Hello Historians!
I just finished reading Shōgun by James Clavell. I’m interested in the time period (1600-?) after Tokugawa Ieyasu took the shogunate. Particularly, I was wondering what happened to the Jesuits and Portuguese during that time period.
Were they allowed to stay in Japan? Was Catholicism accepted, however secretly? I know there came a point when one of Tokugawa’s sons or grandsons closed Japan to foreigners. What precipitated this event?
And were the borders forced open by the British in the Meiji era, or before? How long did Japan stay closed to foreigners, and was trade still allowed in Nagasaki, or did they close their country to trade as well?
I’m sorry if my questions are amateurish. I’d just really like to fill in some of the blanks I have.
Thanks!
Christianity was banned, and people were usually registered to Buddhist temples through the danka system.
Missionaries/Jesuits were absolutely not allowed to stay in Japan, and would be killed if found out, especially if they had an underground church.
The Japanese era of Sakoku (closed off country) was created in order to banish Christians/barbarians from influencing Japanese religion and politics, and to control Japanese trade by preventing unfair treaty ports from forming across Japan. Japan instead created their own port, Dejima, which they limited to only trade with the Dutch. There was however trade with Korea/China going on at this time.
The borders/international trade with Japan and the rest of the world were opened by Matthew Perry and his black ships, an American. This preceded the Meiji era.