The Brits in Japan

Abstract

I T is an ironic fact of history that of the Europeans to visit Japan in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the English stayed the shortest time (a mere ten years), but left an immense amount of documents recording their experience. Both the English and the Dutch have bequeathed us richly informative records that help to deepen our understanding of Japan at that time. In contrast, the Portuguese merchants traded in Japan for practically a century, but left little first-hand material about their enterprise. The Iberian missionaries, it is true, recorded a great deal about Japan, but for the most part their writings deal with religious matters, political affairs, and cultural concerns. For an account of everyday life of the lower classes, we turn to the English records, which describe less savory aspects of Japanese life in the early seventeenth century-thefts, fights, executions, bawdy-houses and women dancers, petty trading, and the like. Few of the Portuguese merchants resided in Japan for any length of time, and so there was little point in sending letters back to Europe that would probably not arrive (if they arrived at all) before the merchants themselves returned. And as most of the Iberian merchants stayed in Nagasaki, they would presumably have met quite often and would not have needed to send each other letters. Further, the Portuguese jealously guarded their monopoly in the importation of Chinese silk, and might well have exercised caution in committing to writing details of their lucrative trading. The case of the English merchants is somewhat different. They set up the English House in Hirado in 1613 and several, including Richard Cocks, the manager, stayed in Japan throughout the entire period of the English factory, or trading post. In addition, they made expeditions to Edo to visit the shogun and business trips elsewhere; some were stationed away from Hirado. This necessitated a constant exchange of letters, many of which have fortunately been preserved. Another reason for the wealth of English and Dutch documents may be because the merchants belonged to established companies -the English East India Company and the Dutch Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie, or VOC. And these companies understandably wanted to receive updated information on their considerable investments in the Japanese enterprise, thus necessitating further correspondence. The command of the annual Portuguese voyage, by contrast, was a gift of the crown and was awarded