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

Cocks having been recalled in disgrace to London to answer for his meager returns.³⁵

Tokugawa Foreign Relations
and the Politics of Control

It is clear that Tokugawa Ieyasu, upon assuming the title of shogun in 1603, had no intention of isolating Japan from the rest of the world, let alone from Europe. Far from adopting an attitude of hostility toward foreigners, Ieyasu welcomed them to his court—first as shogun and then as retired shogun when he passed his title off to his son Hidetada just a couple of years after establishing the shogunate. In fact, according to the Tokugawa Jikki (a daily account of the Tokugawa bakufu), Ieyasu sent friendly letters to most of the major nations of Southeast Asia and established friendly relations with Korea, a nation that Japan had invaded only a few years previously.³⁶ Ieyasu also sent a letter to Don Francisco Tello de Guzman, the governor of the Philippines, and later entertained the Spanish at his court at Sumpu.³⁷

In addition, Ieyasu warmly welcomed the Dutch and English merchants and continued to receive Portuguese merchants in Japan. And finally, Ieyasu issued hundreds of shuinj (literally “red seal passes”) to merchants both Japanese and foreign who wanted to trade overseas, mostly in places such as Ayutthaya and Manila. The shuinj were trading passes issued by the bakufu and were so called because they carried the official vermillion seal of the shogun, without which no merchant was able to trade overseas legally. The robust nature of Japan's overseas trading activity can be seen in a work called the Ikoku Nikki, translated as The Record of Foreign Countries. This record was kept by a Zen monk named Suden, sometimes known as Konchi-in Suden after the monastery at which he lived. Suden served as a chief advisor to Ieyasu on matters of both religion and foreign affairs. In this instance, he was responsible for compiling shogunal shuinj into a comprehensive record, which shows the full range of countries with which Ieyasu authorized Japanese merchants to have dealings.³⁸