This article presents a time-series analysis of the development of the trade involving Chinese and Portuguese merchants and the Ryukyu Islands and Kyushu during the early and mid-1540s, based on a thorough examination of the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Ryukyuan, Portuguese and Spanish sources.
Beginning in the 1530s, not only did the excavation of the Iwami 石見 Mine result in the rapidly increasing export of Japanese silver to Korea and the Ryukyus, but also the merchants of the Zhangzhou 漳州 Bay region in southern Fujian expanded their trade with the Ryukyus. Then the Zhangzhou merchants began to make their way to Tanegashima 種子島 and southern Kyushu, followed by merchants from Chaozhou 潮州 in eastern Guangdong.
Then in 1541, overheated competition for the Ryukyuan trade resulted in the Chen Gui 陳貴 Incident ending in armed conflict between the Zhangzhou and Chaozhou merchants. The following year Portuguese boarded a Chinese junk which drifted into Ryukyuan waters, prompting more Portuguese to set sail for the Ryukyus in 1543 and discover that silver was the only currency used in settling international transactions. That same year, the Portuguese first arrived on Tanegashima aboard another Chinese junk that seems to have been owned by Wang Zhi 王直, who later became a leading figure of wako. The collapse of the pepper trade bubble in China seems to have formed the backdrop to this episode.
In 1544, Zhangzhou merchants who were active in the South China Sea region began to promote trade with Kyushu, thus attracting Japanese merchants to the Zhangzhou Bay region. The rapid increase in the movement of Fujian smuggling ships to the Korean coast also reflected the boom in trade with Japan in Zhangzhou Bay, as the domestic market declined due to a nationwide famine. Also in 1544 many Chinese trading ships rushed to the port of Konejime 小根占 in the southernmost part of Kyushu, on which some Portuguese were onboard. Many of these vessels seem to have departed from or called at the port of Patani on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula, which was an entrepot for Portuguese privateers in the illicit China trade. By 1546 Portuguese merchants, such as Jorge Alvares and Antonio de Faria, were sailing their own vessels to the ports of Kyushu.
Thus by the mid-1540s, through the interaction of the expansion of trade with the Ryukyus and Kyushu by the Chinese merchants, and the advance of the Portuguese into maritime East Asia, the East China Sea region entered an epoch characterized by the rapid expansion of maritime trade along with the frequent occurrence of naval conflict.

View full abstract

In 1891, Kume Kunitake (1839-1931), a historian and faculty member at Tokyo Imperial University, published his article “Shinto is the Ancient Custom of Heaven-Worshipping Rituals” (Shintō wa saiten no kozoku). This publication led to Kume’s expulsion from the university the following year and contributed to the interruption of the government’s historiographical project in 1893. Initial research by Miyachi Masato traced writings by Shintoists published in various journals both before and after the Incident, placing the event in the context of conflict between “State Shinto” (kokka shintō) and historiography. However, Miyachi’s conclusions have been criticized by subsequent scholars, who argue that the concept of State Shinto was not appropriate for analyzing the case.
Although previous scholarship has identified several factors as causes of the Kume Incident, most of these were already in place before Kume’s article or persisted afterward, making it difficult to assert that they were the primary causes of the incident. Following studies by Ono Motonori and Liu Linlin, this article attempts to reexamine the incident, focusing on various usages of the term “State Shinto”. To begin with, before the incident, a serious controversy arose around the question of whether prefectural and township shrine priests could be teachers of “Sect Shinto” (kyōha shintō). There was even a debate among Shintoists regarding whether Shinto in its entirety should be unified under “State Shinto” as an ethical system (cf. Yamazaki Taisuke, 1840-98) or be reformed into “the most perfect and splendid religion” (cf. Isobe Mushagorō, 1865-1911). Despite their differences, both sides agreed that ancestral rituals, represented by the Ise Jingū shrine─contemporarily called as the “Mausoleum” (sōbyō) ─were the basis of Shinto.
Kume wrote his article with the local shrine priests’ issue and treaty revision in mind, referring to a study “On the Ancient Religion of China” by Tanimoto Tomeri (1867-1946). Kume argued that Shinto could not be considered a “religion”, while also noting it was originally a monotheistic custom. This monotheist theory, which cut off ancestral rituals such as those of the “Mausoleum” from Shinto, was, we argue, the major cause of the incident.
Following the incident, both Shinto groups above endeavored to reform themselves and construct a new type of “Shintology” (shintōgaku), with Kume as their common anathema. Meanwhile, scholars in religious studies began to explore Shinto through the lenses of “nature worship” and “ancestor worship.” Researchers like Tanimoto Tomeri and Torii Ryūzō (1870-1953) reevaluated Kume’s article within these emerging contexts. In essence, this shift in debates surrounding “State Shinto” reveals a quest for repositioning “religion(s)”, in general, with a particular focus on the concept of “nature worship”.

View full abstract