The Nanban trade or the Nanban trade period in Japanese history extends from the arrival of the first Europeans - Portuguese explorers, missionaries and merchants - to Japan in 1543, to their near-total exclusion from the archipelago in 1614, under the promulgation of the "Sakoku" Seclusion Edicts. Nanban is a sino-Japanese word which originally designated people from South Asia and South-East Asia. It followed a Chinese usage in which surrounding "barbarian" people in the four directions had each their own designation, the southern barbarians being called Nanman. In Japan, the word took... on a new meaning when it came to designate Europeans, the first of whom were Portuguese, arriving in 1543. The word later came to encompass the Spanish, the Dutch and the English. The word Nanban was thought naturally appropriate for the new visitors, since they came in by ship from the South, and their manners were considered quite unsophisticated by the Japanese.
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