survival.
On the south, the Lew Chew Islands form, or did form (for the Japanese seem lately to have renounced their claim of sovereignty), a dependency of the kingdom of Satsuma.
“Lew Chew” is an English bastardization of Ryukyu the ancient Kingdom of an island that now everyone knows as Okinawa and belonging to Japan. Ryukyu used to be independent but I do not know the history so cannot comment further. I was surprised by the statement that Japan had “renounced their claim of sovereignty). Does this mean “Okinawa” has come in and out of Japanese control?
Okinawans ARE different from mainland Japanese and I learned of this at my house during a party where there was one Okinawan and the rest Japanese. After too many beers the debate about Okinawa being part of Japan came up and to my surprise it got a bit heated! Okinawans have much more Chinese influence in their biology than Japanese since they are physically closer to China. I haven’t researched this but am pretty sure that is correct.
Founded in 1579 by converts to the new faith, and made the centre of the Portuguese trade to Japan, as well as of the Jesuit missions, Nagasaki had grown up with great rapidity; nor was any other worship practiced in it except that of the new religion.
Not long after Rodriguez (a Jesuit) was selected as the emperor’s interpreter, in which capacity he became attached to the court, and, by his access to the emperor and influence with him, had opportunities of rendering essential service to his order.
Incredible that the Jesuits could get so close to the emperor so quickly. They certainly are a scheming bunch.
I expect soon to conquer China, and as I have no doubt of succeeding in it, I hope we shall soon be much nearer to each other, and that the communication between us will not be so difficult.
I’m not sure if this were Nobunaga, Ieyasu or another. But what strikes me is the ignorance of how enormous China actually is! What kind of information must this Emperor (probably Shogun?) have had to think something so ridiculous. It goes to show how little was known about the rest of the world. A frog in a well as an old Japanese saying goes.
And, indeed, the suspicion soon began to be entertained that Korea had been invaded, not so much to add new provinces to the Taikō-Sama’s empire, as to keep the converted princes employed away from home.
One way to try and stop the incessant wars in Japan, keep them at war somewhere else! Unfortunately this fell primarily on the Koreans then and also in World War II. The enormous ripples continue to this day and show no signs of abating. In fact, this was plainly seen by an event here in San Francisco a few years ago. San Francisco erected a statue memorializing the Korean, Chinese and Philippine “comfort women” to which the embassy of Japan strongly criticized. San Francisco wasn’t going to take down the statue so thus ended the San Francisco – Osaka sister city relationship. The wounds between various Asian countries run deep but cut to the bone with Japan.
But the joy of the joy of the missionaries at the success of an army lead by one of their adherents, and so largely composed of converts, was not a little damped by a side blow from another and unexpected quarter.
Missionaries joyful about an army? Seems ironic doesn’t it?
He had conceived a jealousy against his nephew and colleague, whom, by slow and cautions steps, he stripped of all his authority, sending him at length to a monastery of bonzes, where he soon received an order to cut himself open. The thirty-one wives of the deposed prince, with all their children, were publicly beheaded, and all his closest adherents shared his disgrace, and many of them his tragic fate.
This is speaking of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It is one thing to read about atrocities like these in the history books without a second thought but I imagine seeing the barbarity of it in person would be life changing. Did they go silently, were there screams and cries? What did the faces of the children look like? And so we readers just brush it off with the reason that the world was different then yet we do not realize we commit the same barbarous acts today with our technology and drones. Toyotomi had his reason for the executions and we humans have reasons as well but the result, of many innocents being killed is the same. Pondering too deeply on these truths makes me very sad to be of the same species.
While the unlucky affair of the forfeited Spanish galleon caused Europe to resound with accusations against the Jesuits, in Japan itself it had results more speedily and more fatal. The Spanish pilot, finding that entreaties did not succeed, had attempted to make an impression upon those who had seized the ship by expatiating on the power fo the king of Spain, the extent of whose dominions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, he exhibited on a map of the world. To the inquiry how such an extent of dominion had been obtained, the pilot replied that nothing was easier; that the king began by sending missionaries into the countries he wished to conquer, who, as soon as they had converted a part of the inhabitants, were followed by troops, which troops, being joined by the converts, easily succeeded in subduing the country. This statement, it is said, was immediately reported to the emperor, who no sooner heard it than he ordered guards to be placed at the doors of the Franciscan converts at Miyako and Ōsaka, at which latter city, since the earthquake, the emperor had made his residence. Guards were also placed at the houses of the Jesuits; but in that at Ōsaka there was only one young priest with two proselytes, and in that at Miyako only the aged Father Gnecchi, who soon, through the dexterity of some of his friends, was conveyed out of it unobserved by the guards.
This is perhaps the one of the most important things ever said by a foreigner in Japan as it completely changed the course of history. Christianity was establishing a strong foothold in Japan but when the emperor realized that it was a grave threat Christianity was stamped out. Traveling through Asia we can see the different levels of success Christianity had in the various countries. The Philippines is extremely Catholic, in Vietnam it coexists with other religions, and there is a presence in now Islamic and other Buddhist countries. I don’t know the history of Christianity in the rest of Asia but I’m pretty sure it never had so promising a start followed by such an immediate expulsion. The fact that Japan was such a militant country saved the Japanese from European incursion, whose package includes economic exploitation, Christianity and possible colonialism.
This expulsion of Christianity is the bedrock for the Japanese policy of closing off the country completely from foreigners until Matthew Perry’s black ships so scared them, shaking them from their isolationist coma and made them realize how far they were behind and thus how vulnerable.
A side note is it is very interesting to see that the idea of closing off Japan to foreigners still reverberates strongly even today. Coronavirus closed off the country for the first time since World War 2 and it seems the Japanese public enjoys the isolation. See the article below.
The New York Times: Japan Still Closed to Most Travelers, Despite Asia Reopening.
On the 3rd of January, 1597, these twenty-four prisoners were taken to a public square in Miyako, where each of them had the tip of his left ear cut off, after which they were placed in carriages and paraded through the streets. A similar ceremony soon after took place in Sakai and Ōsaka, whence the prisoners were sent to Nagasaki to be executed. At all the towns and cities on the way they were made a spectacle of, as if to terrify those of the same faith. But they exhibited, we are told, great fervor and firmness, making many new converts and inspiring many older ones with the desire of martyrdom. On the way their number was increased to twenty-six by the addition of two others who had greatly busied themselves in ministering to the wants of the prisoners, and who, upon being asked if they were Catholics, replied that they detested the gods of Japan.
Martyrdom has a powerful effect on the ignorant and poorly educated. When they see someone willing to die for their faith many wonder what they’ve been missing out on. How powerful and true the belief must be that someone is willing to die for it!
They were put to death by crucifixion, which, however, according to the Japanese method, is not a lingering punishment. The sufferer is bound, not nailed, to the cross, and his body is immediately pierced by a lance, or sometimes by two lances, thrust in at the sides, and coming out at the shoulders.
To secure the succession of his infant son, the expiring emperor established, on his death-bed, a council regency, composed of nine persons, at the head of which he placed Tokugawa Iyeyasu, king of the Bandō, which, besides the five provinces of the Kwantō, in which were the great cities of Suruga and Yedo, embraced, also, three other kingdoms. Iyeyasu had been king of Mikawa, a more westerly province, which he had lost by adhering to the fortunes of the third son of Nobunaga, he being allied to that family by marriage. But afterwards, by some means, he had recovered the favor of Taikō-Sama, who had even bestowed upon him the newly conquered Bandō, and who, the better to secure his fidelity, had caused his infant son and destined successor to be married to a young granddaughter of Iyeyasu.
I can never learn enough about Tokugawa Ieyasu. He unified Japan after perhaps what has become the most famous samurai battle known as The Battle of Sekigahara and was the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate which lasted for 300 years. I have been to his tomb located in Tochigi which is where my mother-in-law is from.
The fleet of Mahay had two English pilots, William Adams and Timothy Shotten, with the former of whom, as being the first Englishman who ever reached Japan, and long a resident there, our narrative has chiefly to do.
I was looking forward to William Adams, “Anjin-san,” entering the story. The 1980 T.V. miniseries “James Clavell’s Shōgun” is based on Adams. I really enjoy how the English and Dutch really stick it to the Portuguese Catholics.
For some days the only conversation was by signs; but before long a Portuguese Jesuit, with some other Portuguese, arrived from Nagasaki, on the opposite western coast of the island.
The Dutch now had an interpreter; but, what with religious and what with national antipathies, little was to be hoped from a Jesuit and a Portuguese. In fact, the Portuguese accused them of being pirates, and two of their own company, in hopes to get control of the cargo, turned traitors, and plotted with the Portuguese. After nine days the emperor (Iyeyasu) sent five galleys, in which Adams, attended by one fo the sailors was conveyed to Ōsaka, distant about eighty leagues. Here he found the emperor, “in a wonderful costly house, gilded with gold in abundance,” who, in several interviews, treated him with great kindness, and was very inquisitive as to his country and the cause of his coming. Adams replied that the English were a people who had long sought out the East Indies, desiring friendship, in the way of trade, with all kings and potentates, and having in their country divers commodities which might be exchanged to mutual advantage. The emperor then inquired if the people of Adams’ country had no wars. He answered that they had with the Spanish and Portuguese, but were at peace with all other nations. He also inquired as to Adams’ religious opinions, and the way in which he got to Japan; but when Adams, by way of answer, exhibited a chart of the world, and pointed out the passage through the Straits of Magellan, he showed plain signs of incredulity.
Notwithstanding this friendly reception, Adams was ordered back to the prison, where he was kept for nine-and-thirty days, expecting, through well treated, to be crucified, which he learned was the customary mode of execution in that country.
In fact, as he afterwards discovered, the Portuguese were employing this interval in poisoning the minds of the natives against these new-comers, who they represented as thieves and common sea-robbers, whom it was necessary to put to death to prevent any more of their freebooting countrymen from coming, to the ruin of the Japanese trade. But at length the emperor gave this answer: that, as these strangers had as yet done no damage to him nor to any of his people, it would be against reason and justice to put them to death; and, sending again for Adams, after another long conversation and numerous inquiries, he set him at liberty, and gave him leave to visit the ship and his companions, of whom, in the interval, he had heard nothing. He found them close by, the ship having in the interval been brought to Sakai, within seven or eight miles of Ōsaka. The men had suffered nothing, but the ship had been completely stripped, her whole company being thus left with only the clothes on their backs. The emperor, indeed, ordered restitution; but the plundered articles were so dispersed and concealed that nothing could be recovered, except fifty thousand rials in silver (five thousand dollars), which had formed part of the cargo, and which was give up to the officers as a fund for their support and that of the men.
Taking advantage of the bull of Clement VII, already referred to, a multitude of Spanish friars from Manila poured into Japan, whose first and chief business it was, according to the Jesuit letter-writers and historians, to declaim with vehemence against the conduct of the fathers of the company, whom they represented as altogether too circumspect, reserved, and timid in the publication of the gospel. The fanaticism of these Spanish friars was excessive, in illustration of which the Jesuit historians relate, with malicious satisfaction, the following story: One of them, in a dispute with one of the shipwrecked Hollanders of Adams’ company (perhaps with Adams himself), to sustain the authority of the Catholic church, appealed to its miraculous power, and when this obstinate Dutch heretic questioned the reality of any such power, and challenged an exhibition of it, the fanatical missionary undertook to the convince him by walking himself on the sea. A day was appointed for the miracle. The Spaniard prepared himself by confession, prayer, and fasting. A crowd of Japanese assembled to see it, and the friar, after a confident exhortation to the multitude, stepped, crucifix in hand, into the water, certain of being buoyed up by faith and providence. But he was soon floundering over his head, and was only saved from drowning by some boats sent to his assistance; nor did this experiment add much either to the faith of the Dutchman or to the docility of the Japanese. About this same time, also, the institution of parish priests was introduced; but this, like the admission of friars, led only to new disputes and collisions.
In all the history I’ve read, the Spanish missionaries were the worst. Having no education except instruction received from the church serves to make them fanatics, or extremists. Give them a little authority and unleash them upon the natives and they do great damage. Here is California the truth in regards to the legacy of previously celebrated Junípero Serra is finally being coming to light showing him for the cruel person he was. But like always, many just brush it off as “times were different then.” The truth must be told and the many statues of this awful man must come down.
The Dutch, as we have seen, had been greatly assisted by Adams. The Spanish envoy, in his negotiations, relied chiefly, as Don Rodrigo had done before him, on the advice and assistance of Father Louis Sotelo, a Franciscan friar of noble descent, established at Miyako, who entered with great zeal into the project of a regular trade between Japan and Mexico. But the old jealousy which the Japanese had long entertained of the Spaniards soon broke out afresh. Some soundings made along the coast by the vessel which brought out the Spanish ambassador were looked upon with great suspicion and jealousy, which Adams is said to have aggravated. Sotelo, despairing of success with the emperor, though at first he had seemed to favor his projects, subsequently proposed the same scheme to Date Masamune, who ruled over a part, or the whole, of the kingdom of Ōshū, or Mutsu, in the north of Japan, hitherto almost unknown, but to which a few missionaries had lately made their way. The prince of Ōshū adopted Sotelo’s project with zeal, affecting also quite a leaning towards the new faith, and, at Sotelo’s suggestion, he sent an ambassador to the Pope and the king of Spain.
Date Masamune “The One-Eyed Dragon” is another very famous samurai with an incredible story. He had smallpox as a boy which robbed him of his vision in his right eye and may have made it grotesque. One theory is that he ended up taking the eye out himself. Another interesting point is how expected to be executed by Ieyasu Tokugawa for not following orders but showing no signs of fear was excused and became an important ally. His story is relayed in an episode of “Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan” currently available on Netflix.
The people of this island of Japan are good of nature, courteous above measure, and valiant in war. Their justice is severely executed, and without partiality, upon transgressors. They are governed in great civility. I think no land in the world better governed by civil policy. The people are very superstitious in their religion, and are of diverse opinions. There are many Jesuit and Franciscan friars in this land, and they have converted many to be Christians, and have many churches in the island.
Williams Adams
This description still fits the Japanese very well 400 years later. The catastrophe of World War 2 changed Japan from a warrior nation into a peaceful one although I believe the fighting spirit to be part of their DNA, the war has just put it into slumber. Also, the Christians were kicked out and although there are Christian churches today, they have no influence and few converts with less than 1% of the total population.
The Dutch fort at Buchian had a garrison of thirty Dutch soldiers, and eleven Dutch women, “able to withstand the fury of the Spaniard, or other nation whatsoever, being a very lusty, large breed.”
This description of the women being a “very lusty, large breed,” is hilarious. I imagine they would have to be to live under those types of conditions. That’s over a 2:1 ratio of men to women and I imagine that would make for some fantastic reality TV if it existed back then. I think it would be less of a man choosing his woman than of the woman forcefully taking different men at her will.
Their manner of salutation was to put off their shoes, and then stooping, with their right hand in their left, and both against their knees, to approach with small sidling steps, slightly moving their hands at the same time, and crying Augh! Augh!
I can picture this today except for the “Augh, Augh.”
The old king received with much joy a letter from the king of England, but put off reading it till “Ange” (or, according to Adams’ way of writing it, Angin, should come – that word being Japanese for pilot, and the name by which Adams was known, to whom, then at Yedo, letters were sent the same night, as also to the emperor.
Soon after, King Hōin came again onboard, and brought with him four women of his family. They were barelegged, except that a pair of half-buskins were bound by a silk ribbon about their insteps, and were clad in a number of silk gowns, one skirt over another, bound about their waists by a girdle, their hair very black and long, and tied in a comely knot on the crown of the head, no part of which was shaven, like the men’s. They had good faces, hands, and feet, clear-skinned and white, but wanting color; which, however, they supplied by art. They were low in stature and very fat, courteous in behavior, of which they well understood the ceremonials according to the Japanese fashion. At first they seemed a little bashful; but the king “willing them to be frolic,” and all other company being excluded except Captain Saris and the interpreter, they sang several songs, playing on an instrument much like a guitar, but with four strings only, which they fingered very nimbly with the left hand, holding in the other a piece of ivory, with which they touched the strings, playing and singing by book, the tunes being noted on lines and spaces, much the same as European music.
For these women, coming onboard a European vessel and seeing white skinned people for the first time must have been what seeing aliens would be like for us. I’m surprised that they were described as being fat though as I’m not sure how one could be if the majority of the diet is rice. Perhaps they ate a vast amount and combined with little movement the complex carbohydrate would pack on the pounds?
Not long after, desirous to be “frolic,” the king brought on board a company of female actors – such as were common in Japan, little better, it would seem, than slaves and courtesans, being under the control of a master, who carried them from place to place, selling their favors, and “exhibiting comedies of war, love, and such like, with several shifts of apparel for the better grace of the matter acted.”
One would think these would be geisha, but looking in Wikipedia it states that the first geisha didn’t appear until 1751 with “geisha” before that time being male performers. Given this description however, this tradition must play a role in forming the primitive origins of a “geisha.”
In general, however, the police was very strict, and punishments very prompt and bloody. Saris saw several executions in the streets, after which, every passer-by was allowed to try his sword on the dead bodies, which thus are chopped into small pieces, and left for the birds of prey to devour.
The entrance of the travelers into Suruga, where the emperor held his court, and which they reached on the seventh day, was not very savory, as they were obliged to pass several crosses, with the dead and decaying bodies of the malefactors still nailed to them.
They saw many temples on the way, one of which contained a gigantic image of Buddha, made of copper, hollow within, but of very substantial thickness. It was, as they guessed, twenty-two feet high, in likeness of a man kneeling on the ground, and seated on his heels clothed in a gown, his arms of a wonderful size, and the whole body in proportion. The echo of the shouts of some in the company, who went into the body of it, was very loud. Some of the English left their names written upon it, as they saw was customary.
Probably the one at Kamakura. I actually heard about the English leaving their names from my classmate James with whom I studied at Waseda. I told him I was taking a trip to Kamakura when he informed me “Perhaps the very first western visitors to Kamakura were English and in good old English fashion they vandalized the statue by writing their names on it.”
I have had the pleasure of visiting Kamakura twice in my life. Once with my girlfriend (now wife) and the second time after kids and making family friends who is from Kamakura.
Infinite were the prayers, the austerities, the fasts, the penitential exercises, to which the converts resorted in hopes to appease the wrath of Heaven. Even infants at the breast were made to bear their share in them, being allowed to nurse but once a day, in the hope that God would be moved by the cries of these innocents to grant peace to his church.
This is speaking to the persecution of Catholics in Japan; all of these efforts had no effect. It is always sad that the infants had to suffer as well. Religion has a way of causing people to be irrational and do horrible things from time to time.
Nagasaki had been from its foundation a Catholic city. Hitherto, notwithstanding former edicts for their destruction, one or two churches and monasteries had escaped; but, in 1621, all that were left, including the hospital of Misericordia, were destroyed. The very graves and sepulchers, so Cocks wrote, had been dug up: and, as if to root out all memory of Christianity, heathen temples were built on their sites.
Torment of the Fosse. A hole was dug in the ground, over which a gallows was erected. From this gallows the sufferer, swathed in bandages, was suspended by his feet, being lowered for half his length, head downward, into the hole, which was then closed by two boards which fitted together around the victim so as to exclude the light and air. One hand was bound behind the back, the other was left loose, with which to make the prescribed signal of recantation and renunciation of the foreign creed; in which case the sufferer was at once released.
This was a most terrible trial, indeed. The victim suffered under a continual sense of suffocation, the blood burst from the mouth, nose and ears, with a twitching of the nerves and muscles, attended by the most intolerable pains. Yet the sufferer, it was said, lived sometimes for nine or ten days.
Shortly after his return to Hirado, news came of an order from court that all the Portuguese half-casts-that is, descendants of Portuguese by Japanese women – should be shipped off with their wives and children to Macao.
The word in Japan for someone that is mixed of two races is called “half. They can be an object of curiosity because Japan is such a homogeneous culture. A “half” may be just as Japanese as they are except genetically or they may be completely foreign with just an interest in their heritage. “Half” children are seen as very cute and desirable when young but as they get older the small stigma of “gaijin” creeps in and being “half” can be a liability as well as an asset at the same time. In an overall sense it is a liability as they’ll never be seen as “Japanese” and thus remain always on the outside of the tribe . Being on the outside of the tribe however can have its benefits as you’re not expected to be bound by the same stringent rules as full Japanese.
The marriages of the nobles were arranged by the emperor. The wife thus given was entitled to great respect. Her sons alone succeeded to the lordship, which, in case she had none, was generally transferred to some other family. The children by the numerous concubines of the nobles had no share in the inheritance, and were often reduced to beggary. Besides concubines, free indulgence was allowed with the courtesans maintained by the lords of each district for public use. The lawful wives lived in splendid seclusion, attended by troops of female servants. Of women’s rights the Japanese nobles had no very high idea. Not only the strictest chastity was expected from them, but entire devotion to their husbands, and abstinence from any intermeddling with business or politics; the Japanese opinion being- in which Caron seems fully to coincide – that women are only made for the pleasure of the men and to bring up children. The children, though treated with great indulgence, were exceedingly respectful to their parents.
I think it is sad the children of the concubines had no right to inheritance. It is like having a lottery ticket in your pocket at birth that is off by only one number. When I read how the “strictest chastity” was expected I’m reminded of the most famous novel in Japan, “The Tale of Genji.” I’ve read this novel twice and wrote a post on my notes below. In short, Genji was a playboy in the court and it reads like an ancient gossip magazine. It is fiction but the writer – Murasaki Shikibu – was a woman in service of the Emperor’s court and it is difficult to imagine that all the promiscuity sprang only from her imagination without real events to draw upon.
In China, the women, except those of servile condition, are kept in perfect seclusion. No man sees even the women he is to marry till she has actually become his wife; and courtesanship is strictly forbidden and punished. The case, as we have seen, is widely different in Japan, and numerous young and wealthy Chinese were attracted to Nagasaki, “purely for their pleasure,” as Kämpfer observes, “and to spend some part of their money with Japanese wenches, which proved very beneficial to that town,” – truly a very mercantile view of the matter!
Prostitution seems to also be something very inherent to Japan. It remains the same to this day although hidden behind a businesslike facade instead of out in the open. Furthermore, it is currently something that primarily only other Japanese can navigate. So when I read this passage I find it odd, especially given the current Sino-Japanese relationship. I enjoy learning more about the ancient relations between these two countries as there must be so much in that unrecorded/lost history with the most ancient being Asiatic people populating Japan from China. And furthermore, there is the Ainu which came before the Japanese and Russians and so are considered “indigenous” but must have arrived from somewhere.
With this passage however, I cannot see large amounts of Chinese being able to penetrate the Japanese prostitution industry and believe most of what does go on is with other foreigners in the dark alleys of Kabukicho. I have no direct experience though so can only offer conjecture.
The handsomest buildings belonging to the townspeople are two streets all occupied by courtesans. The girls in these establishments, which abound throughout Japan, are purchased of their parents when very young. The price varies in proportion to their beauty and the number of years agreed for, which is, generally speaking, ten or twenty, more or less. They are very commodiously lodged in handsome apartments, and great care is taken to teach them to dance, sing, play upon musical instruments, to write letters, and in all other respects to make them as agreeable as possible. The older ones instruct the young ones, and these in their turn serve the older ones as their waiting-maids. Those who make considerable improvement, and for their beauty and agreeable behavior are oftener sent for, to the great advantage of their masters, are also better accommodated in clothes and lodging, all at the expense of their lovers, who must pay so much for the dearer for their favors. The price paid to their landlord or master is from one mas to two ichibu (twelve and a half cents to four dollars), for a night, beyond which they are forbid to ask under severe penalties. One of the unfortunate must watch the house over night in a small room near the door, free to all comers upon payment of one mas. Others are sentenced to keep the watch by way of punishment for their misbehavior.
After having served their time, if they are married, they pass among the common people for honest women, the guilt of their past lives being by no means laid to their charge, but to that of their parents and relations who sold them in their infancy for so scandalous a way of getting a livelihood, before they were able to choose a more honest one. Besides, as they are generally well bred, that makes it less difficult for them to get husbands. The keepers of these houses, on the contrary, though possessed of never so plentiful estates, are forever denied admittance into honest company.
The tanners, obliged to act also as public executioners, were held in execration, yet they also wore two swords. They lived in a separate village near the place of execution, placed as everywhere in Japan at the west end of the town.
These are the Burakumin which very few people outside of Japan are aware and still exist to this day. Traditionally they held the least desirable, “unclean” yet necessary jobs such as what has been described above along with butchers, undertakers and so on. They have always experienced discrimination and still do. However, it is all swept under the rug and I cannot say that I’ve ever met one. The government has tried to stamp out the discrimination yet hundreds of years of tradition is hard to eliminate.
There is a movie called “Departures” – Okuribito in Japanese – that hits the taboo of the “unclean” job of undertaker head on that won a lot of awards. It doesn’t deal with the Burakumin but is one part of the overall taboo.
…the ceremony of Yebumi, or figure-treading – that is, trampling upon the crucifix, an image of the Virgin Mary, and other saints – a ceremony which appears to be observed, at least at Nagasaki, down even to the present day.
This is now known as Fumi-e but apparently was abandoned when the Meiji but Christian teaching under protection. Given that ancient traditions often persevere I wonder if this is still carried out in some parts of Japan as part of a festival? Probably not as it might cause a lot of trouble should the media get ahold of it but one never knows for sure.
Volume 2
However, not to extol their modesty beyond what it deserves, it must be observed, that they make nothing of laying their bosoms quite bare to the view of charitable travelers, all the while they keep them company, under pretense of its being customary in their country; and, for aught I know, they may be, though never so religiously shaved, full as impudent as lascivious as any public courtesan.
Primitive nuns using their womanly gifts to solicit alms. I imagine that would have been more effective than just saying “please.”
Nor must I forget to take notice of the numberless wenches, the great and small inns, and the tea-booths and cook-shops in villages and hamlets are furnished withal. About noon, when they have done dressing and painting themselves, they make their appearance, standing under the door of the house, or sitting upon the small gallery around it, whence, with a smiling countenance and good words, they invite the traveling troops that pass by to call in at their inn, preferably to others. In some places, where there are several inns standing near one another, they make, with their chattering and rattling, no inconsiderable noise, and prove not a little troublesome.
It seems the wenches were everywhere in Japan. I know there were also wenches a plenty in the western world but Christianity has strived to shove that under the rug and so we never learned anything about it in all of my school days.
I cannot forbear mentioning in this place a small mistake of Mr. Caron, in his account of Japan, where he shows so tender a regard for the honor of the Japanese sex (perhaps out of respect to his lady, who was a Japanese woman) as to assert that, except in the privileged houses devoted to it, this trade is not elsewhere carried on. It is unquestionably true that there is hardly a public inn upon the great island Nippon, but what is provided with courtesans, and if too many customers resort to one place, the neighboring inn-keepers will lend their wenches, on condition that what money they get shall be faithfully paid them. Nor is it a new custom come up but lately, or since Mr. Caron’s time. On the contrary, it is of very old date, and took its rise, as the Japanese say, many hundred years ago, in the times of that brave general and first secular monarch, Yoritomo, who, apprehensive lest his soldiers, weary of his long and tedious expeditions, and desirous to return home to their wives and children, should desert his army, thought it much more advisable to indulge them in this particular.
Minamoto no Yoritomo, first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate. In reading the history books on war, the sex aspect is never addressed very much yet it is always there. Some armies are more disciplined than others but I imagine the spectrum of what constitutes an honest business transaction and rape is rather fuzzy. As for this entry one can draw a parallel by this possible beginning of the trade and the forced “comfort women” used by the Japanese army in World War 2. It should be noted that the sex industry is now called “delivery health” and is reliant to a large extent on human trafficking.
One of the most common, and not much different from the like sort of a compliment which is commonly made to Jews in Germany, is Tōjin baibai? which, in broken Chinese, signifies, Chinese, have ye nothing to truck?
…temple of Inari, who is the god and protector of the foxes.
The inhabitants are very short, but well shaped, particularly the women, who are handsomer, I think, than in any other Asiatic country, but so much painted that one would be apt to take them for wax figures rather than living creatures. Many were noticed who seemed little more than girls, yet evidently the mothers of several children. These women of Hizen have the reputation of being the handsomest in Japan, next to those of Miyako. (Kämpfer)
I have never been to Hizen but now I’m curious. If memory serves I believe I had heard that the most beautiful were from Osaka but it could be a false memory. As for mothers seeming little more than girls, I noticed that watching videos from early 1900s Japan. Seemingly young girls often have an infant strapped to their backs and I think these girls couldn’t be more than 17 or 18, small in stature due to a diet of mostly rice. It makes me sad because those babies would be the ones in one of the World Wars depending on the date of the video. Very sad indeed.
Provisions are cheap, notwithstanding the city is so well peopled. Whatever tends to promote luxury, and to gratify all sensual pleasures, may be had at as easy a rate here as anywhere, and for this reason the Japanese call Ōsaka the universal theatre of pleasures and diversions.
And this was back in the 16 and 1700s! I’ve never been to Osaka but can say this description still holds true in Tokyo except for the easy rate.
His conversation turned chiefly upon the following points: That the weather was now very cold; that we had made a very great journey; that it was a singular favor to be admitted into the emperor’s presence; that, of all nations in the world, only the Dutch were allowed this honor.
I highlighted this passage because it is so typical Japanese even today. The weather seems to almost always be the start of a conversation in Japan, an easy way to break the ice. Even within my own family rarely a day goes by without a comment on something being too hot or too cold.
As I was dancing, at the emperor’s command, I had an opportunity twice of seeing the empress through the slits of the lattices, and took notice that she was of a brown and beautiful complexion, with black European eyes, full of fire, and from the proportion of her head, which was pretty large, I judged her to be a tall woman, and about thirty-six years of age.
I laughed at this as it starts out describing a most beautiful and exotic woman, almost goddess-like due to her position as Empress, but the abrupt ending usually reserved for a country rustic! Perhaps the one unnatural piece of a big head makes her even more goddess like as the supernatural often have something a bit odd about them. How I wish we could see full color images of these historical figures or, while I’m wishing, meet them in person.
Another thing I think is interesting is how the Europeans are often asked to dance. Can you imagine country ambassadors or consulate leaders dancing for heads of state in other countries? What a site that would be. Regardless, dancing seems to have been beneficial as it transcends cultures and is something that usually brings people joy. With the way the world is going perhaps we should re-introduce dancing into our international relations? Meet at 6:00 PM for a dance-off between German and France followed by a waltz in the UN ballroom.
The emperor’s answer was again received by Bingo, who delivered it to the chief interpreter, and he to us. He might have, indeed, received it himself from the emperor’s own mouth, and saved Bingo this unnecessary trouble; but I fancy that the words, as they flow out of the emperor’s mouth, are esteemed too precious and sacred for an immediate transit into the mouth of persons of low rank.
This goes a long way into trying to understand how revered the emperor is in Japan and why Japanese soldiers in World War Two were as fanatical as they were. This is not limited to Japan however as leaders throughout history are often times seen as divine. In World War Two the Japanese simply took it to a whole new level on the world stage.
At a little distance is a chapel called Mimitsuka, or “tomb of ears,” in which are buried the ears and noses of the Koreans who fell in the war carried on against them by Taikō-Sama, who had them salted and conveyed to Japan.
Morbid. I wonder how this tradition got started. It seems akin to the Native Americans collecting scalps, like a grotesque trophy of sorts perhaps. You read many instances of this sort of thing and it is no wonder Japan has a troubled relationship with a lot of other Asian countries.
One of these female companions could not be had for less than three days, but might be kept a year, or even several years. The price was eight mas, or one dollar a day, besides her maintenance and presents of silk dresses, girdles, head-ornaments, etc. According to Thurnberg, children were very seldom born of these connections. He was assured, but did not credit it, that if such a thing happened, the child, if a boy, would be murdered; and that, if a girl, it would be sent at fifteen to Batavia; but of this he knew of no instance. There was, in his time, one girl about six years old, born of a Japanese mother, living on the island with her father. Later accounts go to show that Dutch-Japanese children are by no means such rarities as Thurnberg represents.
I cannot imagine how anyone could murder a baby, especially the mother or father. But as we humans always do we simply brush it off by stating “times were different then.” Yes, they were different and so realizing how terrible some of those times were, why do we have such a hard time not repeating them?
*FootNote of Above Quote The murdering of the children may be explained by the following passage from one of the letters of Cocks, the Englnish factor, written at Hirado, in December, 1614: “James Turner, the fiddling youth, left a wench with child here, but the w–e, the mother, killed it so soon as it was born, although I gave here two taels in plate (silver) before to nourish it, because she should not kill it, it being an ordinary thing here.”
*Above Quote Continued:
The women painted their lips with colors, made of the Catharinus tinctorius, or bastard saffron, rubbed on little porcelain bowls. If laid on very thin, the lips appeared red; if thick, it gave them a violet hue, esteemed by the Japanese as the more beautiful. The married women were distinguished by blacking their teeth with a foetid mixture, so corrosive that the lips had to be protected from it while it was laid on. It ate so deeply into the teeth that it took several days and much trouble to scrape it away. “To me at least,” says Thunberg, “a wide mouth with black shining teeth had an ugly and disagreeable appearance.” The married women distinguished themselves also by pulling out their eyebrows; and another distinction was that they knotted their girdles before, and the single women behind.
It would be interesting to read how the tradition of blacking teeth got started and why. As for plucking the eyebrows that tradition continues today. I don’t think I know of one Japanese with completely natural eyebrows, not that I’ve been inspecting them however.
Thunberg noticed that venereal diseases, which he ascribed to European intercourse, were very common, and he congratulated himself on the questionable service of having introduced the mercurial treatment. *Cocks also had noticed their existence a century and a half earlier.
Reading that passage I hear Gollum say “Nassstyyyyy Europeans.”
Our officers sat down in the Japanese manner on one side, and the Dutchmen, together with the interpreters, on the other. It proved extremely fatiguing to us to sit in their manner; and, as we could not hold it out long thus, we put our legs out on one side and covered them with hour long cloaks, which in this respect were of great service to us.
Nothing has changed. The Japanese can still sit cross legged with ease. As for me I’ve been doing it in short intervals for years but can never make it past 20 minutes before I need to stretch the legs.
Young girls, in particular, have the sleeves of their gowns so long as frequently to reach quite down to the ground.
I was reminded of Genji Monogatari where some talk about sleeves is on every other page, especially “wet sleeves.” The book is so full of allegory, symbolism, poetry and wet sleeves mean the girl was crying. Interesting to see here that the long sleeve tradition had continued from some 500 years.
It is a remarkable circumstance that relatives in the ascending line and seniors never attend the funerals of their junior kindred, nor go into mourning for them. Thus, if the second son should die, neither father, mother, uncle, aunt, elder brother, nor elder sister would attend the funeral.
I wonder if this is to limit the family’s exposure to death, which is considered unclean? The Japanese are very superstitious, especially about the dead and spirits.
Fisscher’s, in the Dutch language, with the title of “Japan; presented in Sketches of the Manners and Customs of that Realm, especially of the Town of Nagasaki.” One of the most original things in Meylan’s book is his apology for the custom of the Dutch in taking female companions from the Nagasaki tea-houses. None of the male Japanese servants are allowed to remain in Deshima over night. “How, then,” plaintively asks Mr. Meylan, “could the Dutch residents otherwise manage to procure any domestic comfort in the long nights of winter, – their tea-water, for instance, – were it not for these females?” He passes a high eulogy upon their strict fidelity and affectionate activity; and indeed the connection appears to be regarded by them not so much in the light in which we see it, as in that of a temporary marriage. The female inmates of the Japanese tea-houses hold, indeed, in the estimation of their own people, a very different position from that which our manners would assign to them; since not only is the custom of frequenting these houses, as places of relaxation and amusement, general among the men, but sometimes, according to Fisscher, they even take their wives among them.
Of the personal charms of these wives, with their teeth blackened, their eyebrows shaven, their faces white, Fisscher does not give a very high idea. The concubines do not shave their eyebrows, but the custom of blackening the teeth is so common as to be adopted by all females above the age of eighteen. The immoderate use of the warm bath causes them to look, at twenty-five, at least ten years older. Not content with the natural burdens of child-bearing, they augment them by several absurd customs, one of which is the wearing, during pregnancy, of a tight girdle round the body.
Not sure how taking a warm bath, or frequent use of the onsen would make one look older. Usually they are praised for their health benefits.
The constitution and laws of the United States forbid all interference with the religious or political concerns of other nations.
Quote from “Millard Fillmore, President of the United States of America, to his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan” – Delivered by Commodore Matthew C. Perry.
Well, it seems the United States has tossed out this part of the constitution since President Fillmore’s times. When is the USA NOT involved in other countries political affairs these days? Authority figures, leaders and countries always reference “the law” as though it is the supreme rule of the divine, unchanging, unquestionable. Yet, they’re nothing more than some words that those in power put down on paper. They can easily be broken, ignored, rescinded, bent, or “interpreted” in a myriad of ways. I always get a chuckle when nation states reference “the law” when suitable and ignore it when it is not.
So capable are they of concealing and controlling their feelings, that they would examine the guns, machinery, etc., of the steamers, without expressing the slightest astonishment. They are a much finer-looking race than the Chinese – Intelligent, polite, and hospitable, but proud, licentious, unforgiving, and revengeful.
Still pretty much the same today. The Japanese are masters at concealing their thoughts and emotions and by contrast other races are absolute drama queens compared to the Japanese.
Well, this has been one of my longest posts in quite a while and so I’ll end here. I may read through and modify a bit but I think this is enough for now.
Footnotes:
Age of Samuari: Battle for Japan – Available on Netflix
Link: https://www.netflix.com/title/80237990
