Red Seal Ships - Timeline

Timeline

• 1543 - Portuguese sailors (among them possibly Fernão Mendes Pinto) arrive in Tanegashima and transmit the arquebus.
• 1570 - Japanese pirates occupy parts of Taiwan, from where they prey on China.
• 1571 - Establishment of the port of Nagasaki for trade with the Portuguese, under the supervision of Gaspar Vilela and Tristão Vaz da Veiga.
• 1577 - First Japanese ships travel to Cochinchina (Southern Viet Nam).
• 1588 - Interdiction of wakō piracy by Hideyoshi.
• 1592 - First recorded mention of Red Seal ships.
• 1600 - William Adams reaches Japan in April.

- Olivier van Noort encounters a 110 tons Japanese junk in the Philippines in December.

• 1604 - First known Red Seal permit.
• 1609 - The Dutch open a trading factory in Hirado.
• 1613 - England opens a trading factory in Hirado.

- Hasekura Tsunenaga leaves for his embassy to Europe. He returns in 1620.

• 1614 - Expulsion of the Jesuits from Japan.

- William Adams starts engaging in Red Seal trade to Southeast Asia.

• 1615 - Japanese Jesuits start to proselytise in Indochina.
• 1621 - Jan Joosten manages 10 Red Seal ships.
• 1623 - Yamada Nagamasa sails from Siam to Japan, with an Ambassador of the Siamese king Sontam. He returns to Siam in 1626.

- Jan Joosten sinks in the South China Sea.

• 1624 - Japanese Jesuits start to proselytise in Siam.

- Interruption of relations with Spain.

• 1628 - Death of Yamada Nagamasa in Siam.

- Destruction of Takagi Sakuemon's (高木作右衛門) Red Seal ship in Ayutthaya by a Spanish warship.

- Destruction of the Japanese settlement in Ayutthaya by Siamese forces.

• 1633 - Re-establishment of the Japanese settlement in Ayutthaya (300-400 Japanese), with returnees from Indo-China.
• 1634 - Travel of Yamada Yahei (山田弥兵衛) from Japan to Indo-China and Siam.
• 1636 - Introduction of the Sakoku policy and interdiction of foreign travel or return from foreign countries for Japanese nationals.