Japanese_missions_to_Ming_China

Japanese missions to Ming China

Japanese missions to Ming China

Overview of Japanese missions to Ming China

Japanese missions to Ming China represent a lens for examining and evaluating the relationships between China and Japan from 1401 to 1411 and from 1432 to 1549.[1] The nature of these bilateral contacts encompassed political and ceremonial acknowledgment as well as cultural exchanges. The evolution of diplomatic ties accompanied the growing commercial ties which grew over time.[2]

Main article: Japanese missions to Imperial China

Nineteen trade missions traveled from Japan to China between 1401 and 1549.[3][4] The main trade goods exported from Japan were Japanese swords, copper, and sulfur; from China, copper coins, raw silk, and silk fabrics.[4] Every one of these missions were headed by a Zen Buddhist monk from one of the so-called Kyoto Gozan (京都五山, Kyoto gozan) or "five great Zen temples of Kyoto",[5] consisting of Nanzen-ji, Tenryū-ji, Shokoku-ji, Kennin-ji, Tofuku-ji and Manju-ji.[6]

Tally trade

The economic benefit of the Sinocentric tribute system was profitable trade. The tally trade (勘合貿易, kangō bōeki in Japanese and kanhe maoyi in Chinese) was a system devised and monitored by the Chinese.[7] The tally trade involved exchanges of Japanese products for Chinese goods. The Chinese "tally" was a certificate issued by the Ming. The first 100 such tallies were conveyed to Japan in 1404. Only those with this formal proof of Imperial permission represented by the document were officially allowed to travel and trade within the boundaries of China; and only those diplomatic missions presenting authentic tallies were received as legitimate ambassadors.[5]

Over time, the conditions of this mutually beneficial tally trade would evolve beyond its initial perimeters.

Selected missions

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See also

Notes

  1. [1]
    Mizuno, Norihito. (2003). China in Tokugawa Foreign Relations: The Tokugawa Bakufu’s Perception of and Attitudes toward Ming-Qing China, pp. 109-112.
  2. [2]
    Fogel, Joshua A. (2009). Articulating the Sinosphere: Sino-Japanese Relations in Space and Time, pp. 110-113; publisher's blurb.
  3. [3]
    日明貿易と博多 (in Japanese). Fukuoka City Museum. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  4. [4]
    日明貿易 (in Japanese). Kotobank. Archived from the original on 12 February 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  5. [5]
    Fogel, p. 27.
  6. [6]
    Baroni, Helen Josephine. (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism, p. 116.
  7. [7]
    Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia, p. 471.
  8. [8]
    Titsingh, p. 323.
  9. [9]
    Verschuer, Charlotte von. (2006). Across the Perilous Sea : Japanese Trade with China and Korea from the Seventh to the Sixteenth Centuries, p. 113.
  10. [10]
    Goodrich, L. Carrington et al. (1976). Dictionary of Ming biography, 1368-1644, Vol I, p. 85.
  11. [11]
    Verschuer, p. 114.

References
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