The Sakoku Edicts and the Politics of Tokugawa Hegemony By Micha ...

Chapter 1

Prohibitions on
Japanese Travel Abroad

When Europeans first began venturing into the waters of the Indian and the Pacific oceans, they came into contact with a people who were unknown to them but who seemed to be ubiquitous in the ports of Southeast Asia. According to the Jesuit priest João Rodrigues, Europeans first coming into contact with Japanese in Southeast Asia referred to Japan as the “island of robbers” because they sailed on large ships and were well armed. Rodrigues also noted that these Japanese ships carried a great deal of silver, going so far as to state, “apart from this silver, there is no other merchandise that is carried away to other ports in the ships that go thither to trade.”¹ Other Portuguese sources mention a group of people called the “Gores” or “Guores,” who traded silver, gold, swords, and fans in Malacca in exchange for Chinese and Southeast Asian goods. Although these people are not mentioned by the name Japanese, there seems little doubt from the description that they must have been from Japan, the other possibility being that they were merchants from the Ryukyu Islands.²