Ecclesiastical Nagasaki | |||||||||||||
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| 1580–1587 | |||||||||||||
.svg) Flag of Portuguese Nagasaki | |||||||||||||
| Status | Colony (Jesuits, Portuguese) | ||||||||||||
| Capital | Nagasaki City | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | Portuguese,Japanese, Japanese-Portuguese pidgin | ||||||||||||
| King of Portugal | |||||||||||||
• 1581–1598 | Philip I | ||||||||||||
| Visitor of Missions in the Indies | |||||||||||||
• 1573-1606 | Alessandro Valignano | ||||||||||||
| Superior of the Japan mission | |||||||||||||
• 1581–1590 | Gaspar Coelho | ||||||||||||
| Historical era | Imperialism | ||||||||||||
• Donation of Nagasaki | 15 August 1580 | ||||||||||||
• Annexation of Nagasaki byToyotomi Hideyoshi | 14 January 1587 | ||||||||||||
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Portuguese Nagasaki andEcclesiastical Nagasaki refer to the period during which the city ofNagasaki was under foreign administration, between 1580 and 1587. Formally granted to theJesuits, a representative of the Portuguese Crown was considered the highest authority in the city when present, as per Portuguese rights ofPadroado.
The first Portuguese (and incidentally, Western) landfall on Japanese soil appears to have been in 1543, after a group of Portuguese merchants travelling aboard a tradejunk towards China were blown off course to the island ofTanegashima.
Thereafter, trade began betweenPortuguese Malacca,China andJapan, as the Portuguese took advantage of the Chinese trade embargo on Japan to act as middlemen between the two nations. In 1550, KingJohn III of Portugal declared the Japanese trade a "crown monopoly", and henceforth, only ships authorized byGoa were allowed to make the journey. In 1557 the authorities of Canton (Guangzhou) leasedMacau to the Portuguese to support this trade, in exchange for tribute in silver.
The state of civil war in Japan was highly beneficial to the Portuguese, as several competing lords sought to attract the Portuguese "black ship" and its trade to their domains. Initially the Portuguese called either atFirando (Hirado) belonging toMatsura Takanobu, orBungo belonging toŌtomo Sōrin, but in 1562 shifted toYokoseura when its lord,Omura Sumitada, offered to be the first lord to convert to Christianity, adopting the name Dom Bartolomeu. In 1564 he faced a rebellion instigated by Buddhist priests and Yokoseura was razed to the ground.[1]
In 1571 Dom Bartolomeu, or Omura Sumitada, granted some land in the small fishing village of Nagasaki to the Jesuits, that was divided into six neighbourhoods, to receive exiled Christians from other territories and the Portuguese traders. The Jesuits constructed a chapel and a college under the name of St. Paul, like those of Goa and Malacca. By 1579 Nagasaki had 400 homes, with a few Portuguesecasados (married men).[2]
Fearful that Nagasaki might fall to his rival Takanobu, Omura Sumitada, or Dom Bartolomeu, decided to grant the city directly to the Jesuits in 1580.[2]
As appointed "Visitor of Missions in the Indies",Alessandro Valignano was responsible for concluding with Sumitada the terms of the lease, including all the legal details, being himself ajurist. The Jesuits would be responsible for electing aregedor to administer the city and pledge allegiance to Sumitada, who was still nominally considered the lord of the territory.[3] By this bilateral agreement, Nagasaki was in a very similar situation as Macau, where the Portuguese had agreed to pay the authorities ofGuangzhou a fee in exchange for special privileges over the territory.
Unlike many Asian cities built on agrid inspired by the Chinese model, Nagasaki was built around a centre where the most important buildings were located, namely the church, the charity (theMisericórdia) and the town hall, though it did not have any fortifications.[2]
Between 1603 and 1613 Nagasaki would also have a painting school, guided by the ItalianGiovanni Niccolò.[4]
Nagasaki had a "Civil Code" and "Criminal Code", distinct from Japanese law - which was adapted to Roman law; corporal punishments were lessened. The city was described as having "an unusual number of children" as its Christian inhabitants avoidedinfanticide, otherwise common in Japanese society.[5] The houses were painted white, as in Portuguese fashion. The city had 5000 inhabitants by 1590, and 15,000 in 1600.[3]
The "black ship" or ships, known to the Portuguese as thenau do trato ("the trade ship"), arrived from Goa once every year, between August and September and left as soon as the winds shifted, usually in November or afterwards, in February or March – a journey that could take as many as 2 years or more to complete, because of the different monsoon patterns throughout east and southeast Asia.
In 1586, the lands of the Omura clan were overrun by forces ofShimazu Yoshihisa, greatly threatening the city. At the request of Otomo Sorin of Bungo,Toyotomi Hideyoshi intervened, and so Shimazu Yoshihisa was defeated the following year. Hideyoshi however, took the chance to announce the first anti-Christian edict, and ordered that Nagasaki be returned to Omura clan control, thus putting an end to foreign control of the city.[6] Nevertheless, it remained the main port of call for the Portuguese ships in the decades that followed.
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