Rodrigues the Interpreter +4 R TE D A L'I N CO A D E 1 A- PAM COMPOSTA PELLO ‘Pa ire I/.t) Ro Irigucz, Portugués da (ofa- nhia de IE S V diuidida mures LIVROS. COM LICENÇA DO ORDI- , NARIO E SVPERIORES EM Nangafaqui no Collegio de Iapâoda Çompanhia de l E S V Anno. 160.^ TITLE PAGE OF RODRIGUES* JAPANESE GRAMMAR Michael Cooper, S.J. RODRIGUES THE INTERPRETER An Early Jesuit in Japan and China New York • WEATHERHILL • Tokyo The Endpaper Design: A reproduction of the conclusion of a letter from Rodrigues at Macao to the Jesuit general at Rome dated 22 January 1616 (frequently cited in Chapter 14). Note that here, as in all his letters, Rodrigues signed him­ self with the abridged form of his name, João Roiz, and added a flourish in the form of a cross with four dots. For such formal purposes as having his name in type on the tide page of a book he would use the full form of his surname. First edition, 1974 Published by John Weatherhill, Inc.t 149 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10016, with editorial offices at 7-6-13 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106, Japan. Copyright © 1974 by Michael Cooper; all rights reserved. Printed in the Republic of Korea. ICC 73-88466 ISBN 0-8348-0094-2 For Ian and Edith Contents Preface 9 Prologue 15 1 A Passage to the Indies 20 2 Miyako and Mimikawa 37 3 Jesuit Formation 52 4 Toyotomi Hideyoshi 70 5 The Arrival of the Bishop 105 6 Ecce Quam Bonum 120 7 Post-Mortem 140 8 A Letter to Rome 163 9 Dream Within a Dream 182 10 Business at Court 190 11 Things Grammatical 220 12 A Question of Commerce 239 13 The First of the Many 248 14 News from China 269 15 The História 295 7 8 CONTENTS 16 Business in Macao 313 17 The Last Adventure 334 Epilogue 354 Appendices 1. The Date of Rodrigues’Birth 359 2. The Extant Letters of Rodrigues 360 Notes 361 Bibliography 385 Index 396 Eight pages of illustrations follow page 160 Preface Perhaps the most surprising feature of this study of João Rodrigues is that the Portuguese Jesuit has had to wait three and a half centuries for a biography. Few men have led a more eventful life. During his fifty-six years in Japan and China, he won the friendship of the rulers Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, took an active role in the silk trade between China and Japan, and for some years was the most influential European in Nagasaki or, for that matter, in the entire country. He somehow found time to compose the first grammar of the Japanese language ever to be published, and in his old age he wrote a lengthy account of Japanese culture that has astonished modem readers by its discernment and wealth of detail. He traveled widely throughout China, was involved in the Rites Controversy, conducted official business on behalf of Macao, and finally took part in military skirmishes between Ming defenders and Manchu invaders. Admittedly, a one-volume biography cannot do full justice to every aspect of Rodrigues’ varied career, and the present work is intended as an introduction to his life and work. Further material is available in European archives to expand the contents of most chapters into detailed monographs. As it is, only four chapters have been devoted to his activities during a residence of more than twenty-three years in China. Apart from the fact that my own interests lie principally in the study of Japanese relations with the West, it was in Japan, rather than in China, that Rodrigues made his most significant contribution. But it would be a pity if the more spectacular episodes of his 9 10 PREFACE career made the reader lose sight of the wider aspects of Japanese- Western contacts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For, all apart from personalities and individual exploits, this account is fundamentally concerned with the encounter between men belong­ ing to two distinct cultures. The fact that this meeting, or, as some would have it, this clash, took place four centuries ago does not in the least diminish its relevance today. Some of the actors taking part in the drama, including often enough the protagonist himself, may at times appear prejudiced and narrow-minded, but one may question whether we in our twentieth-century glass houses are justified in throwing stones at them for their lack of understanding and flexibility. Prejudice persists to this day; it may be less explicit, more subtly disguised, but the basic gap between East and West, between Oriental and Occidental ways of thought and action, has still to be bridged. Perhaps in the very nature of things no complete solution may ever be possible, but this is no excuse for not aspiring to the ideal. Simply to condemn the people of earlier centuries is a fruitless and negative exercise. To investigate the past in the hope of gaining new understanding and of avoiding a repetition of mistakes is far more constructive and worthwhile. As has been wisely ob­ served, those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it, and nowhere is this maxim more apposite than in the field of Japanese-Western relations. But these somewhat somber observations should not deter the reader from regarding this biography as a straightforward narrative of an adventurous life. For this reason the uninspiring reference notes giving details of manuscript and printed sources have been rightfully banished to the decent obscurity of the end of the book, where hopefully they may prove to be of some interest to the specialist in search of further information. Practically all the material of the biography has been obtained from European sources. This exclusiveness was certainly not from choice, but simply because Japanese primary sources have little or nothing to offer on the subject. While this lack obviously prevents our obtaining a more balanced and integrated assessment of Rodrigues’ life and achieve­ ments, the silence in the Japanese records has at least the negative merit of warning us not to overestimate the Western impact on Japan during the period in question. Had the Japanese of that time