Fernao Mendes Pinto 8: First in Japan

Nanban byōbu, by Kanō Sanraku, 17th century - (Wikimedia)

The first Europeans wash up on Japanese shores, bringing the musket as they do so, and Pinto would have you believe that he is with them.

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Sources:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

  • Cooper, Michael. The Southern Barbarians: The First Europeans in Japan. Kodansha, 1971.

  • Lidin, Olof G. Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan. Routledge, 2003.

  • Perrin, Noel. Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879. David R. Godine, 1979.