Battle of Fukuda Bay

Coordinates: 32°44′42″N 129°49′30″E / 32.745°N 129.825°E / 32.745; 129.825
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Battle of Fukuda Bay
Part of the Sengoku period and Japanese–Portuguese conflicts

Nanban Ship, Kano Naizen
Date18 October 1565
Location
Fukuda Bay, Nagasaki, Kyushu
32°44′42″N 129°49′30″E / 32.745°N 129.825°E / 32.745; 129.825
Result Portuguese victory
Belligerents
Matsura clan  Portuguese Empire
Commanders and leaders
Matsura Takanobu Portugal João Pereira
Strength
8~10 large junks,
~60 smaller boats,
Several hundred samurai		 1 carrack,
1 galleon,
80+ European crewmen,
Uncounted number of slaves and Chinese merchants
Casualties and losses
3 junks sunk,
over 70 killed,
200 wounded[1]		 8 killed[1]
Battle of Fukuda Bay is located in Japan
Battle of Fukuda Bay
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Location within Japan

The Battle of Fukuda Bay (福田浦の戦い, Fukudaura no tatakai) in 1565 was the first recorded naval battle between Europeans (the Portuguese) and the Japanese.[2] A flotilla of samurai under the daimyō Matsura Takanobu attacked two Portuguese trade vessels that had shunned Matsura's port in Hirado and had gone instead to trade at Fukuda (now within Nagasaki), a port belonging to the rival Ōmura Sumitada. The engagement was part of a process of trial and error by the Portuguese traders to find a safe harbour for their carracks in Japan that eventually brought them to Nagasaki.

Background[edit]

In 1543, Europeans reached Japan for the first time when a junk belonging to the Chinese wokou pirate lord Wang Zhi carrying Portuguese traders was shipwrecked at Tanegashima. The Portuguese introduced the arquebus to the Japanese during this chance encounter, which gave the Japanese, embroiled in the bloody Sengoku period at the time, a powerful weapon with which they conducted their internecine wars. The discovery of Japan was attractive to Portuguese merchants and missionaries alike; it gave the merchants a new market to sell their goods, and the Jesuit missionaries eyed Japan for new converts to Christianity. The warlords of Kyushu vied to entice the Portuguese carracks (called the Black Ships by the Japanese) into their harbours since the ship also brought considerable wealth to their fiefdoms in addition to guns.[3]

The Portuguese initially made Hirado their preferred port of call since it was familiar to their wokou partners; however, they also visited the ports of Kagoshima, Yamagawa, Hiji, and Funai from time to time.[4] The Jesuits felt that the carracks should take turns visiting each port of Kyushu so the priests could cover more ground and convert more people,[5] but the merchants had other priorities: the carracks had to land at a harbour that protected their valuable cargo from the wind and weather, and a stable port of call was essential to build a reliable clientele.[6] The daimyō of Hirado, Matsura Takanobu, at first accommodated the missionaries due to their association with the Portuguese traders,[7] but became hostile once he felt they overdid their evangelization by burning books and destroying Buddhist images. Matsura Takanobu evicted the missionaries from Hirado in 1558 and did not allow them to return for five years.[8] In 1561, 15 Portuguese were killed in Hirado in a brawl with the Japanese, while a captain was killed in Akune, marking the first recorded clashes between Europeans and the Japanese.[9]

Faced with such events, the Portuguese found it prudent to find a safer port to call. Yokoseura (in present-day Saikai, Nagasaki) was found to be a suitable harbour. The local daimyo, Ōmura Sumitada, was so receptive to the teachings of Christianity that he converted in 1563, making him the first Christian daimyo.[10] The Portuguese landed at Yokoseura in 1562 and 1563. In November 1563, Ōmura vassals, incensed at his conversion to Christianity, rebelled, and Yokoseura was burned down during the chaos. The Portuguese returned to Hirado the next year, despite Jesuit warnings, but Matsura Takanobu allegedly started a fire that burned a substantial part of the Portuguese goods. The Portuguese could not safely conduct their trade in Hirado.[11]

Battle[edit]

In 1565, the Captain-major João Pereira sailed his carrack to the port of Yokoseura, intending to go to trade in Hirado. He was dissuaded from doing so by the Jesuits in Yokoseura. He was persuaded to head to another Ōmura anchorage at the bay of Fukuda, within present-day Nagasaki, accompanied by a small galleon belonging to Diogo de Meneses, the captain of Malacca.[12] Deprived of his potential pickings, Matsura Takanobu sought to punish the Portuguese for switching ports and conspired with Sakai merchants who had come to Hirado for naught. Matsura promised to divide the booty with the Sakai merchants in return for the loan of eight to ten of their large junks and added up to sixty smaller Japanese boats to form a flotilla carrying several hundred samurai to sail to Fukuda.[13] The Jesuit fathers in Hirado sent warnings to Pereira when they realized what Takanobu was doing, but Pereira dismissed the threat. He was, hence, surprised when he saw the Hirado flotilla approach.[14]

The flotilla attacked the carrack in the morning of 18 October,[15] when most of the crew was on the shore and could not return to the ship in time. This left only about 80 Europeans on the flagship, with an unknown number of enslaved Black people and Chinese merchants taking refuge. The Japanese boats focused on boarding the larger carrack and, at one point, climbed aboard from the stern and shot a musket at Pereira, denting his helmet. The Japanese then entered the great cabin, briefly holding the captain-major hostage and carrying off his writing desk before being repelled.[16] The flotilla's focus on the carrack left it exposed to the Portuguese galleon, which was able to support the carrack by catching the Japanese flotilla in the two ships' crossfire. The cannons wrought such havoc on the frail Japanese boats that the Hirado forces, after losing three ships and over 70 men, in addition to over 200 wounded, withdrew to their base crestfallen. The battle lasted two hours.[15] The victorious carrack, suffering only eight dead,[1] set sail for Macao at the end of November.[14]

Aftermath[edit]

The Jesuits in Hirado wrote jubilantly of the Portuguese victory, which increased the Portuguese's prestige in the Japanese's eyes, "for the Japanese had hitherto only known us as merchants, and rated us no better than the Chinese".[14] The Japanese also came to respect the superiority of Western gunpowder weapons.[11] The Portuguese continued to call at Fukuda and the nearby Kuchinotsu for a few more years. Still, they felt the terrain of these ports was unsuitable and kept searching until Ōmura Sumitada offered the Jesuits the nearby port of Nagasaki, a mere fishing village at the time, that the Portuguese found to be perfect. From 1571 onward, the Portuguese traders focused their activities on Nagasaki, turning it into the hub of Japan's foreign trade and its window to the West until the 19th century.[17]

See also[edit]

  • Siege of Moji (1561) – A Portuguese carrack joined a Japanese battle in what became the first European naval bombardment on Japanese soil.
  • Battle of Manila (1574) – A Chinese and Japanese pirate fleet attacked Manila intending to capture the city.
  • Battle of Cagayan (1582) – A fleet of Asian pirates led by the Japanese attacked and was defeated by a Spanish flotilla.
  • Nossa Senhora da Graça incident (1610) – A Japanese flotilla attacked a Portuguese carrack that ended in the latter's sinking.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Iwata 2004, p. 116.
  2. ^ Boxer 1948, p. 37.
  3. ^ Boxer 1951, p. 96.
  4. ^ Elisonas 1991, p. 304.
  5. ^ Boxer 1951, p. 97.
  6. ^ Boxer 1951, pp. 98–99.
  7. ^ Elisonas 1991, p. 310.
  8. ^ Elisonas 1991, p. 322.
  9. ^ Boxer 1948, p. 33.
  10. ^ Elisonas 1991, p. 323.
  11. ^ a b Elisonas 1991, p. 325.
  12. ^ Boxer 1963, pp. 30–1.
  13. ^ Boxer 1948, p. 36; Boxer 1963, p. 31.
  14. ^ a b c Boxer 1963, p. 31.
  15. ^ a b Hesselink 2015, p. 38.
  16. ^ Boxer 1948, p. 36; Hesselink 2015, p. 38.
  17. ^ Elisonas 1991, p. 326.

References[edit]

  • Boxer, C. R. (1948). Fidalgos in the Far East, 1550–1770. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
  • Boxer, C. R. (1951). The Christian Century in Japan: 1549–1650. University of California Press. GGKEY:BPN6N93KBJ7.
  • Boxer, C. R. (1963). The great ship from Amacon: annals of Macao and the old Japan trade. Lisbon: Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos.
  • Elisonas, Jurgis (1991). "7: Christianity and the daimyo". In Hall, John Whitney; McClain, James L. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 4. Cambridge Eng. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 235–300. ISBN 9780521223553.
  • Hesselink, Reinier H. (2015). The Dream of Christian Nagasaki: World Trade and the Clash of Cultures, 1560-1640. McFarland. ISBN 9780786499618.
  • Iwata, Yusaku (2004). Sakoku wo kanseisaseta otoko Matsudaira Izunokami Nobutsuna 鎖国を完成させた男松平伊豆守信綱 [The man who completed the seclusion of the country, Matsudaira Izunokami Nobutsuna] (in Japanese). Bungeisha. ISBN 9784835572246.
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