The Portuguese sailors led by Fernão Mendes…
1543 CE
The Portuguese sailors led by Fernão Mendes Pinto become the first Europeans to reach Japan when their ship is wrecked on Tanegashima, a small island to the south of Kyushu.
They gain the favor of a feudal lord, to whom they claim to have given the first firearm to enter Japan, the Portuguese arquebus. (The weapon will be rapidly reproduced and have a major impact on the ongoing Japanese civil wars; until modern times firearms will be colloquially known in Japan as "Tanega-shima," due to the belief that they were introduced by Pinto. Pinto was probably not in fact present at the first Portuguese contact with the Japanese, although he did visit Tanegashima soon after, and legend says he did marry a local woman and had a son.)
Nanban (“Southern Barbarian”), a Japanese word that originally designated people from South Asia and Southeast Asia, follows a Chinese usage in which surrounding “barbarian” people in the four directions have each their own designation.
The word will take on a new meaning in Japan when it comes to designate Europeans, first from Portugal, then Spain, and later the Netherlands and England. (The Dutch, however, will be known more commonly as Komo, meaning "Red Hair.”)
The word Nanban was thought naturally appropriate for the new visitors, since they came in by ship from the South, and their manners were considered quite unsophisticated by the Japanese.
These first Portuguese Nanban have arrived to trade, not only guns, but also soap, tobacco and other goods unknown in medieval Japan, for the excellent Japanese manufactures sold for a good price in Europe.
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