August 25 – First Europeans in Japan?

Posted on August 25, 2020

On this date in 1543, at least two Portuguese men landed on the island of Tanagashima. The trader and explorer António Mota and Francisco Zeimoto are considered the first Europeans known to have set foot on Japanese soil.

Mota and Zeimoto had been traveling in a Chinese junk (ship), along with about 100 East Asians, when they were swept off course in a bad storm.




We know very little about Mota's and Zeimoto's interaction with the land or people of Japan; all we do know tis hat the Portuguese men introduced handheld guns to Japanese people - and history shows us that Japan saw mass production of firearms in the following decades!

The Chinese junk was soon repaired, and Mota and Zeimoto sailed off to the rest of their lives. We don't know a thing about "the rest of their lives," either.

Here is the recording of Mota's demonstration of a gun, by an unknown Japanese artist:



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