The Nanban and Shuinsen Trade in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Japan

Abstract

The primary momentum for the nanban trade was the need for importing military materiel in the Age of Civil Wars. Japanese history merged with the great trends of world history, probably leading to many social changes. In this period, Japan and Southeast Asia were linked by many routes through many intermediaries, and the trade between Macao and Japan was probably one of them. The opening of the port of Nagasaki provided the opportunity for linking Japan with the world beyond Southeast Asia, and the imprints of the activities of those traders deeply remain in modern Japan in the form of nanban culture, with resonances in food, clothing, art and so on. The analysis in this chapter clarifies that many individual figures/players were involved in trading activities during the latter half of the sixteenth century and the early seventeenth century, and also explains the structure of Japanese trade in that era. In previous Japanese studies on this period, Portuguese Nanban trade, Shuinsen trade and the new participants (VOC and EIC) have tended to be examined by different historians taking into account their ‘territories’. However, I suggest that future research should study these trading forces more comprehensively rather than by each individual factor in order to more effectively clarify the role of Japan in international surroundings from the perspective of global history.