The Dutch Trade in Japan

The Dutch Trade in Japan

First European Contacts

• Portuguese–1543 – Introduced

firearms–1549- Missionaries

settle

Japanese “Seclusion”

• Tokugawa Shogunate 1603– Increasing restrictions on Catholic Missionaries– Persecution of Christianized Japanese

• Sakoku Edict of 1635– Japanese forbidden to leave– Catholicism forbidden– European Trade limited

Dutch Trade

• 1600- Liefde, Will Adams• Attractive to Japanese – Opposed to Spanish and Portuguese– Protestant- helped suppress a revolt by Christian

Samurai – Willing to accept Japanese restrictions

Trade post on Dejima

• Dutch limited to Isle of Dejima (outside Nagasaki) 1641

• Subject to intense inspection

• Annual visit to Edo• VOC and personal trade

From Japan to Europe

• Porcelain

Lacquer work

The Japanese in the European World View

From Europe to Japan

• Western Philosophy• Medicine• Natural resources

In fiction:

Unanswered Questions

• How the “Middling Sorts” knew about Japanese Products?

• How “Orientalism” informed images of Japan in the popular imagination?