Nagasaki

The city of Nagasaki is situated on the southeastern coast of the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. Nagasaki is port of entry for vessels coming from the south and the west.

Nagasaki

Nagasaki was opened as an important trading port for the Portuguese in 1571 by Omura Sumitada, a major daimyo (feudal lord) of the area. Earlier, Francis Xavier, a Spanish Jesuit priest, had reached Nagasaki as the first Christian missionary to Japan. Initially, Oda Nobunaga, the military leader of Japan, tolerated Christianity.

However, his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, banned Christianity in 1587 because he was afraid of the intense rivalry among the Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and English and feared the success of Christian missionaries in winning converts. Tokugawa Ieyasu, the successor of Hideyoshi, was initially friendly toward the Christians.

In 1614, however, he banned Christianity, as he too was afraid his authority could be challenged by the growing influence of the missionaries. One of the most infamous massacres took place in Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture, in 1638; 30,000 Japanese Christians were massacred.

 The Dutch, whose Protestant faith was considered safer than the Catholicism of the Portuguese, were however allowed to continue trading in Japan. But Dutch activities were confined to the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki harbor under severe restrictions. As Japan’s only window to the Western world, Dejima became the center for Western or Dutch learning for two centuries.

Chinese ships however were allowed to trade in Nagasaki. Ships came to Nagasaki harbor from all parts of China and imports from China to Nagasaki included silk, sugar, metals, medicine, and books. Japan’s main export to China was copper, primarily through Mitsui, Mitsubishi, and Sumitomo companies. During the 17th century, the number of Chinese settlers in Nagasaki rose to 10,000.

Japanese Invasion of Korea

Japanese Invasion of Korea

Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi dreamed of conquering China and launched two invasions of Korea, in 1592 and 1597, in order to do so. Although he ultimately failed, the wars inflicted terrible devastation on Korea. Because as its overlord the Ming dynasty in China sent a large army to aid Korea, the war also considerably weakened the Ming dynasty.

In the 16th century, Japan underwent constant civil wars as the Ashikaga Shogunate weakened and various feudal lords sought supremacy; in fact this period was called the “Warring States” abad in Japanese history. Hideyoshi was an ambitious general who rose from obscurity. By 1590, he had destroyed all rival lords and unified Japan, freeing him and his large army to conquer new lands.

His target was China and to reach China he needed passage through Korea. When Korea refused his demands he led an invading army of 160,000 men, landing on the southern tip of the peninsula and advancing northward. The inferior Korean army was overwhelmed, King Sonjo abandoned his capital city Seoul and fled, and his two sons were made captives.


The Korean cause was saved from complete ruin by the emergence of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, who built a fleet of “turtle ships,” the world’s first wooden ships with steel plating, which repeatedly defeated the Japanese navy, thus disrupting their supply lines. Meanwhile, China responded with 200,000 troops, who captured Pyongyang and pursued the Japanese forces southward until they only held the southern tip of the peninsula.

Peace negotiations proved fruitless and were broken off because China demanded that Hideyoshi acknowledge Chinese overlordship while Hideyoshi demanded a part of Korea to be ceded to him, the marriage of a Ming princess to the Japanese emperor, and Korean princes as hostages.

Undaunted, Hideyoshi launched a second invasion in 1597 but proceeded no farther than Korea’s two southernmost provinces because both the Koreans and the Chinese relief army were prepared. When Hideyoshi died in 1598 his army quickly returned home. In 1606, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the new shogun of Japan and Hideyoshi’s successor, made peace with Korea.

Admiral Yi Sun-sin in his turtle ships

The two Japanese invasions inflicted terrible sufferings on the Koreans. Whole areas were devastated and depopulated and many historical sites and libraries were burned. The Yi dynasty of Korea never fully recovered its authority and the country its prosperity.

The retreating Japanese moreover took many looted treasures and took as prisoners men with skills, most notably Korean potters, who built up Japan’s ceramics industry. Hideyoshi’s dream of ruling Japan died with him because his son was too young to rule, allowing another feudal lord, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had not participated in the Korean campaigns, to seize power.

Finally the cost of the war weakened the already declining Ming dynasty in China. Additionally, the sending of a large army to Korea denuded southern Manchuria of Ming garrisons and paved the way for the rise of the Manchus.

Defending Korea

Genroku Period in Japan

Genroku Period in Japan

Between 1688 and 1704, a rapidly expanding economy resulted in the expansion of the three major cities in Japan—Kyoto, Osaka, and Edo (Tokyo)—and the emergence of an urban culture.

This was the result of 80 years of peace under the Tokugawa Shogunate, when many people chose to move from samurai castles or villages to urban centers. The Genroku period saw Edo as the administrative capital, Osaka as the commercial center of the country, and Kyoto, the former imperial capital, retaining some of the artistic talent.

Although the period covers the years 1688–1704, some cultural historians use the term to refer to the whole period, of the rule of the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, which lasted from 1680 until 1709. During this period, there was a massive increase in the number of towns people (chonin) who started to throw off the restrictions of the traditional Japanese lifestyle.


They indulged in creative expressions such as changes in dress, food, and customs. The emerging urban class accumulated possessions on a far wider scale than before and filled their houses with furniture and paintings. With more spare time they indulged in extravagance and devoted themselves to making and spending money.

At the end of the 16th century, improved printing techniques originally developed in Korea were introduced into Japan. By the 1670s, books were available more cheaply, and hence accessible to the urban middle class and wealthier artisans, satisfying their hunger for learning.

Typical books dealt with literature, history, and philosophy. In addition there were large numbers of books imported from China and Korea.

During the height of the Genroku period, stories were published that dealt with ordinary life in the cities and the exploits of samurai. One popular writer and poet, Matsuo Basho (1644–94), traveled extensively around Japan during the 1670s and 1680s and described the country as well as created an anthology of poetry, including some in haiku form.

There was also interest in more artists who produced woodblock prints in the genre known as ukiyo-e. Suzuki Harunobu (c. 1725–70) was the first artist to produce full-color woodblock prints, developing a multicolor technique using between four and 10 colors. As a result of advances in printing, illustrated books became popular, as well as handbills and advertising for theatrical performances and geisha houses.

In other areas of the arts, such as the Bunraku puppet theater and Kabuki theater, attendance increased with many ordinary people watching performances that had been the preserve of the daimyo and the samurai. Most actors who had previously worked in traveling troupes began to work in semipermanent theaters that allowed them to have a more settled life.

The result was that acting became a more respectable profession. Playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724) was the first to use the Bunraku puppets to show everyday themes and ordinary emotions, writing a total of 100 plays, which were performed to large audiences.

Although the Genroku period came to an end in the early 18th century, the literary and artistic advances were to be revived again during the Bunka-Bunsei period (1804–29), when Edo emerged as the sole cultural center of Japan.

Exclusion Laws in Japan

Exclusion Laws in Japan

In 1534, the first Portuguese ship arrived in southern Japan bringing a cargo that included firearms. For the next hundred years, Japanese-Western trade flourished and Christian missionaries converted many Japanese to Catholicism.

However in 1636 strict isolation laws were enforced, foreigners were expelled, Japanese Christians were compelled to renounce their religion on pain of death, and Japanese were forbidden to leave the country. These strict exclusion laws would last until 1854.

The Japanese had known about gunpowder since the 13th century. However in the midst of extensive civil wars in the 16th century, Japanese feudal lords were immediately impressed by the accurate firing aquebuses and cannons the Portuguese traders introduced and immediately began to buy and then make them in Japan. These new weapons changed the nature of the warfare and led to the building of heavily fortified castles.


Catholic missionaries followed merchants. Francis Xavier, associate of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, arrived in Japan in 1549. Franciscan and Dominican missionaries soon followed. Many feudal lords, anxious to increase trade with European merchants, and seeing the deference Portuguese and Spanish merchants showed to priests, welcomed missionaries to their domains; some converted and even ordered their subjects to convert also.

Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful military leader of Japan, became a patron of the Jesuits. The number of converts increased dramatically, to 150,000 and two hundred churches by 1582 and perhaps to as many as 500,000 by 1615.

The very success of the Catholic missionaries created a backlash against Christians. Some opponents were Buddhists. Significantly political leaders began to fear the political loyalty of their Christian subjects. Thus Oda’s successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–98) banned Christianity in 1587 but did not strictly enforce his edict until 10 years later.

It was Hideyoshi’s successor Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616) who seriously persecuted Christians, beginning in 1612 when, as shogun, he ordered all Japanese converts to renounce Christianity on pain of death and then to be registered in a Buddhist temple.

He also executed some missionaries and expelled all others. His policies were ruthlessly carried out, with military force where there were large Christian communities. Tens of thousands were killed and only isolated clandestine communities remained.

The Tokugawa Bakufu, or Shogunate, expanded the ban on missionaries to include all Spanish, Portuguese, and English traders also. Only the Dutch among Europeans were allowed to send two ships annually to Nagasaki under strict supervision. Chinese ships were also allowed under license.

In 1636, another law was promulgated that prohibited all Japanese from leaving Japan and members of the sizable Japanese communities in Southeast Asia from returning. Shipbuilding was limited to small coastal vessels to prevent Japanese from secretly trading with foreigners.

Fear and insecurity motivated the newly established Tokugawa Shogunate (1603–1868) to ban Christianity and foreign contacts. Seclusion became Japan’s national policy.

Edo Period in Japan

Edo Period in Japan

The Edo period in Japanese dates between 1600 and 1867. It denotes the government of the Tokugawa Shogunate from Edo. The shogunate was officially established in 1603 with the victory of Tokugawa Ieyasu over supporters of Toyotomi Hideyori in the Battle of Sekigahara (1600). The Tokugawa shoguns ruled Japan for more than 250 years with iron fists and tight discipline.

Ieyasu had centralized control over the entire country with his strategic power sharing arrangement between daimyo (feudal lords) and samurai (warriors). Daimyos were ordered to be present every second year in Edo to give an account of their assigned work.

Tokugawa Ieyasu promoted economic development through foreign trade. He established trading relations with China and the Dutch East India Company (Indonesia/ Batavia). While Osaka and Kyoto became emerging centers for trade and handicraft production, his capital Edo became the center for supply of food, construction, and consumer items.


To ensure its control, the shogunate banned all Japanese people from travel abroad in 1633. Japan thus was isolated except for limited commercial contact with the Dutch in the port of Nagasaki. All Western books were banned in Japan.

Despite Japan’s cultural isolation from the rest of the world, new indigenous art forms such as Kabuki theater and ukiyo-e, woodblock prints and paintings of the emerging urban popular culture, gained increasing popularity. Intellectually the most important state philosophy during the Edo period was Neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism stressed the importance of morals, education, and hierarchical order in the government.

A rigid class system also took shape during the Edo period with samurai at the top, followed by the peasants, artisans, and merchants. Below them were outcasts (burakumin) or pariahs or those who were deemed impure. Neo-Confucianism contributed to the development of kokugaku (national learning) that stressed the study of Japanese history.

In 1720, with the lifting of the ban on Western literature, some Japanese began studying Western sciences and technologies, rangaku (Dutch studies). The fields that drew most interest were related to medicine, astronomy, natural sciences, art, geography, languages, as well as physical sciences including mechanical and electrical engineering.

External pressure on Japan grew toward the end of the 18th century. The Russians tried to establish a trade link with Japan to export their Russian goods, particularly vodka and wine. Other European nations also became interested.

Finally the United States forced Japan to open to the West when Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Edo Bay with a flotilla of warships. Meanwhile, anti-Tokugawa sentiments had been growing that demanded the restoration of imperial power.

In 1867–68, the Tokugawa government collapse was partly due to foreign threat and to tensions that had been growing against a political and social system that had outlived its usefulness. The shogunate surrendered power in 1867 to Emperor Meiji, who began the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

Christian Century in Japan

Christian Century in Japan

Francis Xavier, a founder of the Society of Jesus, arrived in Japan in 1549, inaugurating a century of Catholic Christian missionary activity in that country. After enjoying enormous success, Christians suffered brutal persecution and were almost eliminated a century later.

Japan was ruled by warring feudal lords in the mid-16th century who sought to wrest power from the failing Ashikaga Shogunate. These lords eagerly welcomed the newly arrived Portuguese to their domains in order to purchase European firearms.

Observing the respect the Portuguese merchants showed toward Catholic priests, many Japanese lords converted to the new faith and ordered their subjects to convert also. Some Japanese even mistakenly thought that Christianity was a variant form of Buddhism. Jesuit missionaries came under the protection of the Portuguese Crown and were soon joined by the Franciscans, who came via Spain’s colony the Philippines and were under the protection of Spain.


The southern island of Kyushu as well as the imperial capital Kyoto became centers of Christian missionary activity. Japan became the most successful area of Christian conversion in Asia. By 1582, an estimated 150,000 had become Christians, with the number rising to 300,000 by the century’s end, and 500,000 at its height in 1615.

Japan was ruled by warring feudal lords in the mid-16th century who sought to wrest power from the failing Ashikaga Shogunate. These lords eagerly welcomed the newly arrived Portuguese to their domains in order to purchase European firearms. Observing the respect the Portuguese merchants showed toward Catholic priests, many Japanese lords converted to the new faith and ordered their subjects to convert also.

Some Japanese even mistakenly thought that Christianity was a variant form of Buddhism. Jesuit missionaries came under the protection of the Portuguese Crown and were soon joined by the Franciscans, who came via Spain’s colony the Philippines and were under the protection of Spain.

The southern island of Kyushu as well as the imperial capital Kyoto became centers of Christian missionary activity. Japan became the most successful area of Christian conversion in Asia. By 1582, an estimated 150,000 had become Christians, with the number rising to 300,000 by the century’s end, and 500,000 at its height in 1615.

Christian missionaries were welcomed as allies by Japan’s first aspiring unifier, Oda Nobunaga (1534–82), in his military confrontation with powerful Buddhist sects. Oda destroyed his formidable Buddhist opponents and their castles, but was assassinated. He was followed by Hideyoshi Toyotomi (1536–98), who continued the wars of unification.

Hideyoshi was ambivalent toward Westerners, on the one hand welcoming their trade. He also feared their influence, both the authority of the pope and Spain’s colonial ambitions, which had made the Philippines a colony. Thus he banned all missionary activities in 1587, but did not enforce the law until 1597, when he ordered nine missionaries and 17 Japanese Christians executed.

Hideyoshi died in 1598. Another succession struggle ensued until another nobleman, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616), won a definitive battle in 1603, after which he was confirmed shogun by the emperor, thus inaugurating the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603–1868).

The newly victorious and as yet insecure Tokugawa Ieyasu regarded Christians as potentially subversive and began to move against them in 1606. His son and successor continued his policies, expelling missionaries and ordering noblemen and ordinary people in his domain to renounce Christianity; he went so far as to execute those who remained Christian clandestinely.

The shogunate then forced all lords throughout Japan to conform to anti-Christian laws. Suspected Christians were forced to trample on the cross or other Christian symbols while those who refused were tortured to death.

Persecution climaxed in 1637–38 when oppressed Christian peasants revolted in western Kyushu. They were put down and slaughtered. A law in 1640 compelled all Japanese to register at a local Buddhist temple. Christianity was wiped out in Japan except for a few small underground communities.

The Catholic Church recognized 3,125 Japanese martyrs between 1597 and 1660, several of whom were beatified by Pope John Paul II. The Tokugawa Shogunate enacted other laws that banned trade with Europeans except for two Dutch ships annually and took other measures that almost totally isolated Japan from the Western world until 1854.

Thus between 1549 and 1640, Japan presented the paradoxical picture of success and then total prohibition of the Christian missionary movement.

Bushido, Tokugawa Period in Japan

Bushido, Tokugawa Period in Japan

When Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated Ishida Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara in October 1600, Bushido, the “way of the warrior,” which his victorious samurai followed, was just reaching its apogee. (Bushi, which means “warrior,” is another term used interchangeably with samurai, which means “one who serves [a lord].”)

It is an unwritten code that governed the lives of the upper-class warrior and was more severe than the law code governing the common people. In 1603, Tokugawa was recognized as the shogun, or military ruler of Japan, by Emperor Go-Yozei.

A samurai served in the household of a daimyo, or lord. A samurai whose lord’s line was extinct became a ronin, or masterless samurai. As a result of prolonged warfare between lords before 1603, there were many ronin in Japan.


Bushido’s origins can be traced to the first appearance of Zen Buddhism in Japan in the 12th century. Zen Buddhism was widely adopted by an emerging warrior class.

Zen gave samurai the adab and intellectual strength to follow a demanding calling in life, for which only death could free the true warrior. Bushido emphasized strict loyalty to one’s lord, even to the point of death in battle. And, if faced with disgraceful surrender, Bushido called for the samurai to meet death by his own hand.

In seppuku, commonly called hara kiri in the West, a samurai disemboweled himself with a short dagger, after which a trusted friend or comrade, acting as his second, would sever his head with a blow of his sword.

Bushido also demanded the samurai lead a clean and honorable life, protect the weak, abstain from riotous living and drunkenness, conscious that he was the representative of the daimyo he served, whose heraldic badge was always displayed prominently on his clothing.

Aside from giving him a code of honor, Bushido made the samurai a fearsome warrior with his sword. He strove for mental discipline achieved through swordsmanship akin to that achieved through the pursuit of Zen.

Perhaps the greatest statement of Bushido and the sword in the Tokugawa period is found in 1716’s Hagakure, or “hidden leaves.” It is a compilation of the philosophies of Yamamoto Tsunetomo that was sanctioned by the Tokugawa shoguns for its accurate representation of the prevailing philosophies during its reign. It blended the discipline and insight of Zen with the ancestor worship taught by Confucianism.