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Marco Polo

Japan was one of the last countries to be discovered by Europeans. In his travelogue "Il Milione" (1298), Marco Polo reports on a country east of China. The Chinese call it Jipenkuo, the land where the sun rises. He himself calls it Cipango. It twice repelled Kublai Khan's attempts to conquer it. Cipango is described as a very large island 1500 miles east of the Chinese coast. Beautiful, well-behaved, pagan, white people live there. The adjective "white" is to be understood here in the sense of "civilized", civilized like the Europeans.

At the time of Marco Polo, the known world consisted of Europe, Africa (not yet circumnavigated; the circumnavigation, reported by Herodotus around 450 BC, had been forgotten) and part of Asia. The classification of peoples was based on the three sons of Noah: Japheth, from whom the Caucasians and Europeans descended; Ham, the progenitor of the Africans; and Shem, the progenitor of the Semites (Asians).

Marco Polo's travelogue was the only work that reported on Japan until the 16th century.

Francis Xavier & Jorge Alvarez

The first Europeans in Japan were Portuguese merchants who were shipwrecked on Tanegashima, a small island south of Kyushu, in 1543. After that, commercial contacts became more frequent.
The "Society of Jesus", founded in 1534 by Ignatius of Loyola, was characterized from the beginning by the involvement of educated men in missionary work. One of them was Francis Xavier (1506-1552). He came to Malaysia in 1545. There he met the Portuguese captain Jorge Alvarez, who traded with the Japanese along the coasts of Kyushu but had never ventured inland.
At the suggestion of Francis Xavier, Alvarez wrote a report in 1547 about what he had seen in Japan. Alvarez describes many aspects of the Japanese, such as their physiognomy, armament and also clothing, from which he deduced a social hierarchy.

Arrival in Italy

The young Japanese princes finally arrived in Rome in 1585. They were received with great honors on March 23 by Pope Gregory XIII, who had introduced the Gregorian calendar, and after his death in April 1885 again by his successor Sixtus V. In the painting, the head of the delegation, Mancius (伊東 マンショ, Itō Mansho), kneels before the Pope (グレゴリウス13世), behind him two of his fellow travelers; the fourth could not attend the audience due to illness.
Throughout Italy, the Japanese envoys were greeted by cheering crowds that filled the squares and streets of the cities.
The response to the visit was extraordinary. Dozens of reports (relationes, zeytung) were printed in many places throughout Europe.

New Zeytung from the Island of Japonia

Printed in Augsburg by Michael Manger. Anno MDLXXXVI (1586)

Portraits of the four young men and royal envoys from Japan, as they arrived in Milan on July 25th and left again on August 3rd.
... by the names of Mancius, Julianus, Martinus and Michael. On March 23rd, 1585, in the name and in place of Franciscus King of Bungen, Prothasius King of Arimania and Bartholomeus Duke of Omura, they submitted to the papal holiness and the Holy Church of God in Rome. And after visiting Naples, Venice and Milan, they returned home via Spain. Together with a priest of the Societas Iesu, called Meschita, who instructed them in the Christian faith and accompanied them on the journey to Rome by sea and land. The first two are from the royal family of Omura, the other two from high and very old nobility. All four, however, are by nature, as their country brings with it, very clever, highly intelligent and extremely knowledgeable people.

Description of the young Japanese

A report was also printed in Reggio Emilia. It describes the appearance and habits of these foreigners.

As for their bodies, they are small in stature, olive-coloured, they have small eyes, large eyelids, a rather broad nose, but they have a naive and noble appearance that has nothing barbaric about it.
In their behaviour they are gentle, polite and modest; they show each other great respect and always follow the same order when walking. At meals they are free and eat everything without waiting to be served. They are modest and polite, do not touch any food other than bread with their hands, they do not drink wine but lukewarm water, as is customary in Japan, and usually they only drink once towards the end of the meal: when they eat among themselves they use certain pointed wooden chopsticks, as long as the palm of the hand, white as ivory. They hold them between the three fingers of their right hand and in this way they can very skillfully take any kind of food they want, even if it is far away and not very solid.

De missione

The young travellers of the Tenshō embassy had recorded their impressions in notes, and Alessandro Valignano came up with the idea of making a book out of them. It was to be used as a Latin textbook by Japanese seminarians in Japan. The book was printed in Macao, in Latin and Japanese, but with Latin letters throughout.
The book whose title page is shown here, is in the British Library. It dates from the capture of the Portuguese ship Madre de Dios in 1592. There is a list elsewhere of the treasures that the ship contained. Among these were many jewels that were stolen before the ship's treasures could be handed over to the Queen.
There are currently 8 copies of this book recorded: two in the British Library, two in German collections, one in Spain, one in Italy, one in Portugal and one at the Catholic University of America.

Scenes from

Shogun - TV Drama 1980

Marco Polo, Francis Xavier and Alessandro Valignano described the Japanese as civilized, intelligent, educated, etc.
In the TV drama Shogun from 1980, the Dutch sailors, the Spanish navigator and especially the Portuguese captain see things a little differently. They disparagingly refer to the samurai as "Japs" and "monkeys". The educated Europeans, such as the priest and the Bishop Visitator, watch their words and remain polite.

In the review of Shogun 1980, there is now a list that matches the figures in the film to the historical figures.