Japanese Travellers in Sixteenth-Century Europe

Japanese Travellers in Sixteenth-Century Europe
Author: Derek Massarella
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 697
Release: 2013-01-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 140947223X

In 1582 Alessandro Valignano, the Visitor to the Jesuit mission in the East Indies, sent four Japanese boys to Europe. Until the arrival of the embassy in Europe, the Euro-Japanese encounter had been almost exclusively one way: Europeans going to Japan. This book is an account of their travels, their long journeys out and back, and the 20 months in Europe being received by popes and kings. It was published in Macao in 1590 with the title De Missione Legatorvm Iaponensium ad Romanum curiam. The present edition is the first complete version of this rich, complex and impressive work to appear in English, and is accompanied with maps and illustrations of the mission, and an introduction discussing its context and the subsequent reception of the book.

João Rodrigues's Account of Sixteenth-Century Japan

João Rodrigues's Account of Sixteenth-Century Japan
Author: Michael Cooper
Publisher:
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2015-04-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781472460660

João Rodrigues sailed from Portugal to Japan in 1577, and there entered the Jesuit novitiate and was ordained priest. He met Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the virtual ruler of Japan, in 1591, and from that time became the missionaries' spokesman in dealings with Japanese authorities. He was also involved in negotiations concerning the bulk sale of Chinese silk in Japan, and commercial and political rivalries led to his eventual expulsion from the country in 1610. Rodrigues spent the rest of his life in Macao and the interior of China, dying in 1633. Renowned for his fluency in spoken Japanese, Rodrigues earned a place in the history of Japanese-European cultural relations by publishing a Portuguese grammar of the Japanese language (Nagasaki, 1604-1608), followed by a revised edition (Macao, 1620). Both works provide valuable information about Japanese spoken in the early 17th century. Rodrigues also provided the draft used as a basis for the official history of the Christian mission in Japan. To set this work in context he composed two books on various aspects of Japanese life - geography, customs, clothing, science, architecture, art, and, above all, the tea ceremony. The present volume provides annotated translations of these two books, together with an introduction assessing Rodrigues's contribution to the understanding of Japanese life and culture in the early 17th century.

Architecturalized Asia

Architecturalized Asia
Author: Vimalin Rujivacharakul
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2013-11-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9888208055

How did terms like “Asia,” “Eurasia,” “Indochina,” “Pacific Rim” or “Australasia” originate and evolve, and what are their connections to the built environment? In addressing this question,Architecturalized Asia bridges the fields of history and architecture by taking “Asia” as a discursive structure and cultural construct, whose spatial and ideological formation can be examined through the lenses of cartography, built environments, and visual narratives. The first section, on the study of architecture in Asia from the medieval through early modern periods, examines icons and symbols in maps as well as textual descriptions produced in Europe and Asia. The second section explores the establishment of the field of Asian architecture as well as the political and cultural imagining of “Asia” during the long nineteenth century, when “Asia” and its regions were redefined in the making of modern world maps mainly produced in Europe. The third section examines tangible structures produced in the twentieth century as legible documents of these notional constructions of Asia. In exploring the ways in which “Asia” has been drawn and framed both within and without the continent, this volume offers cutting-edge scholarship on architectural history, world history and the history of empires. Written by architectural historians and historians specializing in Asia and European empires, this unique volume addresses the connection between Asia and the world through the lenses of built environments and spatial conceptualizations. Architecturalized Asiawill appeal to readers who are interested in Asian architecture, world architecture, Asian history, history of empires, and world history.

The Dutch East India Company in Early Modern Japan

The Dutch East India Company in Early Modern Japan
Author: Michael Laver
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2020-04-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350126047

Michael Laver examines how the giving of exotic gifts in early modern Japan facilitated Dutch trade by ascribing legitimacy to the shogunal government and by playing into the shogun's desire to create a worldview centered on a Japanese tributary state. The book reveals how formal and informal gift exchange also created a smooth working relationship between the Dutch and the Japanese bureaucracy, allowing the politically charged issue of foreign trade to proceed relatively uninterrupted for over two centuries. Based mainly on Dutch diaries and official Dutch East India Company records, as well as exhaustive secondary research conducted in Dutch, English, and Japanese, this new study fills an important gap in our knowledge of European-Japanese relations. It will also be of great interest to anyone studying the history of material culture and cross-cultural relations in a global context.

Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources

Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources
Author: Laura Sangha
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2016-07-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317222016

Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources is an introduction to the rich treasury of source material available to students of early modern history. During this period, political development, economic and social change, rising literacy levels, and the success of the printing press, ensured that the State, the Church and the people generated texts and objects on an unprecedented scale. This book introduces students to the sources that survived to become indispensable primary material studied by historians. After a wide-ranging introductory essay, part I of the book, ‘Sources’, takes the reader through seven key categories of primary material, including governmental, ecclesiastical and legal records, diaries and literary works, print, and visual and material sources. Each chapter addresses how different types of material were produced, whilst also pointing readers towards the most important and accessible physical and digital source collections. Part II, ‘Histories’, takes a thematic approach. Each chapter in this section explores the sources that are used to address major early modern themes, including political and popular cultures, the economy, science, religion, gender, warfare, and global exploration. This collection of essays by leading historians in their respective fields showcases how practitioners research the early modern period, and is an invaluable resource for any student embarking on their studies of the early modern period.

The Japanese Mission to Europe, 1582-1590

The Japanese Mission to Europe, 1582-1590
Author: Michael Cooper
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2021-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004213759

Following the pioneering work of Francis Xavier in establishing Christianity in Japan, his successor Alessandro Valignano, decided to send a legation to Europe representing the three Christian daimyo of Kyushu, southern Japan. It consisted of two Christian samurai boys who were chosen as legates, together with two teenage companions. The group set sail from Nagasaki in February 1582 and were to be away for eight years. The purpose of the mission was twofold: it would give Europeans the chance of seeing Japanese people at first hand and appreciating their culture, thereby publicising the work of the Catholic Church in Japan and so (it was hoped) increase much-needed financial support; and secondly on their return to Japan the envoys would give eyewitness reports of the splendours of Renaissance Europe, thus moderating Japanese notions about the outside world and foreign barbarians. The boys travelled through Portugal, Spain and Italy and were feted wherever they went. In Venice, the authorities even postponed the annual festival in honour of St Mark, the city’s patron, so that the Japanese might view the spectacle. More importantly, the boys met Philip II of Spain several times, as well as Pope Gregory XIII and his successor Sixtus V. This is the first book-length study in English of the mission and provides important new insights into the work of the Jesuits in Japan and the nature of the legation’s impact on late-sixteenth-century European perceptions of Japan.

Japanese Gardens

Japanese Gardens
Author: Seiko Goto
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2015-10-16
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317411641

The unique beauty of the Japanese garden stems from its spirituality and rich symbolism, yet most discussions on this kind of garden rarely provide more than a superficial overview. This book takes a thorough look at the process of designing a Japanese garden, placing it in a historical and philosophical context. Goto and Naka, both academic experts in Japanese garden history and design, explore: The themes and usage of the Japanese garden Common garden types such as tea and Zen gardens Key maintenance techniques and issues. Featuring beautiful, full-colour images and a glossary of essential Japanese terms, this book will dramatically transform your understanding of the Japanese garden as a cultural treasure.

Premodern Japan

Premodern Japan
Author: Mikiso Hane
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2018-04-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0429974442

Japanese historian Louis Perez brings Mikiso Hane's rich and beloved account of early Japanese history up-to-date in this thoroughly revised Second Edition of Premodern Japan. The text traces the key developments of Japanese history in the premodern period, including the establishment of the imperial dynasty, early influences from China and Korea, the rise of the samurai class and the establishment of feudalism, the culture and society of the long Tokugawa period, the rise of Confucianism and Shinto nationalism, and finally, the end of Tokugawa rule. While the text provides many political developments through the early modern period, it also integrates the social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of Japanese history as well. Perez's updates to the text provide a comprehensive overview of the major social, political, and religious trends in premodern Japan as well as offering the most current scholarship.

Shoko-Ken: A Late Medieval Daime Sukiya Style Japanese Tea-House

Shoko-Ken: A Late Medieval Daime Sukiya Style Japanese Tea-House
Author: Robin Noel Walker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2012-11-12
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1136072667

First published in 2003. Built in 1628 at the Koto-in temple in the precincts of Daitoku-ji monastery in Kyoto, the Shoko-ken is a late medieval daime sukiya Japanese tea-house. It is attributed to Hosokawa Tadaoki, also known as Hosokawa Sansai, an aristocrat and daimyo military leader, and a disciple and friend of Sen no Riky?. This work is an extremely thorough look at one of the few remaining tea-houses of the Momoyama era tea-masters who studied with Sen no Rikyu. The English language sources on Hosokawa Sansai and his tea-houses have been exhaustively researched. Many facts and minute observations have been brought together to give even the reader unfamiliar with Tea a sense of the presence which the tea-house still manifests.