The Dutch in Japan

Many of us have read James Clavell’s Shogun (1975), the fictional account of the adventures of the crew of the Dutch ship De Liefde, or have seen the television series starring Richard Chamberlain. April 2000 marks the 400th anniversary of the Liefde’s arrival in Japan in 1600, an event which began four centuries of Japanese-Dutch relations.

The Portuguese had been the first Europeans to settle in Japan in the mid-sixteenth century, seeking both riches and souls. In the 1570s Nagasaki was opened as the main port for foreign trade by the local daimyo (lord), and became the centre for the Jesuit Francis Xavier’s mission to convert Japan to Christianity. The Portuguese also brought firearms with them. Japan at this time was wracked by power struggles, and the last shogun (military ruler) of the Ashihara clan was deposed in 1573. Over the next thirty years Toyotomi Hideyoshi built up his position as the most powerful man in Japan, though he never claimed the title of shogun. One of his former rivals, Tokugawa Ieyasu, went over to his side and on Hideyoshi’s death in 1598 Ieyasu continued to battle the regional daimyo for control over the whole of Japan.