The First European Description of Japan, 1585 (4 page)

Japan is not a place which can be controlled by foreigners, for the Japanese are neither so weak nor so stupid a race as to permit this, and the King of Spain neither had nor ever could have any power or jurisdiction here. Therefore, there is no alternative to relying on training the natives in the way they should go and subsequently leaving them to manage the churches themselves.”
⁶⁰

A Catholic Church staffed by non-Europeans was unheard of at the time, owing to the long-held belief that only Europeans could be entrusted with the mysteries and sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Jesuit correspondence published in Europe cast the Japanese as civilized, the Jesuits also reported that the Japanese had traditions of infanticide, suicide, and pederasty. In part, to assuage any European doubts about the wholesomeness of the Japanese, Valignano sent four Jesuit-educated Japanese teenagers to Europe as envoys to Rome in 1582. The teenagers arrived in Lisbon in 1584 and over the course of twenty months visited some seventy towns and cities where they were received by Catholic elites, including the regent of Portugal, the King of Spain, the doges of Venice and Genoa, and two popes (Pope Gregory died and was replaced by Sixtus during the legates long stay in Rome).

The four young Japanese converts were ostensibly actors in a conversion drama orchestrated by the Jesuits to impress Europe's Catholic elite and to secure their support of the Jesuit enterprise in Japan.
⁶¹
The drama as such featured a Japanese “other” who was paradoxically civilized yet antipodean (a central theme of the
Tratado
), who was rendered fully civilized or un-problematically so as a result of conversion to Christianity. This drama was staged by repeatedly having the Japanese appear in native dress and by having the Japanese perform their “curious” Japanese customs (e.g. tea ceremony) alongside what were understood as more advanced, European behaviors. For example, the Jesuits had the Japanese dress in kimonos and give public demonstrations of eating with chopsticks. Often on the same day the Japanese would attend Mass, and while in Rome, the opera, appropriately attired in European clothing and dutifully exhibiting the
appropriate respect for and understanding of European ritual (e.g. removing hats, genuflecting).
⁶²

The
Tratado
and the education of European Jesuits

The visit to Europe by the Japanese teenagers was still two years in the future when Valignano, in 1580, convened a momentous meeting of the Jesuit order in Bungo, Japan. At the meeting the father visitor unveiled his new programs to train Japanese converts for the priesthood and to train European Jesuits to behave in accordance with Japanese language and culture.
⁶³
We believe Frois drafted the
Tratado
at the behest of Valignano as a teaching tool, to clarify for European Jesuits fundamental differences in Western and Japanese cultures. Again, what is significant is Frois' explicit recognition that one need not think and behave as a European to be civilized. Thus in the title page of the
Tratado
, he essentially warns his reader not to be surprised that “…one can find such stark contrasts in customs among [us and] people who are so civilized, have such lively genius, and are as naturally intelligent as these [Japanese].”

Certainly the substance of the
Tratado
is consistent with Valignano's plan to train European Jesuits to behave as Japanese. As noted, Frois drafted over six hundred distichs that deal with a wide variety of customs, ranging from sleeping to gift giving. The
Tratado
at the same time reveals a particular concern with behaviors and beliefs that were critical to Jesuit success in Japan. Chapters one through three, for instance, focus on gender and child-rearing practices. Several generations before the Jesuits arrived in Japan, the nation's unity, which had been maintained by the Emperor and his military commander, the shogun, was shattered when hundreds of once-cooperative nobles and “knights” (samurai) as well as militant abbots began putting their own interests above those of the Emperor and the handful of clans that had ruled Japan for centuries. The very lives of European Jesuits—never mind whether they could proselytize—depended on the Jesuits comprehending the complex gender roles of the nobility and the samurai class, and how these roles were inculcated in Japanese children.

Because the samurai, nobility, and Buddhist elite enjoyed particular privileges (e.g. distinctive clothing, weapons, riding a horse) and often were supporters of the “arts,” Frois also has chapters on subjects as different as horses, letters and writing, and drama and music. A chapter with seemingly less obvious import,
chapter six
, focuses on Japanese customs with regard to eating and drinking, including
chanoyu
or the “way of tea.” The eating habits of Europeans (e.g. use of hands, emphasis on meat) deeply offended the Japanese and early on became a serious stumbling block in terms of Japanese respect for Europeans and by extension, Christianity. The Japanese, in fact, considered Europeans “slobs” (
sucios
).
⁶⁴
One of Valignano's first mandates was that European Jesuits eat in the manner of the Japanese (e.g. chopsticks, small bite-size portions, rice instead of bread, less meat). Valignano also mandated that Jesuit residences—built in the Japanese fashion (thus Frois'
Chapter 11
on architecture)—include a reception room where guests would be served tea by a
chanoyusha
, that is, somebody trained in tea etiquette.
⁶⁵
During the sixteenth century rather distinct Japanese traditions of consuming tea—one followed by Zen monks and the other by
literati
and nobles who shared poetry and their collections of Chinese art objects—merged to form
chanoyu
. The “way of tea” as defined by Sen Rikyu (1522–1591), which was embraced by Japanese warlords, combined the ritualized, contemplative sharing of tea with an engagement with art. Now, however, the art objects, particularly the tea service, were valued not because they were necessarily Chinese or expensive, but because they conveyed in their simplicity and rusticity transcendent truths (e.g. “chill,” “withered,” “lean”) that long had been celebrated by
renga
poets and appreciated by reclusive hermits and wandering monks. As Hirota has pointed out,
chanoyu
was all about the “…dissolution of the habitual, mundane frames of reference within which the things of the world are identified and gauged.”
⁶⁶

Frois' literary model, relativism, and comparisons

At the time Frois wrote, the term “tratado” or treatise was used to refer to a work that was explicitly pedagogical and didactic rather than argumentative in the Scholastic or modern sense of the term (i.e. a work that poses a question and then pursues it systematically, realizing a conclusion).
⁶⁷
As noted, the
Tratado
is not an argument
per se
about whether, for example, the Japanese were civilized. At the very outset of the
Tratado
(i.e. title page), Frois asserts this as a
“fact.” Working with this given, the
Tratado
describes some of the differences between European and Japanese customs. The
Tratado
as such, particularly Frois' use of the distich, was entirely consistent with Valignano's plan to engender a Jesuit understanding of Japanese customs or “frames of reference.” In this regard, Frois presumably drafted the
Tratado
with the idea that his couplets would serve as a point of departure for more nuanced discussion of Japanese behaviors and beliefs. This presumption seems warranted in light of Frois' use of qualifiers such as “generally” or “for the most part.” Moreover, Frois devoted much of the prologue to his
Historia
to a discussion of how comparing customs was potentially misleading. Consider, for example, Frois' discussion of the handkerchief and Japanese use of what today we call tissues or Kleenex:

Told that the Japanese blow their nose but once per handkerchief, the European reader will find it odd if not ludicrous. It is like being told that the kings of Malabar eat just once from the same plate. They eat on banana leaves, so when the meal is over they throw them away. Thus, when it is said that once a handkerchief has been spit in or blown upon, the Japanese throw it away without washing it, the following must be explained: the Japanese go about with many thin, handkerchief-like, folded papers in their pocket [bosom], instead of a handkerchief. As this paper is very cheap, for a very small outlay [of money], they can use as much as they please.
⁶⁸

The use of the distich as a point of departure was entirely consistent with the scholastic method, which often entailed posing a question to which there were discordant answers, supported by strong evidence. Contrasts that entailed contradiction
⁶⁹
functioned as a “hermeneutic irritant,” engendering insight, including the realization that two different things can be true at the same time (e.g. two societies with very different customs can both be civilized).
⁷⁰

One of the most influential examples of the pedagogical use of distichs is
The Distichs of Cato
, which was the most popular textbook on Latin and ethics during the Middle Ages.
⁷¹
Cato
was still prized during the sixteenth century (Erasmus, among others, published an edition) and very likely figured in Frois' education and that of fellow Jesuits.
⁷²
The
Disticha
Catonis ordinarily was read to students by school
masters who used the couplets as the starting point for a discussion of Latin grammar as well as matters of virtue and morality. In the prose introduction to the
Disticha Catonis
, “Cato” outlined his purpose, which paralleled Valignano's and Frois' concern with making sure that young Jesuits from Europe behaved properly in Japan:

When I noticed how very many men go seriously astray on the path of morals, I decided that their judgment should be aided and advised, especially so that they might live gloriously and attain honor. Now, Dearest Son, I shall teach you how to form good morals for your mind….
⁷³

Whatever Frois' literary model, or models, his distichs generally are neutral or explicitly respectful of Japanese customs. For instance, most of Frois' contrasts in
Chapter 2
, which focuses on women, steer clear of value judgments:

56. When wearing a head covering, women in Europe cover their faces all the more when speaking with someone; Japanese women must remove their scarf, for it is discourteous to speak with it on.

Of course, Frois was a product of his times, and not unlike modern ethnographers and ethnologists,
⁷⁴
he at times fashioned contrasts that implied that Japanese customs were less than rational. In
chapter 2
, for instance, Frois implicitly belittled Japanese names:

47. Among us, women's names are taken from the saints; the names of Japanese women are: kettle, crane, turtle, sandal, tea, bamboo.
⁷⁵

Worse yet—from the perspective of cultural relativism—are Frois' chapters on Buddhism and Buddhist monks (
Chapters 4
and
5
). Frois casts Buddhist monks as charlatans or money-grubbing pedophiles, ignoring the widespread abuses of his own Catholic Church, which was torn apart during Frois' own lifetime. It should be noted that Frois' “sins” in these two chapters cannot be attributed to ignorance, as Frois spent considerable time conversing with Buddhist monks. Indeed, Frois and fellow Jesuit Organtino Gnecchi-Soldo were tutored for a year by a former Buddhist monk.
⁷⁶
Because he was a Jesuit “on a mission from God,” Frois apparently was unwilling to entertain the possibility that Buddhism represented a reasonable alternative to Christianity.
⁷⁷
Moreover,
if, as suggested, Frois wrote for a young, European-Jesuit audience—an audience that would face ample challenges as missionaries in Japan—then one can well imagine Frois and Valignano not wanting to further try their faith by inviting meaningful comparisons between religions.
⁷⁸

While the
Tratado
does not always reflect the ideals of modern ethnology (i.e. cultural relativism; systematic, “objective” comparison) it comes surprisingly close, shedding valuable light on sixteenth century Europe and Japan. The reader will note in this regard that Frois chose to contrast Japanese with European, rather than Portuguese customs.
⁷⁹
Reading the
Tratado
, it becomes apparent from Frois' distichs on subjects such as food, architecture, drama, and religion that “Europe” for Frois meant Mediterranean Europe, namely Portugal, Spain, southern France, and Italy. This thoroughly Catholic part of Europe
⁸⁰
supplied the vast majority of Jesuits sent to Japan, particularly after 1570. For instance, the largest contingent of Jesuits sent to Japan was recruited by Valignano and sailed from Lisbon in 1574. Valignano brought with him seven Italians and over thirty
conversos
(!) that he had recruited from Jesuit colleges and houses in Spain.
⁸¹

Frois probably also spoke of European, as opposed to Portuguese customs because in 1548, when he left Europe, the idea of national identities was just emerging.
⁸²
The nation states we know today (e.g. Portugal, Spain, France, Italy) were in their infancy. People often were distinguished by regional dialects and customs, which coalesced in Europe's larger cities.
⁸³
Lisbon, in particular, was as cosmopolitan as any city in Europe and home to large numbers of merchants, craftsmen, artists, and adventurers
⁸⁴
from northern as well as southern Europe. Bankers from Italy and Germany, for instance, flocked to Lisbon, where they invested heavily in Portuguese ships that set sail for Africa, the Far East, and Brazil.
⁸⁵
Portuguese scholars as well as
the sons of Portuguese nobility often studied outside Portugal, in France, Italy, and Spain.
⁸⁶
The Portuguese art scene likewise was crowded with Flemish painters, some of whom settled in Lisbon and adopted Portuguese names (e.g. Francisco Henriques). The dominant influence on Portuguese literature in 1550 emanated from “Italy,”
⁸⁷
and correspondingly, printing houses in Venice supplied most of the books read in Portugal (and Spain).
⁸⁸
The Portuguese queen invariably was Castilian, and Castilians were prominent among Portugal's elite, so much so that Gil Vicente wrote close to half his theatrical works in Castilian.