During Japan’s Edo period (1603-1867), the Edo Shogunate enforced the country’s policy of national isolation, which prohibited both Japanese from going abroad and foreigners from visiting Japan. Only two countries, the Netherlands and China (Ching Dynasty), were the exceptions to this law, but they were permitted to trade only in the city of Nagasaki.
In 1636, the Shogun raised funds from 25 wealthy Nagasaki merchants for the construction of a small artificial island to be known as Dejima, in order to accommodate the arrival of Portuguese merchants, who were to be allowed access to Japan. Only three years later, however, the Shogunate announced its fifth isolation order, prohibiting Portuguese ships from coming to Japan; all Portuguese were deported, and Dejima was deserted.When a Dutch trading firm was relocated to Dejima from Hirado in 1641, Dejima began to function as a center for science and economics, and became a focal point for the European culture that flowed into Japan - and so it remained for the next 218 years.It had long been known that Japanese soy sauce was exported to Europe during the Edo period, as substantiated by records found in Le Encyclopedie,by Denis Diderot, published in France in 1765. Yet until recently, details concerning the amounts of such exports, the actual export routes and the soy sauce manufacturing sites remained unclear.Recent research has revealed new details concerning soy sauce export during that era. In this presentation, Soy Sauce Export in the Edo Era, we feature information on trade activities and soy sauce exports during those years of national isolation,based on records found in the Nagasaki Trading Firm Jounal, prepared by the Nagasaki Trading Firm of the Dutch East India Company.
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