1 Letter of 6 January 1515 in: Ramusio, Gian Battista ed., Navigationi et Viaggi I–III (Venice 1563–1606)Google Scholar, Mundus novus, 1. ser., vols II–IV (Amsterdam 1967–1970) I, 180 [280 by mistake]: ‘[…] gli huomini sono molto industriosi, & di nostra qualita, ma di piu brutto viso, con gli occhi piccoli’. J. Alvarez quoted according to: Kapitza, Peter ed., Japan in Europa. Texte und Bilddokumente zur europäischen Japankenntnis von Marco Polo bis Wilhelm von Humboldt I–III (Mūnchen 1990) 1, 63Google Scholar: ‘meistvon mittlerer Größe, untersetzt und sehr kräftig für die Arbeit; ein weißes Volk von gutem Aussehen’.

2 The missionary Rodrigues reports that since the time of Hideyoshi, the Japanese shaved their heads with a razor, while in former times they would have torn out their hair. Cooper, Michael, They Came to Japan: An Anthology of European Reports, 1543–1640 (London 1965) 37Google Scholar.

3 de Mendoza, Joan [Juan] González, Historia de la cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reino de la China [1585], ed. by Garcia, Felix, España misionera II (Madrid 1944) 37Google Scholar: ‘de muy buena disposición de cuerpo, bien sacados, gentiles hombres’.

4 Semmedo, Alvaro [or Alvarez Sem(m)edo], Imperio de la China i cvltura evangelica en èl, por los Religiosos de la Compañia de IESVS, ed. by de Faria i Sousa, Manvel (Madrid 1642) 35–36Google Scholar; Nieuhof, Joan, Het Gezantschap der Neêrlandtsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, aan de grooten tartarischen Cham, Den tegenwoordigen Keizer van China […] I–II (Amsterdam 1665) II, 56–57Google Scholar. Cf. Reichert, Folker E., Goldlilien: Die europäische Entdeckung eines chinesischen Schönheitsideals, Kleine Beiträge zur europä;ischen Überseegeschichte, issue 14 (Bamberg 1993)Google Scholar, points out that small feet were not only regarded as an extremely intimate ‘erotic signal but also and particularly as characteristic of better breeding’ (quoted ibidem, 11). In Japan, this was obviously imitated in isolated cases only.

5 Nicolaus Trigautius [Trigault ed.], De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas Suscepta ab Societate Iesu, Ex P. Matthaei Riccÿ Commentarÿs libri V, Ad S.D.N. Paulum V. […] (Augustae Vind. 1615) 86. Cf. e.g. Gabriel Naudé, Considerations politiques sur les coups d’Etats (s. 1., 2nd edition, 1667) 84–86. Further examples in Reichert, Goldlilien, 7, who traces back reports of ‘lily-like feet’ to Marco Polo and Odorico da Pordenone but also points out that this custom was regarded by the Europeans mainly as a ‘fad’ particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

6 Kapitza ed., Japan I, 64–65: ‘sehr wohlgeformt und von sehr heller Hautfarbe […] sehr gefillig und sanflmülig’. Bernardino de Avila also praises their character, piety, trustworthiness and their drinking in small measure. Cooper, Japan, 40.

7 Lach, Donald Frederik or idem and Van Kley, Edwin, Asia in the Making or Europe I–III (Chicago and London 1965–1993) I/I, 258–62Google Scholar. Valignano was not enamoured of Indian culture (ibid., 280).

8 This becomes clear, for example, from Newe / wahrhaffte / auηführliche Beschreibung / der jüngstabgesanden japonischen Legation gantzen Raiη […], Dillingen 1587 (Kapitza ed., Japan I, 163 – quoted in the following ‘Raiη’) where it says ‘gleichwohl man auch sagt / daη in Japon weisse Leuth sein / welches wol zu glauben / dieweil es ein kalt Land / Jedoch sein dise Japonischen Herren (villeicht wegen der so langen vnnd weiten Rabeeta; etwas entferbt) mehrers thails Oelbraun / […]’

9 Montanus, Arnoldus, Denckwürdige Gesandschafften der Ost-Indischen Gesellschaft in den Vereinigten Niederländern / an unterschiedliche Keyser von Japan (Amsterdam 1670) 52Google Scholar: ‘[…] seind weis / gegen die andern Indischen Völckern zu rechnen, aber sonst / gegen die Europer / gelblicht / und ohne lebendige Farbe’.

10 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (OAG) Tokyo, ed., Engelbert Kaempfers Geschichte und Beschreibung von Japan I–II and commentary vol. (Berlin et al. 1980Google Scholar) [from now on quoted Kaempfer, Geschichte] I, 110. As far as Kaempfer is concerned, cf. in particular the research work of Detlef Haberland, e.g. idem, ‘Zwischen Wunderkammer und Forschungsbericht - Engelbert Kaempfers Beitrag zum europäischen Japanbild’ in: Croissant, Doris and Ledderose, Lothar eds, Japan und Europa 1543–1929 (exhibition catalogue Berlin 1993) 83–93Google Scholar, who, on 83, mistakenly believes that Kaempfer’s work ‘initially had no effect in Europe’. Cf. the literature referred to in note 17 below.

11 de Couto, Diogo, Da Asia de - -, I–XIV (Lisboa 1778–1788)Google Scholar, particularly II/2 (Dec. V, liv. VIII, cap. XII), 266: The Japanese were said to be ‘homems mais alvos, que os Chins’. Cf. the overview for the Japanese in Cooper, Japan, 37: ‘The Japanese are white, although not excessively pale as the northern nations but just moderately so’ (João Rodrigues Giram, 1604); 38: ‘The women are moderately pretty, with a rather pale complexion […]’ (Francesco Carletti, about 1600, printed 1701); 39: ‘The women are white and usually of goodly appearance’ (Bernardino de Avila Giron, 1604) or also Kapitza ed., Japan I, 288: ‘brauner Gestalt’ (O.van Noort, 1601); 376: women white, but not colourless (J. Saris, 1617); 460–461: men ‘ziemblich’, women ‘gar weiη’ (C.C. Fernberger, 1621/28); 585: ‘an Farbe den Spaniern nicht ungleich’ (C. Schmalkalden, 1642/52); 612: Japanese men ‘gelb / jhre Weiber aber kurtz vnd weiη / weil sie nicht viel auηkommen’; 633: ‘weiη wie die Europäer’ (M. Thevenot, 1663); 660: ‘Geel-Braun’ (C. Hazart German translation 1678, Dutch original edition 1667–1671); 678: men ‘gelblicht’, women who ‘mehrentheils in Häusern bleiben / […] so weiη / als die Europeer sein mügen’ (J. Andersen, 1669). D.G. Pomp, the first Dutchman in Japan, also described most Japanese as being white. Kootte, Tanja G., ‘A Distant Land of Silver’ in: van Raay, Stefan ed., Imitation und Inspiration. Japanese Influence on Dutch Art (Amsterdam 1989) 7–13Google Scholar, 8. J. Nieuhof also found little difference between the Japanese and the Europeans: Nieuhof, Gezantschap II, 56.

12 Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste, Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise I–IV (Paris 1735) II, 80Google Scholar: ‘La couleur de leur visage n’est pas telle que nous le disent ceux qui n’ont vu de Chinois, que sur les côtes des Provinces Méridionales. A la vérité, les grandes chaleurs qui regnent dans ces Provinces […] donnent aux Artisans & aux gens de la campagne, un teint basané & olívâtre; mais dans les autres Provinces, its sont naturellement aussi blancs qu’en Europe […]’.

13 Cf. e.g. quotation by Xaver, Saint Franz in Cameron, Nigel, Barbarians and Mandarins. Thirteen Centuries of Western Travelers in China (New York and Tokyo 1970) 150Google Scholar; Pedro Morejón, Historia y relatión de lo sucedido en los reinos de Iapon y China, […] desde el año de 615 hasta el de 19 (Lisboa 1621) 104v: ‘gente blanca’; Trigault, De expeditione, 65: ‘Sinica gens ferè albi coloris est, nam nonnulli è prouincijs ob vicinitatem zonae torridae subfusci sunt’. Letter of die Franciscan friar Paolo da Gesù to Pope Gregor XIII on the Chinese whom he had seen chiefly in Canton (!): ‘sono di color bianco’ (quoted according to Marcellino da Civezza, Storia universale delle Missioni Francescane VIl/2 (Prato 1891) 899); Martino Martini, De bello tartarico historia (3rd edition Coloniae 1654) 19–20: Tartars as well as Chinese: ‘albo colore’; Henri de Feynes, Voyage faict par terre depuis Paris Jusques à la Chine (Paris 1630) 164, describes the skin of the Chinese as ‘fort blanc’. The same does Samuel Purchas, Hakluytvs Posthumus orPurchas his Pilgrimes I–FV (London 1625) III, 410: ‘very white’. Similarly, for example, die compiler Johann Christoph Wagner, Das mächtige Kayser-Reich Sina / und die Asiatische Tartarey […] (Augspurg 1688) 139: The Chinese women were ‘insgemein uberaus schön / lieblich und anmudiig […] weiη von Haut und Braun von Augen’. More details (also on the following) are included in Walter Demel, ‘Wie die Chinesen gelb wurden. Ein Beitrag zur Frühgeschichte der Rassentheorien’, Historische Zeitschrift 255 (1992) 625–666, in a considerably extended Italian version as a monograph: idem, Come i cinesi divennero gialli. Alle origini delle teorie razziali (Milano 1997). A shortened version with a few added reflections on die European view of the outward appearance of the Japanese has been published in Japanese under the title: idem, Tschûhokujin-wa-dono-yô-ni-shite-Ocirc;schoku-Jinshu-ni-nattaka – Yôroppajin-no-Ajia-Kan-no- Hensen, Dai-242-Kai-Sutaffu-Semonar, Gakujutsu-Kokusai-Kôryû-Sankô-Shiryô-Shû, 247, Meiji-University (Tokyo 2000). Like the Chinese, the Japanese are less and less frequently described as being ‘white’ after 1750. Cf. the sources in Kapitza ed., Japan II, 433: ‘bleyfärbig’ (Allgemeine Historien der Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande, 1747–1774); 486: ‘Olivenfarbe’ (F.M. Abbé de Marsy, German translation, 1756); 507: ‘braune Gesichts-farbe’ (I. Kant).

14 González de Mendoza, Historia, 24. Regarding Japanese diligence, cf. e.g. Kapitza ed., Japan I, 296, 354, passim.

15 Cf. e.g. Guillaume-Thomas[-François] Raynal, , Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes I–X (Genève3rd edition 1781) I, 124, 151Google Scholar.

16 Jo[hannes] Petrus [Giovanni Pietro] Maffei<us>, Historiarum Indicarvm libri XVI, selectarum item ex India Epislolarum eudem interprete Libri IIII (Venetiis 1589) 206: ‘Mortalitatis incommoda, famem, sitim, estum, algorem, uigilias, laboresque admirabili patientia tolerant. In lucem editi, uel hyeme summa, protinus lauandi ad flumina deferuntur’.

17 These personal traits were already discussed in J. Alvarez, cf. Kapitza ed., Japan I, 63–64. The Japanese reminded the Jesuit missionary Cosme de Torres of the Ancient Romans: easily offended, proud, belligerent, impatient, resolute, brave, quickly taking up arms for the sake of honour, they respected their elders, made every effort to keep their word and detested unworthy acts such as adultery. According to Torres, they did not, however, concern themselves much with the law and usually resorted to violence to settle their differences. This was, of course, at a time when, as Torres rightly observed, power was in the hands of the rulers of the provinces. Lach, Asia 1/2, 677–678. Cf. e.g. the sources up to 1640 in Cooper, Japan, 42–45, for the 18th century Karl Peter Thunberg’s […] journeys to Africa and Asia, in particular to Japan during the years of 1772 to 1779, German translation dated 1792, here according to Kapitza ed., Japan II, 741–742. Concerning the image of the Japanese in Germany which is quite similar on this point: Kreiner, Josef, ‘Deutschland -Japan. Die frūhen Jahrhunderte’ in: idem ed., Deutschland -Japan. Historische Kontakte, Studium universale III (Bonn 1984) 1–53Google Scholar, here in particular 20; Peter Kapitza, Japan in der deutschen Literatur des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts’ in: Josef Kreiner ed., Japan-Sammlungen in Museen Mitteleuropas, Bonner Zeitschrift für Japanologie 3, 49–57; idem, ‘Engelbert Kaempfer und die euräopaische Aufklärung. Zur Wirkungsgeschichte seines Japanwerks im 18. Jahrhundert’ in: Kaempfer, Geschichte, commentary vol., 41–63. Philipp Franz v. Siebold, the nineteenth-century authority on Japan, also had a similar impression. Cf. his account in Herbert Scurla ed., Reisen in Nippon. Berichte deutscher Forscher des 17. u. 19. Jahrhunderts aus Japan. Engelbert Kaempfer - Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff - Philipp Franz von Siebold (Berlin/GDR 1969), here 370, 388, 420, 437, 442, 465, 503, 508, 516, 537, 543.

18 ‘Raiη’ (Kapitza ed., Japan I, 155–156, quoted 155: ‘weit von aller Jungen Leuth / frech vnd freyheit’; ‘der gemeine Mann / Handwercks Leuth / vnd Taglouml;hner / sein … / bescheiden und erbar’; ‘so guoter Höflicher Sitten / als weren sie lange zeit / an vnd bey einem hof auferzogen’; ‘holdselig vnd freundlich’.

19 Fr[ançois] Carons und Jod. Schoutens, Wahrhaftige Beschreibungen zweier mächtiger Königreiche / Jappon und Siam […] Denen noch beigefüget Johann Jacob Merckleins Ost-Indische Rase, German edition (Nürnberg 1663) [quoted in the following: Caron, Beschreibungen], 114–115: ‘sagen / der Verstand komme mit den Jahren; und gute Maniern nämlich warden schon mit der Zeit von sich selbst folgen: Also daη die Kinder nicht anderst / als mit guten Worten / und freundlicher Unterweisung aufgebracht werden’. Very often, however, Europeans criticised the spreading of abortion, the selling, abandoning or killing of children in East Asia. Cf. e.g. Barrow, John, Travels in China (London 1804) 167–169Google Scholar; Meiners, Christoph, ‘Ueber die Natur der Völker […]’, Göttingisches historisches Magazin von C. Meiners and L.T. Spittler VII/2 (Hamburg 1790)Google Scholar, here according to Kapitza ed., Japan II, 788 – a very complex subject in which Christian ideas were and are still of considerable importance.

20 Kaempfer, Geschichte II, 194: ‘hohe Schule aller Höflichkeit und guten Sitten’.

21 Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat, De l'esprit des his I–II (Paris (ed. Garnier-Flammarion) 1979)Google Scholar, here XIX, 16.

22 For example, the first missionary to China, Ruggiero, said in a letter from Macau dated 25 January 1584 in: Nuovi Auuisi del Giapone, con alcuni altri della Cina del LXXXIII, et LXXXIV. Cauati dalle lettere della Compagnia di GIESV (Veneu’a 1586) 171: ‘Con questi Cinesi bisogna procedere coõ gran destrezza et soauità, et non con feruori indiscreti’.

23 Trigault, De expeditione, 70–74.

24 Diego Pantoja, Carta del Padre […] para el Padre Luys de Guzmatilde; Prouinicial en la Prouincia del Toledo. Su fecha de Pequin […] a nueue de Março de mil y seyscientos y dos años (Seville 1605) 115v; cf. Nieuhof, Gezantschap II, 37; Pinot, Virgile, La Chine el la formation de l’esprit philosophique en France (1640–1749) (Paris 1932) 407Google Scholar; Guy, Basil, The French Image of China before and after Voltaire, Besterman, Theodore ed., Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century XXI (Geneva 1963) 230Google Scholar.

25 Navarrete, Domingo Fernández, Tratados Historicos, Politicos, Ethicos y Religiosos de la Monarchia de China (Madrid 1676) 71Google Scholar.

26 Pinto, Fernāo Mendes, Peregrinação e outras obras, ed. by Saraiva, António, I–IV (Lisboa 1961–1984) II, 207–208Google Scholar; cf. Gaspar da Cruz in: Boxer, Charles Ralph, South China in the Sixteenth Century. Being the Narratives or Galeote Pereira, Fr. Gaspar da Cruz, O.P., Fr. Martin de Rada, O.E.S.A. (London 1953) 142Google Scholar.

27 González de Mendoza, Historia, 119–120.

28 Nieuhof, Gezantschap I, 47: ‘Is dit in't Heidendom? Wy zÿn in't Paradÿs’.

29 Pantoja, Carta, 112.

30 Trigault, De expeditione, 70, 74; Nieuhof, Gezantschap II, 41.

31 Pantoja, Carta, 72v; J. Alvarez, according to Kapitza ed., Japan I, 63.

32 Cf. e.g. Trigault, De expeditione, 71. Only the Augustinian friar Martin de Rada regarded the skilful Far Eastern use of chopsticks as ‘somewhat smutty’. According to Boxer, South China, 287.

33 Johann Jacob lsqb;Jacob] Merklein.Journal […] (Nürnberg 1663), cited according to Kapitza ed., Japan I, 637.

34 Caron, Beschreibungen, 111: ‘wann der Wanst voll ist’, ‘bis er vom Wein entladen ist’.

35 For China: Gonzalez de Mendoza, Historia, 36: ‘grandísima limpieza’; for Japan e.g. Rodrigo de Vivero, Relacion [beginning of the seventeenth century], according to Kapitza ed., Japan I, 354.

36 E.g. Nieuhof, Gezantschap II, 59.

37 Nieuhof, Gezantschap I, 88, said, for example, that pigs were to be seen so often in Nanchang ‘dat men de straten nauliks gebruiken kann’. Nevertheless, the streets were not so dirty since the droppings were collected and sold in rural areas. The same applies - if only because of the lack of fertilisers - to Japan which would explain the low occurrence of epidemics. Susan B. Hanley, ‘Tokugawa Society: Material Culture, Standard of Living, and Life-Styles’ in: Hall, John Whitney ed., The Cambridge History of Japan IV: Early Modern Japan (Cambridge et al. 1991) 660–705, 697–698CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On p. 679 it is said that during the early modern ages hygienic standards in Japan were certainly higher than in Europe, but in both cases not as high as today’s standards.

38 Semedo, Imperio, 36: ‘ […] (permitasenos el dezirlo, porque todo son imagenes de atencion, i providencia en el uso de las cosas) para limpieza en las latrinas generales en toda vivienda. Este se vende por las calles, ademas de averle en las tiendas; i en ninguna manera ha de ser escrito, porque a tener qualquiera letra, es entre ellos sacrilegio el usar dèl en esta parte’. Kaempfer, Geschichte II, 173–174, not only describes a Japanese toilet but also a bathhouse as extremely hygienic.

39 The Travels of Peter Mundey in Europe and Asia, 1608–1668 […], cited according to Kapitza ed., Japan I, 512.

40 Cf. e.g. Cooper, Japan, 46–47; Kaempfer, Geschichte II, 257.

41 Regarding China, e.g. Gaspar da Cruz (in: Boxer, South China, 149–150); Nieuhof, Gezantschapl, 115; Fernández Navarrete, Tratados, 16. Regarding japan, e.g. Kaempfer, Geschichte II, 187, who ibid., 10 described Japanese men as ‘der Wollust sehr ergeben’.

42 J. Alvarez: Kapitza ed., Japan I, 64–65; Cf. Cooper, Japan, 64–65; Lach, Asia 1/2, 658–659, 687; Pierre F. Souyri, ‘Luis Fróis et l’histoire des femmes japonaises’ in: Carneiro, Roberto and de Matos, Arturo Teodoro eds, O século cristāo do japāo (Lisboa 1994) 629–644Google Scholar, notes that the relative freedom of Japanese women in the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, in contrast to later times, was probably a reality - including the possibility of acquiring a divorce, even though the formal procedure had to be initiated by the husband.

43 Caron, Beschreibungen, 113; Bernhardus Varenius, Descriptio regni Japoniae (Amsterdam 1649), here according to Kapitza ed., Japan I, 574–575, who points out that Japanese men regarded women only as sex objects, serving their relaxation needs and giving birth to their children.

44 E.g. Martin de Rada (in: Boxer, South China, 182–183); Gonzalez de Mendoza, Historia, 39; Semedo, Imperio, 48. In the eighteenth century, too, Japanese women generally seem to have had considerably more personal freedom than Chinese women, or at least this is asserted by Carl Peter Thunberg, Resa uti Europa, Africa, Asia, förrättad aren 1770–1779, I–IV (Upsala 1788–1793), here according to Kapitza ed., Japan II, 724.

45 Trigault, De expeditione, 99: ‘veritatis parum amans’.

46 Cf. Pinot, Chine, 83.

47 Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Itinerario. Voyage ofte schipvaeti […] naer oost ofte Portugaels Indien 1579–1592, 2nd edition, ed. by H. Terpstra, I–III, Werken uitgegeven door de Linschoten-Vereeniging, vols 57, 58, 60 ('s-Gravenhage 1955–1957) I, 105; Nieuhof, Gezantschap I, 71, 109, 126. On this and the following: Demel, Walter, Als Fremde in China. Das Reich der Mitte im Spiegelfrühneuzeitlicher europäischer Reiseberichte (Munchen 1992) 152–160Google Scholar.

48 Semedo, Imperio, 37–38: ‘Sachar las pechugas a una perdiz, i ocupar los huecos dellas con otra cosam i cerzir la rotura por donde ellas salieron, se haze cõ tal maestria, que si el comprador no es algun Argos […] se ve con solas plumas i huessos’; ‘lo que es más, pintarle de manchas apetitosas […] i de colores naturales, eligiendo para la venta lo màs dudoso del crepusculo del dia’.

49 Caspar da Cruz, here according to Boxer, South China, 129.

50 Montesquieu, Esprit XIX, 20: ‘le peuple le plus fourbe de la terre’; ‘avidité inconcevable’.

51 According to Pinot, Chine, 392.

52 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, ‘Discours’, 1st part in: idem, Œuvres complètes (ed. Gallimard, ) I–V (Paris 1990–1995)Google Scholar here III, 11 (also on the following).

53 Cooper, Japan, 47–48, 260–263.

54 Kapitza ed., Japan I, 63.

55 J. Alvarez (1547) and F. Xaver (1552), according to Kapitza ed., Japan I, 63 and 80.

56 More admiringly e.g. Jūrgen Andersen, Orientalische Reise-Beschreibungen (Schleswig 1669) (Kapitza ed., Japan I, 678); Caron, Beschreibungen, 92. As a consequence of superstitious hopes of an imaginary paradise in A. Montanus (Kapitza ed., Japan I, 695). On fearlessness in the face of death even on the part of children: Erasmus Francisci, Neu-polirter Geschicht-, Kunst-, und Sitten-Spiegel ausländischer Völcker […] (Nürnberg 1670) (ibid. I, 772–773).

57 Mendes Pinto, Peregrinção II, 152: ‘[…] os Chins não são muito homens deguetra, porque além de serem pouco préticos nela, são fracos de ânimo e algum tanto carecidos de armas, e de todo faltos de artilharia’.

58 Juan de Palafox y Mendoça [Mendoza], Historia de la conqvista, de la China por el Tartaro (Paris 1670) 225–231 (also on the following).

59 On this subject: Demel, Walter, ‘China im 17. Jahrhundert - Kriegsgebiet oder Friedensreich?’ in: Asch, R. et al. eds, Frieden und Krieg in der Frühen Neuzeit (München, Paderborn 2001) 543–560Google Scholar.

60 Lach, Asia I/I, 297–301.

61 González de Mendoza, Historia, 81, 86–87; Pantoja, Carta, 43–44; Antonio Herrera [y Tordesillas], Historia general del mundo […] I–II (Madrid 1601) II, 49, 54. The Spanish side also thought about conquering Japan. This was declared absurd by Valignano in 1579. But the later failure of Hideyoshi’s Korea expedition served as proof for him that the Japanese did not present a threat to the (Spanish) Philippines. Their ships were said to be to of poor quality. Moran, Josef F., The Japanese and the Jesuits. Alessandro Valignano in Sixteenth Century Japan (London et al. 1993) 53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62 Pantoja, Carta, 89v: ‘rentilde;ir con armas, mas su rentilde;ir es darse algunas puñadas, descabelarse, y tirarse de la melena, y en dos palabras quedan amigos’.

63 Cf. e.g. Caron, Beschreibungen, 83, 92.

64 Herrera [y Tordesillas], Historia II, 54; de Guzman, Luis, Historia de las missiones qve han hecho los religiosos de la compañia de jesus, para predicar es sancto Euangelio en la India Oriental, y en los Reynos de China y Iapon (Alcala 1601) I, 322Google Scholar.

65 Louis Le Comte [ed.], Nouveaux mémoires sur l'état présent de la Chine I–III (vol. III by Charles Le Gobien) (Paris vols I and II, 3rd edition 1697, vol. Ill 1698), here I, 35.

66 Fernández Navarrete, Tratados, 30–31.

67 de Castanheda, Fernāo Lopes, Hisória do descobrimento e conquista da India pelos Portugueses [I–X, 1551–1561], ed. by de Almeida, M. Lopes, I-II (Porto 1979) I, 919Google Scholar; de Goes, Damiam [Damiāo de Gois], Chronica do feliçissimo Rei Dom Emanvel IV (Lisboa 1567) 31vGoogle Scholar: ‘em cousas de arte mecanica passam todallas nações do mundo’.

68 González de Mendoza, Historia, 40; Maffei, Libri, 94v.

69 Pantoja, Carta, 78; Trigault, De expeditione, 12–25, in particular 18–25.

70 Cf. e.g. Ricci's comments on Chinese painting: ‘Sie wissen nicht in Ōl zu malen, noch malen sie Schatten auf ihren Bildern, und so sind ihre Bilder tot und ohne Leben’. Quotation according to Thiel, Josef Franz, ‘Die chrisdiche Kunst in China’ in: Völker, Haus und St. Augustin, Kulturen ed., Die Begegnung Chinas mit dem Christentum (exhibition catalogue, St. Augustin 1980) 27–51, 42Google Scholar.

71 B. Varenius, according to Kapitza ed., Japan I, 582–583, quoted 583: ‘von solcher Qualität des Stahls, daη europäisches Eisen davon auf den ersten Anhieb zerspringt’.

72 Cf. Demel, Walter, ‘Abundantia, Sapientia, Decadencia - Zum Wandel des Chinabildes vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert’ in: Bitterli, Urs and Schmitt, Eberhard eds, Die Kenntnis beider ‘Indien’ im frühneuzeitlichen Europa, Akten der Zweiten Sektion des 37. deutschen Historikertages in Bamberg 1988 (Munchen 1991) 129–153Google Scholar.

73 Cf. Hendrik Budde, ‘Japanische Farbholzschnitte und europäische Kunst. Maler und Sammler im 19. Jahrhundert’ in: Croissant/Ledderose eds, Japan, 164–177, here: 164–165; idem, ‘Japanmode in Europa’ in: ibid., 425–426.

74 ‘Raiη’ in: Kapitza ed., Japan I, 157–158, quoted 157: ‘gäntzlich verlacheten vnd für nicht[s] hielten’.

75 Cf. Lach, Asia 1/2, 658. The Japanese Tadayoshi even talks of the ‘longing of the Japanese for faraway continents and their predilection for exotic subjects’ (‘Sehnsucht der Japaner nach fernen Kontinenten und ihrefr] Vorliebe für exotische Thematik’). Miyoshi Tadayoshi, ‘Japanische und europäische Kartographie vom 16. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert’ in: Croissant/Ledderose eds, Japan, 37–45, quoted 40.

76 Demel, Fremde, 107–108. The devices seemed, however, to have been partly damaged during transport.

77 Zechlin, Egmont, ‘Die Ankunft der Portugiesen in Indien, China und Japan als Problem der Universalgeschichte’, Historische Zeitschrift 157 (1938) 491–526Google Scholar, here 520–526; Villiers, John, ‘The Portuguese and the Trading World of Asia in the Sixteenth Century’ in: Milward, Peter ed., Portuguese Voyages to Asia and Japan in the Renaissance Period (Tokyo 1994) 3–13, 3–4Google Scholar.

78 Silva, Maria Manuela and Âlvarez, José Marinho, Ensaios luso-nipénicos (Lisboa 1986) 121–123Google Scholar.

79 Cf. e.g. Vos, Ken, ‘Les Hollandais au Japon’, Oranda. Les Pays-Bos au Japan 1600–1868 (exhibition catalogue, Brussels 1989) 10–11Google Scholar, who emphasises that in the eighteenth/nineteenth centuries Japan was one of the little known countries in Europe which had distinguished themselves by their distance from Europe and the quality of their inimitable products.

80 Cf. e.g. B. Varenius in: Kapitza ed., Japan I, 580.

81 Already the Jüngste Zeytung auη dem weitberühmten (!) Insel jappon […] (Dillingen 1586), points out that the Japanese would seem to have known the art of printing longer than the Europeans, ‘sintemalen man von jren Anfang nit weifi’ (Kapitza ed., Japan I, 150).

82 Lach, Aria I/I, 263.

83 This assertion was made at least by ‘Raiη’ in: Kapitza ed., Japan I, 155.

84 For Japan: Franz Xaver to the Jesuit College in Coimbra, Kangoshima, 5 October 1549 in: Ramusio ed., Navigationi I, 381, 383; letter from Cochin dated 29 January 1552 in: Kapitza ed., Japan I, 80; for China, e.g. Trigault, De expeditione, 20.

85 E.g. regardingjapan: Franz Xaver (cf. Lach, Asia 1/2, 665, according to which in reality they were monastic/convent schools); regarding China: Linschoten, Ilinerario, 99.

86 François Noël, Sinensis lmperii libri classici sex (Pragae 1711), preface.

87 Medhurst, W[alter H.], China: Its State and Prospects, With Especially Reference to the Spread of the Gospel (London 1838) 171Google Scholar: ‘The number of individuals acquainted with letters in China, is amazingly great, one half of the male population is able to read’. In the sixteenth century Fróis noted that European women rarely, but noble Japanese women almost always were able to write. Ana Maria Costa-Lopes, ‘Imagens do Japāo. ‘Do que toca as mulheres, e de suas pessoas e costumes’ no Tratado de Luís Fróis’ in: Carneiro/Teodoro de Matos eds, Século, 591–601, on 597.

88 Nipperdey, Thomas, Deutsche Geschichte 1800–1866. Bürgerwelt und starker Staat (München 1983) 463CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

89 Cf. e.g. Franz Xaver's letter of 29 January 1552 (Kapitza ed., Japan I, 79–80), and Linschoten, Itinerario, 119.

90 E.g. Trigault, De expeditione, 27–28; ‘Raiη’ in: Kapitza ed., Japan I, 159.

91 According to Lach, Asia 1/2, 688.

92 Pantoja, Carta, 90v.

93 E.g. Alexandre de Rhodes, Sommaire des divers voyages et missions apostoliques du R.P. […] a la Chine & autres Royaumes de l'Orient (Paris 1653) 25. This is already suggested by the first jesuit missionary to China, Michele Ruggiero, who wrote in a letter dated 7 February 1583 - reproduced in Nvovi Awisi del Giapone, con alcvni altri della Cina del LXXXIII, et LXXXIV. Cauati dalle lettere della Compagnia di GIESV (Venetia 1586) quoted 161 – that Chinese writing is so difficult because of the neverending abundance of characters, ‘che gl’isteηi Cinesi vi spendono gli ani’. Hegel, for example, stated ‘daη bei der Hieroglyphenschrift [what is meant by this is Chinese writing] die Beziehungen konkreter geistiger Vorstellungen verwickelt und verworren werden müssen’. Quoted according to Du-Yul Song, Aufklärung und Emanzipation. Die Bedeutung der asialischen Welt bei Hegel, Marx und Max Weber (Berlin 1987) 22.

94 Palafox y Mendoza, Historia, 227.

95 Even the so-called Tokugawa constitution stipulated that the samurai should devote themselves as seriously to literature as to weapons. When the internal wars ended and the country was cut off from the outside, the samurai turned from being enfeoffed vasalls to paid civil servants. Georg B. Sansom, Japan. Von der Frühgeschichte bis zum Ende des Feudalsystems (German translation, Essen 1975) 446; John Whitney Hall, Das japanische Kaiserreich, Fischer Weltgeschichte 20 (Frankfurt/M. 1968) 195–196.

96 [P.-C. Le Jeune], Observations in: Kapitza ed., Japan II, 692, 694–695 (cf. e.g. ibid., 339, 466, 509).

97 Trigault, De expeditione, 29–34; Nieuhof, Gezantschap II, 19–22.

98 B. Varenius, according to Kapitza ed., Japan I, 578–579, quoted 578: ‘Eine durch Regeln und Bücher festumrissene Jurisprudenz im heutigen Wortsinn haben sie nicht’.

99 E.g. Lopes de Castanheda, Histéria I, 919; Linschoten, Itinerario, 104–105, admired the technical design of the wind-driven Chinese vehicles which, by the way, were imitated in his home country Holland.

100 José Acosta, Historia naturaly moral de las Indias(Sevilla. 1590) 406;Herrera [y Tordesillas], Historia ll, 47; Trigault, De expeditione, 29; Semedo, Imperio, 71–72, 76–78; Nieuhof, Gezantschap II, 19.

101 Tadayoshi, Kartographie, 38.

102 de Magaillans, Gabriel [or Magalhäes], Nouvelle relation de la Chine (Paris 1688) 75Google Scholar.

103 Aduarte, Diego, Historia de la Prouincia del Sancto Rosario de la orden de predicadores en Philippinas, Iapon, y China I–II (Manila 1640) 118Google Scholar; Kircher, Athanasius, China Monumentis qua Sacris quà Profanis, Nee non uarüs Naturae et Artis Spectaculis Aliarumque rerum memorabilium Argumentis illustrata (Amstelodami 1667) 98, 169Google Scholar; de Rhodes, Sommaire, 20–21.

104 Cf. already Haithonus Armenus, ‘De Tartaris liber’ [1307 (!)] in: Simon Grynaeus, Nouvus orbis regionvm ac insulavm veteribus incognitarvm (Basilae 1532) 419; Samuel Pufendorf, De lure Naturae et Gentium [libri VIII, 1672], ed. by G. Mascovius (Frankfurt/M. and Leipzig 1759), reprint Frankfurt/M. 1967, II 3 § 7: ‘Iamdudum a Chinensibus Europaeis vnus duntaxat oculus relictus, caeteri ceocitatis damnati’.

105 E.g. Linschoten, Itinerario, 106.

106 According to Watson, Walter, ‘Interpretations of China in the Enlightenment: Montesquieu and Voltaire’ in: Actes du colloque international de sinologie, vol. 2: Les rapports entre la Chine et l'Europe au temps des lumières (Paris 1980) 16–37, 16Google Scholar, the question of the real age of Chinese culture was one of the main points of controversy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries where China was concerned. Cf. Mungello, David, Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology, Studia Leibnitiana, Supplementa 25 (Stuttgart 1985) 102–103, 124–26Google Scholar.

107 Quoted according to Dawson, Raymond, The Chinese Chameleon: An Analysis of European Conceptions of Chinese Civilization (London et al. 1967), here 68.Google Scholar

108 Pinot, Chine, 416.

109 Guy, Image, 302.

110 Armogathe, Jean-Robert, ‘Voltaire et la Chine: Une mise au point’ in: Actes du colloque international du sinologie 1: La mission francaise de Pékin au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris 1976), here 28, 33–35Google Scholar.

111 Cameron, Barbarians, 150; Magaillans, Relation, 109.

112 E.g. Bouvet, Joachim, Portrait historique de l'empereur de la Chine (Paris 1697) 146–147Google Scholar; Kircher, China, 169, 212.

113 Christian Wolff, ‘Rede von der Sittenlehre der Sineser’ [1721] in: idem, Gesammelte kleine philosophische Schriften Vl (Halle 1740), J. École etal. eds, Christian Wolff. Gesammelte Werke, 1st div., 21/6 (Hildesheim and New York 1981) 529–662, here 236, note 140. On the proceedings against Wolff, e.g. Hanns-Martin Bachmann, Die naturrechlliche Staatslehre Christian Wolffs, Schriften zur Verfassungsgeschichte 27 (Berlin 1977) 38–41.

114 Quoted according to Engelbert Jorissen, Das Japanbild im ‘Traktat’ (1585) of Luis Frois, Portugiesische Forschungen der Görresgesellschaft, 2nd ser., VII (Münster 1988) III: ‘E sào muitos de seus custumes täo remotos, peregrinos e alongados dos nossos que quasi parese incrivel poder aver tào opposita contradisão em gente de tanta policia, viveza de emgenho a saber natural como tem’. Cf. Kapitza ed., Japan 1, 132–139. On the early reporters, see Michael Cooper, ‘Frühe europäische Berichte aus Japan’ in: Croissant/ Ledderose eds, Japan, 46–55. On the importance of the Dutch-Japanese contacts cf. e.g. Ken Vos, ‘Dejima und die Handelsbeziehungen zwischen den Niederlanden und dem vormodernen Japan’ in: ibid., 72–82.

115 E.g. in Louis Moréri, Le grand diclionnaire historique […] (new edition Paris 1732), and in Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix, Histoire el description générate du Japan I–II (Paris 1736), cf. Kapitza ed, Japan I, 807 and II, 338.

116 Maffei, Libri, 207v; Giovanni Botero, Le [or Delle] relationi universali I–IV (Venetia, 2nd edition 1597/1598), here II/2, 97–100; Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Irmela, ‘Iaponia Insula – Die verspiegelte Fremde’ in: Japan und Europa 1543–1929, Essays (exhibition catalogue, text volume Berlin 1993) 9–35, 11Google Scholar.

117 Jorissen, Japanbild, 111–112 with note 27, quoted 112 (letter of 6 January 1584).

118 Kapitza ed., Japan II, 126, 338.

119 Kaempfer, Geschichte I, 101–111, quotation 111: ‘ihre Sittenlehre, Künste und Wissenschaften von den Sinesern […] bekommen’.

120 This was already noted by Matteo Ricci: Trigault, De expeditione, 24–25. Cf. Braudel, Fernand, Sozialgeschichte des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts 1: Der Alltag (München 1985), 306–312Google Scholar, who points out that the Chinese used both sitting positions and, accordingly, had both types of furniture: the older type which was adopted, for example, also by the Japanese as well as the ‘European’ one adopted since about the 13th century.

121 Inazo Nitobe, Bushido. The Soul of Japan (new edition Rutland/Vm. and Tokyo 1969, 12th reprint 1977). My friend Professor Takuro Wada, Osaka, was kind enough to give me this book as a present in 1980 which was written one hundred years ago but which, in my opinion, is still important for understanding Japanese culture.

122 Linschoten, Itinerario, 120: ‘Haer religie is by naer gelijck die van Chinen’. This statement applies, of course, only to Buddhism.

123 ‘Sie essen auf dem Boden wie Mohammedaner und mit Hölzern wie Chinesen’. J. Alvarez (1547), quoted according to Kapitza ed., Japan I, 64.