244 Ayao Ktiwaki 



The first arrival of the Portuguese shi])s in the sixteenth century 

 is niade significant hy tlie historical fact of its being the occasion of 

 the first ini])ortation of fire arms and the opening of the country to 

 commerce with Europe. 8oon thereafter the Jesuit missionary, Saint 

 Francis Xavier, arrived in Kyushu from his station in India. During 

 his two years' stay in Japan, Xavier not only ardently pn'eached the 

 Gospel but also commanded a great popular interest by his talks on 

 astronomical and geographical subjects. As Xavier had left Eurojje 

 before the time of the publication of the theory of revolution of the 

 earth by Copernicus, his aFtionomical knowledge was confined to that 

 of the geocentric theory well fitting his scholastic doctrines. For the 

 Japanese scholars who had no knowledge other than that of the Indian 

 and Chinese cosmology, the teachings of Xavier were unexpected 

 revelations. There were, however, some scholars, such as Haj^ashi Kazan, 

 who did not a]»prove of the new ideas and said to one of the- Catholic; 

 missionaries that the man was to be pitied who insisted on the existence 

 of a heaven underneath our earth. Xavier and his Catholic successors 

 also brought over with them some clocks and spectacles. At this j^eriod, 

 the Japanese people in general got the impression that in the West, 

 besides a special religion of its own, various mechanical inventions and 

 devices were also undergoing development. Some were even afraid of 

 these devices as tricks of magic. As Japan was involved in a long- 

 period of internal wars, there was little chance here for these newly 

 imported ideas to attain scientific developnient. In China, on the 

 contrary, the European missionaries busied themselves not only in 

 jtropagating Christian doctrine but also in pul)lishing, with the aid of 

 the Imperial Court, lai-ge volumes on astronomy and calendology in the 

 Chinese language, these being in their turn later imported into Japan. 

 In the meanwhile, the internal feuds in Japan gave place to political 

 unification and the restoration of peace. Notwithstanding this, tlie 

 government entertained certain suspicions against Christians, then forbade 

 strictly any belief in Christianity and finally took steps, for])idding 

 absolutely the importation of all European books and their Chinese 

 translations. The Portuguese and Si)aniards were expelled from the 

 country and the Dutch only were permitted to reside in Nagasaki for 

 the sole purpose of trade. There were appointed in Nagasaki hereditary 

 official inter] ureters of conversation in the Dutch language but they were 

 forl)idden to read jirinted books in that language. 



Thus ended tjie first period of Japan's intercourse with the West 



