The First European Description of Japan, 1585 (9 page)

115
  Destabilized in the sense of being not only troubled by notions of cultural superiority, but willing to embrace alternative practices. Larry Wolff, “Discovering Cultural Perspective, The Intellectual History of Anthropological Thought in the Age of Enlightenment.” In
The Anthropology of the Enlightenment
, eds. Larry Wolf and Marco Cipolloni, 3–33 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), 7–10.

116
  See O'Malley,
The First Jesuits
, 37–38.

117
  See Valignano's
Il cerimoniale per I missionary del Giappone
, ed. J.F. Schütte, S.J. (Rome: Edizioni Di Storia e Lettteratura., 1946), 25–26; Chikeo Irie Mulhern, “Cinderella and the Jesuits.”
Monumenta Nipponica
34 (1979): 409–447.

118
  Ikuo Higashibaba,
Christianity in Early Modern Japan
(Leiden: Brill, 2001), 161–165.

119
  In Chapter V of his
History of Japan
, II, P. I, historian James Murdoch missed no opportunity, seemingly, to critique the Jesuits. Murdoch's critique, nevertheless, appears sound inasmuch as the Jesuits themselves expressed delight in the merciless destruction of those who opposed them. See, for instance,
Cartas … de Iapáo & China
, I, 439v.

120
  Jensen,
Manufacturing Confucianism
, 39, may err in this regard, in suggesting that Jesuits who pursued Valignano's accommodation strategy “reinvented themselves, in effect abandoning their identity as European priests…”

121
  Elison,
Deus Destroyed
, 65–69; Chikeo Irie Mulhern, “Cinderella and the Jesuits.”
Monumenta Nipponica
34 (1979): 409–447.

122
  Michel Foucault, “What is Critique?” In
The Politics of Truth
, ed. S. Lotringer, trans. L. Hochroth and C. Porter (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 1984), 41–95. (Originally published in the Foucault Reader, ed. P. Rabinow, Pantheon, 1984).

123
  As Schrimpf has recently pointed out, Fabian's anti-Christian critique bespeaks a well-reasoned religious pluralism rather than a simple bashing of Christianity and the Jesuits, owing to Fabian's disappointment at not being ordained. Monika Schrimpf, “The Pro- and Anti-Christian Writings of Fukan Fabian (1565–1621).”
Japanese Religions
: 33 (2008): 35–55.

124
  Ross,
A Vision Betrayed
, 76–77; Mary Elizabeth Berry,
Hideyoshi
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982); M. Stephen Steichen,
The Christian Daimyos, A Century of Religious and Political History in Japan (1540–1650)
(Tokyo: Rikkyo Gakuin Press, 1909), 128–137; J.S.A. Elisonas, “The Evangelic Furnace: Japan's First Encounter with the West.” In
Sources of Japanese Traditions, Second Edition, Volume Two: 1600 to 2000
, eds. Wm. T. de Bary, T.C. Gluck, and A.E. Tiedemann, 143–185 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001).

125
  Pedro Lage Reis Correia, “Alessandro Valignano Attitudes Towards Jesuit and Franciscan Concepts of Evangelization in Japan (1587–1597).”
Bulletin of Portuguese Japanese Studies
2 (2001), 79–108.

126
  For the complexities of this period see Reiner H, Hesselink,
Prisoners from Nambu
(Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002); Berry,
Hideyoshi
; Boxer,
The Christian Century
; Ellison,
Deus Destroyed
.

127
  Hirochika Nakamachi,
Japanese Religions At Home and Abroad
(London Routledge, 2003), 13.

128
  The
Tratado
has a good number of sizeable worm-holes.

129
  For a discussion of the challenges associated with translating a Jesuit narrative, see the critical introduction to
History of the Triumphs of Our Holy Faith Amongst the Most Barbarous and Fierce Peoples of the New World
, trans. Daniel T. Reff, Maureen Ahern, and Richard K. Danford (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999[1645]).

130
  Antônio Houaiss, Mauro de Salles Villar, and Francisco Manoel de Mello Franco, eds.,
Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa
(Rio de Janiero: Objetiva, 2001).

131
  Both rulers embraced firearms and fielded armies of tens-of-thousands of soldiers who fought in battles or destroyed whole towns, resulting in casualties that numbered in the thousands.

132
  See for instance Money L. Hickman, ed.,
Japan's Golden Age, Momoyama
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996); Patricia A. Graham,
Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art, 1600–2005
(Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007); Susan Hanley,
Everyday Things in Premodern Japan
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).

133
  Bitõ Masahide, “Thought and Religion, 1550–1700,” trans. Kate W. Nakai. In
The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 4, Early Modern Japan
, ed. J.W. Hall, 373–424 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 378–87.

134
  Dennis Hirota,
Asura's Harp, Engagement with Language as Buddhist Path
(Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2006), 3–13.

135
  While his focus is England, Thomas offers a sweeping overview of the profound changes that impacted Europe as a whole during this period. Keith Thomas,
The Ends of Life
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

136
  Okada's edition has gone through at least a dozen printings in Japan since it was first published in 1965. Akio Okada, trans. and ed.,
Yoroppa-Bunka to Nihon-Bunka
[European Culture and Japanese Culture] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1965).

137
  Sir Rutherford Alcock,
The Capital of the Tycoon, A Narrative of a Three Years' Residence in Japan
(London: Longman, Green, and Roberts, 1863); Alice Mabel. Bacon,
A Japanese Interior
(Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1893);
Japanese Girls and Women
(London: Kegan Paul, 2001[1892]); Isabella L. Bird,
Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1987[1880]);
Korea & Her Neighbours
. 2 Vols. (London: John Murray, 1898); Basil H. Chamberlain,
Things Japanese, Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with Japan
. Fourth edition (London: John Murray, 1902); Engelbert Kaempher,
The History of Japan, Together With a Description of the Kingdom of Siam, 1690–92
. 3 Vols. (Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1906[1690–92]).

Jesus [&] Mary

Treatise containing in very succinct and abbreviated form some contrasts and differences in the customs of the people of Europe and this province of Japan. Although in the region of Ximo
¹
there are some things that appear to coincide between us and the Japanese, this is not because they are common and universal, but because they were acquired [by the Japanese] from the Portuguese who come here in their ships to trade. Many of their customs are so distant, foreign, and far removed from our own that it is difficult to believe that one can find such stark contrasts in customs among [us and] people who are so civilized, have such lively genius, and are as naturally intelligent as these
[Japanese].
In order to avoid confusing certain matters with others, we divide this work into chapters. Completed with the grace of Our Lord in Canzusa
[Kazusa],
June 14, 1585
.

Chapter 1
Men, their persons and clothing

Chapter 2
Women, their persons and dress

Chapter 3
Children, their upbringing and customs

Chapter 4
Bonses, who are their religious

Chapter 5
Temples and things related to worship and religion

Chapter 6
Japanese eating and drinking habits

Chapter 7
Weapons and war

Chapter 8
Physicians, medicines and modes of healing

Chapter 9
Japanese books and writing

Chapter 10
Construction of houses, roads and gardens

Chapter 11
Horses and related Dogus
²

Chapter 12
Ships, Seafaring and related Dogus

Chapter 13
Drama, Farces, Dancing, Singing, and Musical Instruments

Chapter 14
Miscellanea

1
  “Ximo” here refers to the west coast region of Kyushu. See
Cartas que os Padres e Irmãos da Companhia de Iesus Escreuerão dos Reynos de Iapão & China aos da Mesma Companhia da India & Europa, des do Anno de 1549 Até o de 1580
. 2 Vols. Facsimile edition by José Manuel Garcia (Maia: Castoliva Editora, 1997), I, 460v. By 1585, the Japanese of Nagasaki (a major port of call for Portuguese ships), in particular, had begun emulating the Portuguese in fashion and other customs. Yoshitomo Okamoto,
The Namban Art of Japan
(New York: Weatherhill, 1972), 68–78.

2
  
Dogus
= tool, equipment, implement, apparatus. Frois may have used this Japanese term in these two chapter titles because he was particularly struck by the distinctiveness of Japanese equestrian and sailing “gear” (e.g. saddles, reins, anchors, ropes, sails).

1   Concerning men, their persons, and their clothing

1. Europeans for the most part are tall and well built; the Japanese for the most part are not as tall or robust as we are
.

In both Japan and Europe men generally enjoyed more rights and privileges than women.
³
Japanese men of the samurai class, in particular, wielded enormous power, so it is not surprising that Frois devoted this first chapter to men, particularly elites.

During the sixteenth century Europeans entertained ancient theories that physical attributes were somehow significant correlates or actual determinants of one's character and identity. Frois, to his credit, did not apparently put much stock in physiognomy, as he begins this chapter with a handful of distichs that focus on physical attributes (e.g. stature, eyes, nose, skin, hair). More to his credit, he makes no essentialist claims about the Japanese based on the shape of the eye, the size of the nose, hair color, or other physical traits.
⁴
However, this very first distich is revealing in that it shows how bias figures in nearly any comparative project, if only because language is inescapably value-laden. Frois clearly sought to be accurate; note his use not once, but twice, of the qualifier “for the most part.” However, to say that Europeans are “well built” is as much a value judgment as an apparent reference to the robust European body-type. In 1585, life expectancy at birth in Japan was higher than in Europe;
⁵
this continues to be true today. Clearly from the perspective of longevity, the Japanese were and are “well built.”

2. Europeans consider large eyes beautiful; the Japanese think they are horrendous and consider beautiful eyes those that are narrow in the inner corner of the eye
[i.e., eyes that are almond-shaped rather than round].

The Japanese until fairly recently considered round eyes beastly; Europeans were said to have eyes like dogs. Japanese consumption of Western popular culture–everything from Mickey Mouse and John Wayne to the Beatles and Bono–has contributed to a Japanese desire for large, round eyes. Indeed, some Japanese have had surgery to double their eyelids, making their eyes appear larger. A glance at Japanese comic books or Pokémon characters (eyes filling half the face to the
exclusion of other features) is further suggestive of recent Japanese acceptance of “big is beautiful.”

3. We don't think it strange to have white eyes; the Japanese consider it monstrous and it is rare among them
.

A Japanese boy who has done something wrong will get a scolding or
omedama chodai
, literally “a gift of eyeballs.” Westerners, by contrast, register displeasure with a frown, compressing the eyes. Okada
⁶
notes that eyes with light irises have larger sclera and these large white surfaces shine coldly and sharply. Apparently this feeling is shared by other Japanese, for “to look coldly upon” or frown upon someone in Japanese is to “stare with white eyes” (
shirome-de niramu
).

4. Europeans have long and occasionally aquiline noses; the Japanese have short noses with small nostrils
.

This contrast should have had the same qualification (for the most part) as distich 1. Historically, some upper class Japanese had high-bridged noses, apparently reflecting their centuries-old ties to Mongolian immigrants, whose noses were every bit as “aristocratic” as those found on ancient Roman sculpture. Although nostrils are less value-laden than bridges, they also are linked to class difference in Japan. A typical drawing of a beastly peasant or a
busu
(an “ugly” as opposed to a “beauty”) shows big black nostrils where there should be a nose. Japanese from Frois' time to ours have depicted Caucasians with enormous bird-like beaks (or mountain goblin beaks, from the Japanese perspective), which more often than not have been equated with rapacity.

5. Europeans generally have full beards; the Japanese usually have sparse, scraggly beards
.

Full beards were indeed the rage in sixteenth-century Europe.
⁷
Frois' Jesuit contemporary, Rodrigues, suggested that the Japanese beard was so sparse that one might more appropriately say they don't have them. Rodrigues at the same time implied that the Japanese were much freer than Europeans with respect to how they wore their beards, “… and in this they are imitated out here in the East by the Portuguese, Spaniards and Moors, who have abandoned the traditional Portuguese style.”
⁸
By the early seventeenth century, coincident with the expulsion and persecution of Europeans, few Japanese had beards and the samurai in particular were entirely smooth-shaven.