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The Japonian Charters. The English and Dutch Shuinjo

1990; Sophia University; Volume: 45; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2384848

1880-1390

Derek Massarella, Izumi K. Tyler,

Historical Influence and Diplomacy

O i NE of the most interesting archival discoveries concerning the earliest relations between Japan and Britain is that of the original shuinjo *W Va (vermilion-seal document) issued by Tokugawa Ieyasu [IIS, granting the English East India Company trade privileges in Japan. The document was given to John Saris, commander of the Company's Eighth Voyage, in October 1613 and is now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.1 The discovery was made accidentally in 1985 by Professor Hayashi Nozomu 4t, Toyoko Gakuen Joshi Tanki Daigaku, and Izumi K. Tytler while examining Japanese documents in the library's collection. It is written in a clear hand on thick creped Japanese paper, otaka danshi tE,8H f, the kind employed for formal documents. Two such sheets are used, one full size and the other half-size, pasted together with the joint endorsed on the back with a black seal of unrecognizable pattern. Ieyasu's vermilion seal is at the top left; five kanji RW unlike the Dutch one, which