Exchange In East Asia And The Indian Ocean - Japan

EXCHANGE in EAST ASIA and THE INDIAN OCEAN HIST 1301 | History Japan Japan was mired in what appeared to be never-ending domestic conflict in the 1400s. The putative rulers of the land, the Ashikaga shoguns, were too weak to stop their vassals from battling one another or to put an end to pirate groups who targeted the shores of China, Korea, and Japan. Strong samurai started referring to themselves as daimyos, or "great lords," and governed their domains like separate countries. They established their own laws, collected tolls from those entering, and gathered troops that were purely devoted to them rather than the shogun or the emperor. Three strong samurai who came to be known as "the three unifiers" emerged from this chaotic time. Oda Nobunaga started to unify Japan under his power in the 1560s. Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi succeeded him. These individuals established Japan's link with the West, put a stop to the ceaseless bloodshed, and unified the country under a powerful central authority. Portuguese ships first reached Japan in 1543. It was the natural conclusion of a journey that had carried them through the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and around the coast of Africa. Their desire was to exchange. In addition, they wanted to convert people to the Roman Catholic Church, much like they had done in other parts of Asia. In 1549, the Portuguese were quickly followed by the Spanish, and then the Dutch and the English. But the interests of these latter two countries were more centred on business than religion. The Spanish and Portuguese introduced Jesuit missionaries, who were highly effective in drawing people around to their way. People who came to Japan in 1556, like as Gaspar Vilela, frequently studied the language in order to speak with converts directly. More over 100,000 Japanese converted to Roman Catholicism by 1600, and Japanese made up half of the Jesuits working in Japan at the time. With eleven churches, Nagasaki, located on the southern island of Kyushu, was the most Christianized town in all of Japan. Even if the majority of samurai had little interest in converting to Roman Catholicism, they were still drawn to another aspect of European culture: firearms. In an attempt to get weapons and gunpowder to help the missionaries in their fights with rival samurai, several daimyos either converted Christians or extended assistance to them. Even though guns were slow to reload and difficult to aim, they had a significant influence on Japanese combat. A single cannon did not confer any tactical advantage over opponents brandishing swords, pikes, or lances. But, European fighters could readily overcome Japanese soldiers equipped with conventional weapons when they gathered in force and shot successively in groups. Oda Nobunaga employed this new combat technique. Using companies of samurai equipped with European firearms, he and his vassal Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated the Takeda clan's troops at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575. Oda had united the central region of the main Japanese island of Honshu by 1582, the year he was slain by one of his vassals. This included the territory around the emperor's residence, Kyoto. A vassal of Oda's, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, rose to the throne upon Oda's death by vanquishing the assassin's troops. After overthrowing every daimyo in Japan by 1590, Hideyoshi demanded that they swear allegiance to him. He disarmed non-samurai, banned peasants from leaving the land or joining the military, and prohibited samurai from engaging in any kind of employment other than fighting. Whereas Oda Nobunaga had shown little interest in the activities of Christians, Hideyoshi had greater misgivings about them. Being a devoted follower of Buddhism, he was appalled by the activities of certain extremely fanatical converts that destroyed Buddhist temples and items of worship, such Gaspar Vilela. He also disapproved of Christians eating animals and horses. Hideyoshi gave the order for Christian missionaries to depart Japan in 1587. Although the injunction was not carried out, the Jesuits were frightened and begged Christian daimyos to assist them in overthrowing the shogun, but they declined. Although the Jesuits in Japan decided in 1590 not to become involved in Japanese matters, they continued to covertly support Christian daimyos. Neither strategy was entirely effective in warding off Hideyoshi's wrath. A hurricane in the Pacific caused the Spanish ship San Felipe, which was travelling from the Philippines to Mexico in 1596, to capsize in the harbour of Urado on the Japanese island of Shikoku, awash on a sandbar. When the ship's captain objected, the local daimyo advised that he ask Mashita Nagamori, one of the shogun's officers, for help. The daimyo's seizure of the cargo was authorised under Japanese law. In order to meet with Nagamori, the Spanish captain dispatched two men to Kyoto, the country's capital. There, they displayed a map of Spain's dominion in the Americas and discussed how Spain had taken control of this enormous region by converting the native inhabitants to Christianity. Perhaps in an attempt to justify holding onto the ship's cargo, Nagamori informed Hideyoshi of this knowledge. Afraid that the Spanish had plans to seize Japan and would turn to Japanese Christians for support, Hideyoshi issued an order to arrest the missionaries who had continued to operate in Japan after his 1587 proscription. But since 1587, the Jesuits had purposefully kept their proselytising activities quiet, and they were mainly being disregarded. As a result, of the twenty-six Christians detained, twenty-three belonged to the Franciscan order, and the majority were Japanese. All were crucified at Nagasaki in February of 1597. Eventually, they were dubbed the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan. The Ming dynasty's vassal state of Korea was attacked by Hideyoshi in 1592, but Chinese forces halted the Japanese assault. He launched another attempt in 1597, but this time the Chinese, Korean, and Korean naval forces destroyed him. Hideyori, his five-year-old son, inherited his post after his death in 1598. But the five-member council that was supposed to govern until Hideyori reached adulthood quickly broke up, and the opposing factions started waging war on one another. After defeating his opponents in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu, a vassal of Hideyoshi, assumed the position of shogun in 1603. Tokugawa Ieyasu gave grants of land to obedient daimyos as a means of consolidating his control. He gave himself and his successors fifteen percent of the richest rice-producing land in Japan. His "inside daimyos," or samurai who were related to him or who had sworn allegiance before to the Battle of Sekigahara, received the next-best land, which made up around half of all the land that was available. The remaining territory belonged to the "outside daimyos," samurai clans that had either fought against him or only declared their allegiance after his triumph. This area was the least productive or the furthest from the new Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Ieyasu forbade daimyos from entering into partnerships, including unions, without his consent. Additionally, he mandated that they spend every other year in Edo, where it would be more challenging for them to plan an uprising. Tokugawa Ieyasu's reign offered Japan peace and unification, which ushered in a time of wealth and cultural blooming. The samurai relocated to the towns where their lords' castles were situated, and the daimyos assumed control of the territory that had belonged to them. The sons of the daimyos' vassals were taught military skills, Chinese characters, and the classics of Confucianism at the schools that the daimyos constructed. Children of merchants and artisans attended temple schools. High literacy rates during Tokugawa Japan contributed to a flourishing publishing sector. There were hundreds of stores in Edo alone where individuals could rent or purchase novels and other literature. In their free time, people went to theatres and restaurants, and those who could afford it also visited Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, usually during festivals. Similar to Hideyoshi, Ieyasu believed that Christians were a threat to Japan, a view that was fostered by Dutch and English traders looking to gain an advantage in commerce. Ieyasu had no intention of ceding sovereignty of Japan; he was aware of hostile activities taken by the Portuguese and Spanish in India and the Philippines. In addition, he was worried that by converting to a foreign faith, he would open the door for betrayed daimyos to plot an attack on him. He was strengthened in this conviction when a controversy broke out when a Christian samurai falsified a document to aid another Christian samurai in obtaining property he coveted. After being discovered, the forger also said that there was a plot to assassinate a senior government official. Ieyasu forbade the practice of Christianity in 1614 and gave missionaries orders to depart the nation. Christians in Japan were threatened with death if they did not give up their beliefs. Ieyasu saw that prohibiting foreigners from entering the nation and preventing Japanese citizens from leaving was the best way to keep Christian influence—as well as other hazardous forces—out of it. Keeping Japanese nationals from leaving the nation would also prevent daimyos from plotting against him abroad. The Spanish were forbidden from travelling to Japan in 1624. Ieyasu forbade the Portuguese from entering the country in 1639. Even after they stopped being missionaries, the Dutch were still permitted to trade in Japan. To minimise any negative impact from their end, Dutch traders were restricted to a walled community on Dejima Island in Nagasaki's harbour, which they were not permitted to leave. Contact with them was restricted to licenced trade officials and interpreters (a role that became inherited). Even though they were granted the same privileges, the English stopped sending ships to Japan since they could not make as much money trading there as they had planned. Chinese traders were still permitted entry into the nation, but they were only permitted to conduct business in Nagasaki and had to reside in a designated Chinese neighbourhood. Japanese nationals were prohibited from leaving the country in 1635, with the exception of specific missions such as commerce transactions with Korea, China, and Russia. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, "Dutch learning," or information acquired from the Dutch on Dejima, played a significant role in Japanese life, despite efforts by the shogun's administration to forbid Japanese interaction with Europeans. texts from Europe were outlawed in 1640, with the exception of texts about sailing and medicine. The prohibitions meant to keep Japanese people from learning about the West loosened in the years that followed. Sick Japanese patients who were turned away from Japanese medical professionals went to doctors in Dejima. In Nagasaki, government officials were permitted to acquire maps, clocks, telescopes, medical equipment, and novelties like European seeds and birds. They were also permitted to trade in Western products to some extent. Early in the eighteenth century, restrictions on reading were loosened, and translations of literature on geography, science, and medicine were made. Thus, even though the majority of people were unable to leave the nation, "Dutch learning" kept people informed about events in Europe and laid the groundwork for scientific and technical advancement in Japan.