Red seal ships

Record of a Red Seal license, dated 11 January 1608.

From the 13th to the 16th century, Japanese ships were quite active in Asian waters, often in the role of "wakō" pirates who plundered the coast of the Chinese Empire. Official trading missions were also sent to China, such as the Tenryūji-bune around 1341. Wakō activity was efficiently curbed in the late 16th century with the interdiction of piracy by Hideyoshi, and the successful campaigns against pirate activity on the Chinese coast by Ming dynasty generals.

Between the 15th and the 16th century, the main trading intermediary in Eastern Asia was the island kingdom of the Ryūkyū (modern Okinawa), which exchanged Japanese products (silver, swords) and Chinese products for Southeast Asian sappan wood and deer hides. Altogether 150 Ryukyuan ships are recorded between the kingdom and Southeast Asia, 61 of them for Annam (Vietnam), 10 for Malacca, 10 for Pattani, 8 for Java, etc. Their commerce disappeared around 1570 with the rise of Chinese merchants and the intervention of Portuguese and Spanish ships and corresponds with the beginnings of the Red Seal system. Japan finally invaded the Ryūkyū Kingdom in 1609.

When the first Europeans started to navigate in the Pacific Ocean (see also Nanban trade period), they regularly encountered Japanese ships, such as when the Spanish welcomed in Manila in 1589 a storm-battered Japanese junk bound for Siam, or when the Dutch circumnavigator Olivier van Noort encountered a 110-ton Japanese junk in the Philippines in December 1600, and on the same voyage a Red Seal ship with a Portuguese captain off Borneo through which they learned about the arrival of William Adams in Japan.

Red-seal ship with Japanese and Portuguese sailors, early 17th century

Sueyoshi red seal ship in 1633, with foreign pilots and sailors. Kiyomizu-dera Ema (絵馬) painting, Kyoto.

Suminokura red seal ship with foreigners. Kiyomizu-dera Ema painting, Kyoto.

The Red Seal system appears from at least 1592, under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, date of the first known mention of the system in a document. The first actually preserved Shuinjō (Red Seal Permit) is dated to 1604, under Tokugawa Ieyasu, first ruler of Tokugawa Japan. Tokugawa issued red-sealed permits to his favourite feudal lords and principal merchants who were interested in foreign trade. By doing so, he was able to control Japanese traders and reduce Japanese piracy in the South Sea. His seal also guaranteed the protection of the ships, since he vowed to pursue any pirate or nation who would violate it.

Besides Japanese traders, 12 European and 11 Chinese residents, including William Adams and Jan Joosten, are known to have received permits. At one point after 1621, Jan Joosten is recorded to have possessed 10 Red Seal Ships for commerce.

Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English ships and Asian rulers basically protected Japanese red seal ships, since they had diplomatic relations with the Japanese shōgun. Only Ming China had nothing to do with this practice, because the Empire officially prohibited Japanese ships from entering Chinese ports. (But Ming officials were not able to stop Chinese smugglers from setting sail to Japan.)

A 17th-century Red Seal ship of the Araki trading family, sailing out of Nagasaki for Annam (Vietnam)

Red Seal ships usually ranged in size between 500 and 750 tons, a size equal or superior to European galleons, but inferior to that of the massive Portuguese carracks or to Manila galleons, which were often in the vicinity of 1,000 and 2,000 tons, respectively.

The complement is speculated to have been about 200 people per ship; the average of the fifteen Red Seal ships for which the number of people is known is 236.

Red-seal ships varied in style and place of construction. Some, especially those built in Nagasaki, employed Chinese and European techniques to Japanese ship designs. Others were captured Chinese junks. Later, when the Southeast Asian trade was well-established, numerous ships were ordered and purchased in Ayutthaya in Siam, on account of high-quality construction and materials.

The ships were managed by rich trading families such as the Suminokura, Araki, Chaya and Sueyoshi, or by individual adventurers such as Suetsugu Heizō, Yamada Nagamasa, William Adams, Jan Joosten or Murayama Tōan. The funds for the purchase of merchandise in Asia were loaned to the managers of the expedition for an interest of 35% to 55% per trip, going as high as 100% in the case of Siam.

Japanese merchants mainly exported silver, diamonds, copper, swords and other artifacts, and imported Chinese silk as well as some Southeast Asian products (like sugar and deer skins). Pepper and spices were rarely imported into Japan, where people did not eat a great deal of meat due to the local preponderance of adherents to the Buddhist belief system. Southeast Asian ports provided meeting places for Japanese and Chinese ships.

Japanese portolan sailing map, depicting the Indian Ocean and the East Asian coast, early 17th century.

The crew of the red seal ships were international, for many Chinese, Portuguese, and Dutch pilots and interpreters joined the sails. The first Red Seal ships were required to have a Portuguese pilot on board, although the Japanese progressively developed pilots of their own. The Portolan maps used on the Red Seal ships were drawn on the Portuguese model, with directions in the Japanese language.

Major Southeast Asian ports, including Filipino Manila, Vietnamese Hội An, Siamese Ayutthaya, Malay Pattani, welcomed the Japanese merchant ships, and many Japanese settled in these ports, forming small Japanese enclaves.[3]

The Japanese seem to have been feared throughout Asian countries, according to a contemporary, Sir Edward Michelbourne:

The Japons are not suffered to land in any port in India (Asia) with weapons; being accounted a people so desperate and daring, that they are feared in all places where they come.[4]

A Dutch commander wrote (c. 1615): "they are a rough and a fearless people, lambs in their own country, but well-nigh devils outside of it".

Siam (Thailand)

Yamada Nagamasa c.1630.

The Siamese "Chronicles of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya" record that already in 1592, 500 Japanese troops under the King of Siam helped defeat an invading Burmese army.[6]

Around 56 Red Seal ships to Siam are recorded between 1604 and 1635. The Japanese community in Siam seems to have been in the hundreds, as described by the Portuguese Catholic priest, António Francisco Cardim, who recounted having administered sacrament to around 400 Japanese Christians in 1627 in the Thai capital of Ayuthaya ("a 400 japões christãos") (Ishii Yoneo, Multicultural Japan).

In December 1605, John Davis, the famous English explorer, was killed by Japanese pirates off the coast of Siam, thus becoming the first Englishman to be killed by a Japanese.[7]

The colony was active in trade, particularly in the export of deer-hide and sappan wood to Japan in exchange for Japanese silver and Japanese handicrafts (swords, lacquered boxes, high-quality papers). They were noted by the Dutch for challenging the trade monopoly of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), as their strong position with the King of Siam typically allowed them to buy at least 50% of the total production, leaving small quantities of a lesser quality to other traders.

A Japanese adventurer, Yamada Nagamasa, became very influential and ruled part of the kingdom of Siam (Thailand) during that period. The colony also had an important military role in Thailand.

Indonesia

Nine Japanese samurai were employed at Amboyna in 1623, when they were victim of the Amboyna massacre.

Although few Red Seal Ships are recorded for the areas of modern Indonesia (Java, Spice Islands), possibly because of the remoteness and because of the direct Dutch involvement there, Japanese samurai were recruited by the Dutch in the area. They distinguished themselves in the capture of the Banda Islands from the English and the defense of Batavia, until the practice of hiring Japanese mercenaries was prohibited by the Shōgun in 1621. In 1618, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the Dutch governor of Java, requested 25 Japanese Samurai to be sent to him from Japan. In 1620, the Dutch record that 90 Japanese samurai were recruited from the islands surrounding Java, in order to reinforce the fort of Batavia.

In 1623, during the Amboyna massacre, 9 Japanese mercenaries were recorded to have been with the 10 English traders of the English East India Company factory. They were tortured and killed by Dutch forces from the neighbouring factory. (See Chapter 11 "Trial by Fire and Water" in Nathaniel's Nutmeg.) This event was partly the cause for the advent of the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

India

Tenjiku Tokubei, 17th century.

The Japanese adventurer Tenjiku Tokubei is related to have travelled to Siam as well as India on board a Red Seal ship of Jan Joosten. Upon his return to Japan, Tokubei wrote an essay titled Tenjiku Tōkai Monogatari ("Relations of travels to India") on his adventures in foreign countries, which became very popular in Japan. He is sometimes referred to as the Marco Polo of Japan.

The 350 Red Seal ships recorded between 1604 and 1634, averaging about 10 ships per year, could be compared to the single Portuguese carrack visiting Nagasaki from Macau every year, which was larger in tonnage (between 2 and 3 times a single Red Seal ship), and carried a rich cargo of silk directly obtained from China.

Also in comparison, the English factory in Hirado only received four ships from England in the space of 10 years (during its existence between 1613 and 1623), with generally non-valuable cargo. To survive, the factory actually had to resort to trade between Japan and Southeast Asia under the Red Seal system, organizing seven expeditions, four of which were handled by William Adams.

The Japanese Shōgun was very defiant of Spain, and Spain very reluctant to divert shipping resources between distant territories, so that besides the few shipwrecks of the Manila galleon on the Japanese coast, only about one Spanish ship was dispatched to Japan every year for trade. They had a small base in Uraga, where William Adams was put in charge of selling the cargo on several occasions.

Only Chinese shipping seems to have been quite important during the last years of the Ming dynasty. Richard Cocks, head of the English factory in Hirado, reported that 60 to 70 Chinese junks visited Nagasaki in 1614, sailed by Fukienese smugglers.

In 1612, overall, Portuguese priest Valentim de Carvalho, head of the Jesuit mission, stated that the annual "Great Ship" from Macau brought 1,300 quintals of silk, whereas 5,000 quintals were brought in Red Seal ships and ships from China and Manila.

Left image: Japanese Christian remained in Batavia (now renamed as Jakarta) after Sakoku, c. 1656, by Andries Beeckman. Christianity indicated by the hat.
Right image: A similar Japanese figure appears on the right, in the forefront. The Castle of Batavia by Andries Beeckman, c. 1656.

In 1633-1639, Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu enacted the Sakoku policy, which officially prohibited overseas travel by Japanese. This ended Red Seal trade voyages. The Dutch East India Company become the sole officially sanctioned party for European trade with Japan.

• 1543 – Portuguese sailors (among them possibly Fernão Mendes Pinto) arrive in Tanegashima and transmit the arquebus.
• 1570 – Japanese pirates occupy parts of Taiwan, from where they prey on China.
• 1571 – Establishment of the port of Nagasaki for trade with the Portuguese, under the supervision of Gaspar Vilela and Tristão Vaz da Veiga.[9]
• 1577 – First Japanese ships travel to Cochinchina (Southern Viet Nam).
• 1588 – Interdiction of wakō piracy by Hideyoshi.
• 1592 – First recorded mention of Red Seal ships.
• 1600 – William Adams reaches Japan in April.

- Olivier van Noort encounters a 110 tons Japanese junk in the Philippines in December.

• 1604 – First known Red Seal permit.
• 1608 – A red seal ship in Macau caused a public brawl that caused the deaths of 50 Japanese samurai and some Portuguese guards, leading to the Nossa Senhora da Graça incident and the red seal ships being banned from going to Macau.
• 1609 – The Dutch open a trading factory in Hirado.
• 1613 – England opens a trading factory in Hirado.

– Hasekura Tsunenaga leaves for his embassy to Europe. He returns in 1620.

• 1614 – Expulsion of the Jesuits from Japan.

– William Adams starts engaging in Red Seal trade to Southeast Asia.

• 1615 – Japanese Jesuits start to proselytise in Indochina.
• 1621 – Jan Joosten manages 10 Red Seal ships.
• 1623 – Yamada Nagamasa sails from Siam to Japan, with an Ambassador of the Siamese king Songtam (พระเจ้าทรงธรรม). He returns to Siam in 1626.

– Jan Joosten sinks in the South China Sea.

• 1624 – Japanese Jesuits start to proselytise in Siam.

– Interruption of relations with Spain.

• 1628 – Death of Yamada Nagamasa in Siam.

– Destruction of Takagi Sakuemon's (高木作右衛門) Red Seal ship in Ayutthaya by a Spanish warship.

– Destruction of the Japanese settlement in Ayutthaya by Siamese forces.

• 1633 – Re-establishment of the Japanese settlement in Ayutthaya (300–400 Japanese), with returnees from Indo-China.
• 1634 – Travel of Yamada Yahei (山田弥兵衛) from Japan to Indo-China and Siam.
• 1636 – Introduction of the Sakoku policy and interdiction of foreign travel or return from foreign countries for Japanese nationals.

• Nanban trade period
• Junk (ship)
• Jong (ship)

• Yoko Nagazumi, Red Seal ships, 2001, 永積洋子 「朱印船」2001 日本歴史会館, Japan Historical Society　ISBN 4-642-06659-4 (in Japanese)
• Boxer, Charles Ralph. The Affair of the Madre de Deus: A Chapter in the History of the Portuguese in Japan, London, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & co., ltd., 1929.
• Boxer, The Christian century in Japan 1549–1650 Carcanet ISBN 1-85754-035-2
• Stephen Turnbull, Fighting Ships of the Far-East, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-84176-478-7

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Red seal ships.

• Commercial Trade between Japan and Vietnam