Japanese Castaways as Source of Information on “the Other” Cultures in Times of Japanese Isolation

Japan is an island country located off the eastern coast of Asia. It lies on an archipelago of more than 6,800 islands. The largest of these are Honshu, Kyushu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Okinawa. The islands extend in an arch, roughly from northeast to southwest along the coast of the Eurasia mainland, from Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. This geographic location has shaped the Japanese people and their culture. First of all, through centuries Japanese drew patterns from Chinese civilization, however, in modern times, depending on both opportunities and needs, they also gained knowledge about other civilizations and cultures. Later, this knowledge was utilized, again depending on opportunities and needs, in the country. This, however, was not done without thorough thought; the Japanese drew conclusions and adjusted ideas to their patterns of culture. Values of “the others” were used to be confronted with their own traditional cultural values constituting the distinctiveness and the identity of the Japanese. This is why, periods of borrowing and adapting “other” patterns of culture were often followed by saturation, surfeit and then rejection, and even condemnation which was always connected with promoting native values. One of the extreme examples of this situation was the isolation policy introduced in early 1640s. Nearly all representatives of Western civilization were removed from the country, prosecutions of Christians became stronger, as their religion became a symbol of cultural values of the Other World. However, as a practical measure, the shoguns decided to leave “windows on the world” – officially in Nagasaki (Dejima Island), where the only Europeans allowed and only ones that could trade were the Dutch; and semi-officially in Tsushima, Ryukyu Kingdom and Ezochi (present-day Hokkaido). These “windows” provided access to knowledge and information from the rest of the world for over 200 years. Another, albeit illegal, source of information on “the others” were Japanese castaways, who managed to return to the country.