Dawn of the Japan-Vietnam Relationship in the Early Modern Period

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the early contact between Japan and Vietnam—both Tonkin and Cochinchina—during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries by investigating letters sent from Vietnam to Japan. In order to better understand the letters and their background, a paleographical approach is adopted. The oldest letter was sent from Tonkin by Nguyễn Cảnh Đoan, a high-ranking military officer residing in Nghệ An Province. The addressee, “King of Japan,” is a fictitious person, which indicates that Vietnamese officials did not understand contemporary Japan. Two entrepreneurs took advantage of this gap in knowledge to deceive Nguyễn Cảnh Đoan into sending the letter to a nonexistent King. The second and third letters were sent from Nguyễn Hoàng to Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Terasawa Masanari (a chief officer of Nagasaki), not to Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Matched Nanban terms

• people Tokugawa Ieyasu
• people Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Provenance

• openalex (W7133517689)
  2026-04-30T19:58:45.211008+00:00

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