Compiled September 2026. Modern equivalents follow current administrative names, which change; the historical identifications follow published scholarship, which is unsettled for a handful of entries and says so where it is.
This is a lookup table. It takes the place names that turn up in the sources for the Portuguese century in Japan — Jesuit letters, voyage accounts, trade records, and the European maps drawn from them — and answers three questions about each: what the place was, why it appears in the record, and what it is called today.
The numbering is the page's address system. Entries run from 1 to 158, grouped in six regions, and the closing section on confusable names points back to them by number. A reader chasing an old spelling can arrive at any row without reading the rest.
This is not the site's short gazetteer, and the two are built to do different jobs. The gazetteer of key places covers twenty places that carry the story, with a written entry, coordinates and a position on a schematic map of the route. It is the place to start if you want to know which places matter. This page is the lookup layer beneath it: every name in the record, including the ones that matter only because a pilot wrote them down. Start there to read; come here when you have a name and need to know what it was.
Scope. The core period runs from about 1543, the conventional date of the Portuguese arrival at Tanegashima, to the exclusion of Portuguese shipping in 1639. Dutch activity after 1639 and a few earlier events are included where the record requires them. Many of these places belong to the wider Asian trading and missionary world rather than to any direct European–Japanese encounter: Nanban contact ran through Asian merchants, sailors, rulers and Christian communities as much as through Europeans, and a gazetteer that listed only the European stops would misdescribe the trade. For the commerce itself, see the guide to the Nanban trade; for the sequence of events, the complete timeline.
The last column is a modern equivalent, not a survival. "Where it is now" distinguishes a living settlement from a lost building, an abolished political unit and an obsolete name. It does not claim that anything from the sixteenth century stands on the spot.
Three status words are used, and they mean exactly this. Probable marks an identification that is likely but not settled. Provisional marks one that fits but rests on a name shared by several places. Unresolved means the spelling or description cannot safely be tied to any modern site, and no guess is offered — an old name's disappearance from modern maps is not by itself evidence that the settlement disappeared. In the "why it mattered" column, Contextual marks a place that is securely identified but for which no particular Japan-related episode is established; those entries are kept because the sources name them, and they are not given an invented visit, trading factory or missionary residence.
The trade's home ground. Entries 1 to 36 run from the great ports down to single anchorages, neighborhoods of Nagasaki, and islands named in sailing directions and nowhere else.
| No. | Historical name | Why it mattered | Where it is now |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nagasaki | From 1571, the principal port of the Portuguese trade, bringing Chinese silk through Macau in exchange for Japanese silver, and a major Jesuit center. Ōmura Sumitada ceded it to the Jesuits in 1580; Hideyoshi took control of it before the Tokugawa administration did. | Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan; a living port city. Its early waterfront has been extensively reclaimed and rebuilt. |
| 2 | Hirado | An important Portuguese destination in the 1550s, which later accommodated the Dutch and English trading establishments founded in 1609 and 1613. Dutch trade moved to Dejima in 1641. | Hirado City, Nagasaki Prefecture. The historic harbor survives; the Dutch trading-post museum includes a reconstructed warehouse. |
| 3 | Kagoshima | Francis Xavier landed here in August 1549 and began the first sustained Jesuit mission in Japan, under initially favorable Shimazu patronage. | Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture; the arrival and the mission are commemorated locally. |
| 4 | Funai (Ōita) | Ōtomo capital in Bungo and an early missionary base. Luís de Almeida established a hospital here, and Ōtomo patronage supported Christian teaching and exchange with Portuguese visitors. | The historic Funai district of central Ōita City, Ōita Prefecture. The name survives locally along with the castle site; the early mission buildings do not survive intact. |
| 5 | Yokoseura | Ōmura Sumitada opened the port to Portuguese trade in 1562. Its church and trading settlement were destroyed in 1563, which set off the search for a more secure harbor. | Yokoseura, Saikai City, Nagasaki Prefecture. The settlement and harbor still exist; Yokoseura Park commemorates the short-lived international port. |
| 6 | Fukuda | Portuguese ships used it from 1565, after the failure of Yokoseura. An intermediate stage in the drift of the trade toward Nagasaki. | Fukuda Honmachi and its harbor, Nagasaki City; still a coastal settlement. |
| 7 | Kuchinotsu | Port of the Arima domain, opened to overseas commerce in the 1560s. Portuguese carracks and missionary travelers used it through the development of the Kyushu trade. | Kuchinotsu-chō, Minamishimabara City, Nagasaki Prefecture; an active harbor and ferry port. |
| 8 | Yamagawa | A sheltered Satsuma harbor used in overseas commerce, including occasional Portuguese calls before Nagasaki became dominant. | Yamagawa, Ibusuki City, Kagoshima Prefecture; the harbor remains in use. |
| 9 | Hakata | A major merchant port that predated the Portuguese entirely, linking Japan to China and Korea. Its traders and networks distributed imported goods and connected northern Kyushu with Nagasaki. | Hakata, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture; the old merchant town is part of the modern city. Historical Hakata and the modern Hakata Ward are not identical in extent. |
| 10 | Usuki | Residence of Ōtomo Sōrin and a center of Christian patronage and Jesuit activity in Bungo, belonging to the same shifting institutional network as Funai. The precise sequence of college and novitiate foundations here needs source-level verification. | Usuki City, Ōita Prefecture. The castle site and historic town survive; the early Jesuit institutions do not remain as operating establishments. |
| 11 | Hiji | One of the Bungo harbors visited by Portuguese ships during the early, less concentrated phase of the trade. Its relevance is maritime access to the Ōtomo sphere. | Hiji Town, Ōita Prefecture, on Beppu Bay; still a coastal community. |
| 12 | Akune (Angune) | A Satsuma coastal port appearing in accounts of the routes around western Kyushu. A secondary harbor rather than a principal Portuguese base. | Akune City, Kagoshima Prefecture. "Angune" is an older European rendering. |
| 13 | Sendai | A Satsuma river settlement linking the interior to the coast, associated with Christian refugees and with early seventeenth-century missionary activity. | The former Sendai City, now the urban center of Satsumasendai City, Kagoshima Prefecture. This is 川内, and not Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. |
| 14 | Kyōdomari | Harbor at the Sendai River mouth, associated with a Dominican mission in the early 1600s and with Shimazu attempts to build Philippine connections. | Kyōdomari, Satsumasendai City, Kagoshima Prefecture, on the north side of the river mouth. The old church is a commemorated site, not a surviving building. |
| 15 | Takashima | The description of Fróis learning Japanese from Juan Fernández points to Takushima (度島), where he stayed in 1563 and 1564, and not to any of the islands named Takashima. A Sophia University study of the episode establishes the identification. | Takushima, Hirado City, Nagasaki Prefecture, an inhabited island north of Hirado Island. |
| 16 | Kabashima (Cabexuma) | A coastal landmark in sailing descriptions of the approach to the Nagasaki region. Old accounts describe a flat island, which fits the hilly modern island poorly, so the passage is worth checking against the original. | Probable: Kabashima / Kabajima (樺島), Nagasaki City, off the southern tip of the Nomo Peninsula and now bridge-connected. Distinct from the similarly named island in the Gotō group. |
| 17 | Yukishima | Named as an anchorage of the São Sebastião. Neither the spelling nor the event could be independently resolved. | Unresolved. An island near Hirado is meant, but neither a modern identity nor a disappearance can be established from this spelling. The voyage account itself, or the Japanese characters, would settle it. |
| 18 | Mogi | The port and its revenues formed part of Ōmura Sumitada's 1580 grant to the Jesuits, supporting the Nagasaki mission and its local economic base. | Mogi, Nagasaki City, on the eastern side of the Nagasaki Peninsula; still a harbor community. |
| 19 | Shiki | Seat of a local Amakusa lord and an early site of conversion and missionary work — an illustration of how much the small maritime lordships mattered. | Shiki, Reihoku Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, on the northwestern part of Amakusa Shimoshima; settlement and castle site remain identifiable. |
| 20 | Kamishima | Associated in the record with Gaspar Vilela. Christianity did spread through Amakusa, but that particular personal association needs verification. | Provisional: Amakusa Kamishima, the eastern of Amakusa's two main islands, within present-day Kamiamakusa and Amakusa cities, Kumamoto Prefecture. "Kamishima" is not a unique Japanese island name. |
| 21 | Fukae (Fukaye) | In a Nagasaki Bay context this is an old name for the settlement that grew into Nagasaki, and not necessarily the separate Shimabara Peninsula town of Fukae. | Probable: Nagasaki's historical harbor settlement, absorbed into the modern city. The precise extent of "Fukae" depends on which source is being read. |
| 22 | Nagoya (Hizen) | Hideyoshi's headquarters for the invasions of Korea from 1592. Missionaries and foreign envoys met his regime here, and it held a vast concentration of daimyo and armies. | Nagoya Castle ruins, Chinzei-machi, Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture. The castle is lost above ground apart from remains; the site and its associated camps are preserved. This is not Nagoya in Aichi. |
| 23 | Yatsuhiro | A Higo port associated with Konishi interests and with Christian communities, linking southern Higo to the wider Kyushu mission and trading network. | Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture. "Yatsuhiro" is an older or imperfect rendering of Yatsushiro. |
| 24 | Udo | Uto was Konishi Yukinaga's principal castle town in Higo. His Christian patronage made it matter to the mission until his defeat and execution in 1600. | Uto City, Kumamoto Prefecture; the castle is a historical site rather than an intact fortress. |
| 25 | Kumamoto | Political center of Higo under Katō Kiyomasa and his successors, and so relevant to regional rivalry, to the control of neighboring Christian communities, and to the political setting of the mission. | Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture. Kumamoto Castle survives as a complex of historic remains and restored or reconstructed buildings. |
| 26 | Kuma | An inland district ruled by the Sagara, part of the political and commercial geography that accounts of Higo describe. No European establishment there is established. | Kuma region, centered on Hitoyoshi and Kuma District, Kumamoto Prefecture; a region, not one town. |
| 27 | Amakubo | Recorded as the birthplace of the Japanese Jesuit painter Mâncio Otao, which ties the locality to the production and transmission of Christian art. | Unresolved, within historical Ōmura territory, Nagasaki Prefecture. No confident modern settlement match was found. Not to be confused with Amakubo in Tsukuba. |
| 28 | Tone | Described as an Ōmura-domain refuge for Jesuits; a scholarly account also places a Tone in 1614, around the general expulsion. | Unresolved exact site within the historical Ōmura domain. A similar modern name is not on its own enough to locate the refuge. |
| 29 | Hara Castle (Hara-jō) | Final stronghold of the Shimabara–Amakusa rebels in 1637 and 1638, many of them Christians. Its fall was the decisive episode in the suppression of Christianity. | Hara Castle ruins, Minamiarima, Minamishimabara City. Demolished after the siege; earthworks, masonry and excavated remains survive within a World Heritage property. |
| 30 | Shimabara Peninsula | Stronghold of Arima-sponsored Christianity, then of persecution, then of the rebellion of 1637 and 1638. Its history joins daimyo conversion, missionary institutions and the final suppression of the faith. | Shimabara Peninsula, Nagasaki Prefecture, occupied by Shimabara, Unzen and Minamishimabara cities. |
| 31 | Urakami | A Christian village adjoining Nagasaki, associated with the Jesuit estate and later with the communities that kept Christianity alive in secret. | Urakami district, Nagasaki City. The old village is part of the city; the modern cathedral is a postwar rebuilding, not a Nanban-period structure. |
| 32 | Dejima (Deshima) | Built in 1636 to confine Portuguese traders; after their exclusion in 1639 it received the Dutch trading establishment, in 1641. | Dejima, central Nagasaki. Reclamation absorbed the artificial island into the city; excavation and reconstructed buildings now interpret the trading post. It is no longer a freestanding island. |
| 33 | Nishizaka | Execution site of the Twenty-Six Martyrs in 1597 and of later Christian executions, including the Great Martyrdom of 1622. | Nishizaka Hill, Nagasaki City; commemorated by the Twenty-Six Martyrs monument and museum. |
| 34 | Hokaura-machi | One of the original neighborhoods of the international port. Its waterfront position made it part of the working infrastructure of trade and of Jesuit Nagasaki. | Former Hokaura-machi / Sotoura-machi (外浦町), incorporated into the Edo-machi area of central Nagasaki. The historical ward name is no longer a current address. |
| 35 | Hirado-machi | An original Nagasaki neighborhood associated with migrants and merchants from Hirado — evidence that people, and not only trade, transferred to the new port. | Now part of Manzai-machi, Nagasaki City; a historical neighborhood name rather than a separate modern ward. |
| 36 | Ama Bay | Named as a southern Japanese anchorage, with no voyage, province or identifying detail attached. | Unresolved. No reliable modern match can be assigned. Its absence from modern naming cannot be taken as evidence that the bay disappeared. |
Entries 37 to 60. The grouping is the record's own and is kept for cross-reference, although Tanegashima, Tsushima and Iki belong geographically with Kyushu. Inland, the places matter for politics, silver and access to power rather than for anchorage.
| No. | Historical name | Why it mattered | Where it is now |
|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | Kyoto (Miyako) | Imperial capital and a major Jesuit mission field; access to its political elites was what the missionaries wanted, and the Nanbanji church was the visible sign that they had it. "Miyako" simply means the capital, and Europeans used it as a place-name. | Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture. The Nanbanji does not survive as a building; sites and objects preserve its memory. |
| 38 | Sakai | A wealthy merchant port, a center of firearms manufacture and an important market for foreign goods. Missionaries made use of its commercial and elite connections. | Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture. Much of the old port landscape has been transformed by urbanization and reclamation. |
| 39 | Osaka | Hideyoshi's castle and court brought missionaries into contact with national politics. Its commercial weight and its Christian communities also made it a principal mission field. | Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture. The present main castle tower is a twentieth-century reconstruction, and much of the surviving stonework belongs to the later Tokugawa rebuilding. |
| 40 | Azuchi | Nobunaga's castle town and the site of a Jesuit seminary founded under Valignano in 1580, which joined Christian education to access to Nobunaga's court. | Azuchi, Ōmihachiman City, Shiga Prefecture. The castle burned after Nobunaga's death in 1582; foundations and stone approaches survive. The seminary building is lost. |
| 41 | Edo (Tokyo) | The Tokugawa political center, where foreign representatives sought trading privileges and where Christianity was suppressed. European audiences were part of relations with the shogunate. | Tokyo; Edo was renamed in 1868. The Edo Castle site is occupied principally by the Imperial Palace and its grounds. |
| 42 | Sunpu (Shizuoka) | Ieyasu's residence after his retirement as shogun, and still a center of effective power and of foreign diplomacy. William Adams and visiting traders dealt with him there. | Central Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture. Sunpu Castle survives as a park, an archaeological site and a partially reconstructed complex. |
| 43 | Nara | Part of the religious and cultural world that missionaries traveling through the Kinai described. Contextual: no particular tea ceremony or encounter can be established from the descriptions themselves. | Nara City, Nara Prefecture; still a major temple and heritage city. |
| 44 | Yamaguchi | Xavier preached here in 1551 with Ōuchi permission, and Cosme de Torres carried the mission on. One of Japan's earliest substantial Christian communities. | Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Memorial sites commemorate the mission; the present Xavier Memorial Church is not the original building. |
| 45 | Gifu | Nobunaga's headquarters before Azuchi. The missionaries' meetings with him there are what connect Gifu to the negotiation of protection and freedom to preach. | Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture. The present mountaintop castle tower is a reconstruction. |
| 46 | Himeji | Contextual: it illustrates the castle-building and firearms era in which Nanban contact happened. Its presence in the record does not establish that European engineers designed the castle. | Himeji City, Hyōgo Prefecture. The celebrated surviving main complex largely dates to the early seventeenth century. |
| 47 | Ōmori Mine (Iwami Province) | More accurately Iwami Ginzan: a major silver-producing complex, and so a source of the bullion that underpinned commerce with China and with European intermediaries. | Iwami Ginzan and Ōmori town, Ōda City, Shimane Prefecture. Mining has ceased; mine workings, settlements and transport routes form a World Heritage landscape. |
| 48 | Sado Island | Gold and silver production here strengthened Tokugawa finances and the bullion economy. Ōkubo Nagayasu administered the mining; the scandal after his death in 1613 involved allegations that should be distinguished from proven conspiracy. | Sado Island / Sado City, Niigata Prefecture. The historic mines are heritage sites, not working bullion mines. |
| 49 | Mount Hiei (Hieizan) | Nobunaga's destruction of the Enryakuji complex in 1571 was a major event in the political and religious conflict the Jesuits were watching. | Mount Hiei, on the Kyoto–Shiga boundary. Enryakuji remains an active Buddhist institution; the surviving complex reflects later rebuilding as much as continuity. |
| 50 | Lake Biwa | A transport artery serving central Japan and the setting of Azuchi. It belongs to missionary journeys and to Nobunaga's political geography, not to overseas shipping. | Lake Biwa, Shiga Prefecture; still there, though shorelines and adjoining reclaimed areas have changed. |
| 51 | Kitanoshō (Echizen) | Shibata Katsuie's castle town, destroyed in the struggle with Hideyoshi in 1583. Contextual: part of the political narrative the period recorded. | Central Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture. The old castle is lost apart from archaeological remains; the successor town became Fukui. |
| 52 | Tanegashima | Conventional site of the introduction of Portuguese matchlock firearms in 1543, brought aboard a Chinese trading vessel. The copying and spread of those weapons transformed Japanese warfare. | Tanegashima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, including Nishinoomote City and the towns of Nakatane and Minamitane. Local museums commemorate the encounter. |
| 53 | Tsushima Island | The principal intermediary between Japan and Korea under the Sō clan. Its trade explains the pre-existing Asian networks that Europeans entered rather than created. | Tsushima Island / Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture. The island remains; the domain does not. |
| 54 | Iki Island | A strategic island on the routes between Kyushu and Korea, associated with commerce and raiding alike, and with Hideyoshi's Korean campaigns. | Iki Island / Iki City, Nagasaki Prefecture. |
| 55 | Uraga | An early Tokugawa harbor involved in attempts to develop relations and commerce with Spanish Manila and New Spain. | Uraga, Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The harbor survives. Its better-known association with Perry dates from much later, to 1853. |
| 56 | Mutsu | A northern province associated with gold, with the Date and Nanbu domains, and with European knowledge of northern Japan. Date Masamune's Keichō embassy gives the wider region a direct diplomatic connection. | An abolished historical province covering much of northeastern Honshu, including areas now in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori. It is not equivalent to modern Mutsu City alone. |
| 57 | Ezo (Hokkaido) | Ainu lands north of Honshu, at the edge of European geographical knowledge. Dutch exploration there in 1643 belongs to the immediate post-Nanban continuation. | Principally Hokkaido. Historical Ezo / Ezochi could also mean a wider and variably understood northern region; it was not always an exact synonym for the modern island or prefecture. |
| 58 | Tsugaru Strait | The waterway between Honshu and Ezo, relevant to northern navigation and to European attempts to establish where Japan ended. | Tsugaru Strait, separating Aomori Prefecture and Hokkaido. |
| 59 | Nanbu (Iwate Prefecture) | The Dutch Breskens called at Yamada Bay in 1643 and ten of her men were detained and questioned — slightly later than the core Nanban period. | The landing place is Yamada Bay, Yamada Town, Iwate Prefecture, formerly in the Nanbu-ruled Morioka domain. Nanbu was a ruling house and a domain designation, not a synonym for all of modern Iwate. |
| 60 | Jurakudai Palace | Hideyoshi received Valignano and the returned Tenshō envoys here in 1591, and turned their European journey into a carefully staged encounter with Japanese political authority. | Former palace site in Kamigyō Ward, Kyoto. Demolished in 1595; it does not survive as an intact complex. |
Entries 61 to 77. The Japan trade was a China trade: Japanese silver bought Chinese silk, and the places below are where the silk came from, where the ships that carried it were based, and where the unlicensed traffic sheltered when the Ming forbade it.
| No. | Historical name | Why it mattered | Where it is now |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61 | Macao (Macau) | Principal Portuguese base for the Japan trade and a center of Jesuit training, finance and refuge, connecting Japanese silver to Chinese silk and to the wider Portuguese routes. The settlement developed under Chinese authority long before its later colonial status. | Macao Special Administrative Region of China; Portuguese administration ended in 1999. The historic center is a World Heritage site and holds substantial evidence of the Sino-Portuguese encounter. |
| 62 | Canton (Guangzhou) | The major Chinese market supplying the silk that Macau merchants bought for Japan. Access to the fairs and to Chinese merchant networks was essential to the carrack trade. | Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. "Canton" is the older European name; the modern port extends far beyond the historical waterfront. |
| 63 | Ningbo | A long-established Sino-Japanese trading port. The illicit maritime networks nearby also accommodated early Portuguese traders during the Ming restrictions. | Ningbo, Zhejiang, China; a major modern city and port. |
| 64 | Shuangyu | An offshore base that brought Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese traders together outside official restrictions, until Ming forces destroyed it in 1548. | A historical port associated with Liuheng Island, Zhoushan, Zhejiang. The sixteenth-century trading settlement ceased to exist; the island remains inhabited. |
| 65 | Shangchuan | An offshore trading stop, and the island where Xavier died in 1552 while trying to enter China after his Japanese mission. | Shangchuan Island, Taishan, Guangdong, China; still inhabited, with a Xavier memorial site. Older European forms include São João and Sancian. |
| 66 | Lampacau (Langbaiao) | A temporary Portuguese trading and missionary settlement of the 1550s, before activity consolidated at Macau. | No longer a separate island. Historical-geography research published by Macau's cultural affairs authorities places it in the Jinwan area of Zhuhai, Guangdong, merged with neighboring land through sedimentation. Its exact outline remains uncertain. |
| 67 | Zhangzhou | A Fujian commercial center whose maritime hinterland, above all Yuegang, linked Chinese goods to Manila and to the other Southeast Asian markets used by Japanese and European traders. | Zhangzhou, Fujian, China. The historical seaport Yuegang lies in the Haicheng and Longhai area and should not be equated with central Zhangzhou. |
| 68 | Fuzhou | A Fujian administrative and commercial center, connected with the Ryukyu tribute system and with the Chinese maritime world that Europeans met. | Fuzhou, Fujian, China, including its river and coastal port districts. |
| 69 | Nanjing | A major Ming economic and intellectual center and a site of Jesuit activity in China. Its connection runs through the wider mission and the Chinese supply economy. | Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It was the Ming southern capital, not the dynasty's usual imperial residence through most of the Nanban period. |
| 70 | Hainan | An island landmark and trading region on the routes between southern China and Southeast Asia. Contextual: no particular Japanese or European establishment is specified. | Hainan Island, China, the principal island of Hainan Province. |
| 71 | Anhai | A Fujian base of Zheng Zhilong's maritime network, which linked China, Taiwan, Japan and Southeast Asia in the early seventeenth century. | Anhai, Jinjiang, Quanzhou, Fujian, China; a surviving town whose former harbor environment has changed. |
| 72 | Nan'ao | An offshore haven and trading base in the southeastern Chinese maritime networks, where licit commerce, smuggling and raiding mixed. | Nan'ao Island and County, Shantou, Guangdong, China. |
| 73 | Liaodong | A strategic northeastern frontier affected by the Korean wars and by the Ming–Manchu struggle. Its relevance is political and geographical rather than as a Portuguese Japan-trade port. | The historical Liaodong region, especially the Liaodong Peninsula and eastern Liaoning, China; its boundaries varied and match no single modern municipality. |
| 74 | Pingxiang (Guangxi) | A border gateway between China and Vietnam, part of the overland exchange system surrounding the maritime routes. Contextual: no specific Japan connection is demonstrated. | Pingxiang, Guangxi, China, on the Vietnamese border; distinct from Pingxiang in Jiangxi. |
| 75 | Formosa / Taiwan (Isla Hermosa) | Dutch settlement from 1624 supported trade with Japan and China, and Spanish bases in the north followed in 1626. Japanese merchants' disputes with the Dutch East India Company there show how sharply the competition for Chinese trade was felt. | Taiwan. Fort Zeelandia is the historic site at Anping, Tainan; Keelung and Tamsui / Danshui are distinct northern ports, the latter now in New Taipei City. "Formosa" is an older European name for the island. |
| 76 | Pescadores (Penghu Islands) | A strategic Taiwan Strait archipelago. The Dutch held a base here from 1622 to 1624 before moving to southwestern Taiwan. | Penghu Islands / Penghu County, administered by Taiwan. "Pescadores" is the older Portuguese-derived name. |
| 77 | Ryukyu Kingdom (Naha) | An independent maritime kingdom connecting Japan, China and Southeast Asia. Satsuma's invasion of 1609 imposed subordination while the kingdom and its Chinese tributary relations continued. | Principally Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Naha remains a city; the royal center was Shuri, now part of Naha. The kingdom was abolished in 1879, not immediately in 1609. |
Entries 78 to 115. For the secondary ports and producing regions, relevance usually means taking part in the commercial world that supported Japanese red-seal ships, Portuguese private merchants, Spanish Manila or the Dutch East India Company. It does not mean that every place sent ships to Japan.
| No. | Historical name | Why it mattered | Where it is now |
|---|---|---|---|
| 78 | Manila (Luzon, Philippines) | Spanish colonial capital from 1571, a major market for Chinese goods, home to Japanese residents and Christian exiles, and the Pacific terminus of the Manila–Acapulco galleons. | Manila, Philippines, on Luzon. Intramuros is the surviving historic walled city, much restored after wartime destruction. |
| 79 | Malacca (Melaka) | A Portuguese possession from 1511 to 1641, controlling the passage between the Indian Ocean and the East Asian seas, and an important stop for missionaries and for trade bound for Japan. | Melaka City, Malaysia, a World Heritage site. The historic town survives, but only fragments of the Portuguese fortress remain and the shoreline has shifted through reclamation. |
| 80 | Batavia (Jakarta, Java) | Founded in 1619 as the Asian headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, it coordinated Dutch shipping, commerce and policy toward Japan, including the Hirado and Dejima establishments. | Jakarta, Indonesia; historical Batavia corresponds especially to Kota Tua / Old Jakarta. |
| 81 | Banten | A cosmopolitan pepper port where Asian and European traders worked side by side, and an early English commercial base competing with Dutch Batavia. | Banten Lama / Old Banten, near Serang in Banten Province, Java, Indonesia. Palace and religious remains mark the old capital; the modern province is far larger. |
| 82 | Ayutthaya (Siam) | The Siamese capital, with a substantial Japanese settlement and a red-seal trade notably in deerskins. Japanese residents served in royal and military roles, Yamada Nagamasa among them. | Ayutthaya, Thailand, a World Heritage site. The old capital was devastated in 1767 and survives as an archaeological park inside a living city; the Japanese settlement is commemorated. |
| 83 | Patani | An international port and sultanate handling regional commodities and trading with Japanese, Chinese and European merchants. | Historical Patani, principally in present-day Pattani Province, southern Thailand. The older royal-port sites around Kru Se and Ban Dato should be distinguished from the later center of Pattani town. |
| 84 | Tonkin | The European name for northern Vietnam under the Lê–Trịnh regime, a trading and missionary region with Japanese and later Dutch commercial connections. | A historical regional name, not a port or a modern country. Approximately northern Vietnam, including Hanoi and the Red River delta. |
| 85 | Cochinchina (Hội An / Touraine / Baifo) | In early European usage Cochinchina usually meant the Nguyễn-ruled southern polity, then centered in central Vietnam. Hội An was a major international port with Japanese residents. The three names are related but not interchangeable. | Hội An — also Faifo, and spellings such as "Baifo" — is the surviving historic port, a World Heritage site. Tourane / Touraine means Đà Nẵng, a different port. Cochinchina is obsolete, and later took on a narrower French-colonial meaning in southern Vietnam. |
| 86 | Champa | The Cham polities of the Vietnamese coast took part in maritime commerce and appear in European sailing accounts and in relations with neighboring Nguyễn territory. | No independent kingdom survives. Historical Champa extended across parts of central and southern Vietnam; Cham communities and monuments remain. |
| 87 | Cambodia | A trading destination for Japanese merchants and home to Japanese residents. Forest products and river commerce tied it to maritime Southeast Asia. | Cambodia remains a country. Period centers such as Longvek and Oudong are historical sites, not alternative names for the whole modern state. |
| 88 | Mekong River | The river system that linked Cambodian markets to the sea routes; its delta supported regional trade and the movement of merchants and goods. | The Mekong, running through mainland Southeast Asia to its delta in Vietnam. A river system, not a port or a polity. |
| 89 | Cape Varela | A conspicuous coastal landmark used in European navigation along Vietnam, important for route-finding rather than as a market. | Cape Varella / Mũi Đại Lãnh / Mũi Điện, on Vietnam's south-central coast, traditionally placed in Phú Yên. |
| 90 | Brunei | A sultanate and commercial center on the routes linking Borneo, China, the Philippines and the spice world. | Brunei Darussalam, a sovereign state on northern Borneo. The historical river-centered capital area is associated with Bandar Seri Begawan and Kampong Ayer. |
| 91 | Borneo | A large producing and trading region supplying forest products and other commodities through many ports. It should not be treated as one state or one harbor. | Borneo, divided among Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. "Kalimantan" commonly denotes the Indonesian portion in English usage. |
| 92 | Ternate | A clove-producing island and sultanate central to Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch competition. Xavier's Moluccan travels were part of his Asian experience before Japan. | Ternate, North Maluku, Indonesia; a living island city with surviving fort remains and a continuing sultanate tradition. |
| 93 | Tidore | A clove island and sultanate allied with Spain against its rivals at Ternate, and part of the commercial and military world centered on Manila and the Moluccas. | Tidore Island, North Maluku, Indonesia, within Tidore Islands municipality. |
| 94 | Moluccas (Spice Islands) | The source region for cloves, nutmeg and mace, and therefore the object of European competition. Japanese mercenaries and merchants took part in the broader economy around the spice trade. | Maluku and North Maluku, Indonesia. "Moluccas" survives as an English historical and geographical name. Different spices were concentrated in different islands. |
| 95 | Banda Islands | The main historical source of nutmeg and mace. The Dutch conquest of 1621 imposed a violent monopoly, and Japanese soldiers were among the forces involved. | Banda Islands, Maluku, Indonesia; inhabited islands with forts and nutmeg-growing landscapes. |
| 96 | Macassar (Celebes / Sulawesi) | Makassar was a major independent entrepôt under Gowa–Talloq, sheltering Portuguese traders and connecting eastern Indonesian commodities to wider Asian markets. | Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Celebes is the old European name for Sulawesi, the island; Makassar is a city on it. |
| 97 | Timor | The source of the sandalwood traded through Portuguese and Asian networks toward China and other markets. | Timor Island, divided between Timor-Leste and Indonesia's West Timor. The island survives; it is not coterminous with Timor-Leste. |
| 98 | Solor | A Portuguese Dominican mission and fortified base supporting access to Timor's sandalwood trade, contested by the Dutch in the early seventeenth century. | Solor Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia; the Lohayong fort site preserves remains of the base. |
| 99 | Larantuca | A Portuguese-associated settlement and Catholic center that gained importance as traders and missionaries shifted away from Solor. | Larantuka, at the eastern end of Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia — a living town, and not a settlement on Solor itself. |
| 100 | Bima | A regional polity and port tied to eastern Indonesian trade, in horses and agricultural produce among other things. Its Nanban connection is indirect, through the wider commercial network. | Bima, a city and surrounding historical region on eastern Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. It is a place on Sumbawa, not an island of its own. |
| 101 | Bali | An island producing region and trading destination within the sea routes linking Java and the eastern archipelago. Contextual: no specific Japan-related episode is recorded. | Bali Island and Province, Indonesia; the province also takes in neighboring islands. |
| 102 | Kedah | A sultanate and maritime outlet handling tin, foodstuffs and trans-peninsular commerce, tied into the Straits trading system. | Kedah State, Malaysia. The historic polity and its several ports should not be reduced to one modern harbor; Kuala Kedah remains a coastal port. |
| 103 | Perak | A tin-producing sultanate supplying the commerce of the Straits of Malacca. Its importance lay in the commodity network behind European and Asian trade. | Perak State, Malaysia; a river basin and a historical polity as well as a modern state, not a single port. |
| 104 | Trang | A west-coast outlet of the Malay Peninsula, linked to Andaman Sea commerce and to the overland routes across the peninsula. | Trang Province, southern Thailand. The historic river-mouth ports and the modern inland city of Trang are not the same site. |
| 105 | Ujang Selang | Probable spelling variant of Ujung Salang, or Junk Ceylon, a name used for Phuket, whose tin and strategic position drew overseas traders. | Phuket Island, Thailand. Which harbor on it was meant is unspecified. |
| 106 | Straits of Singapore | The strategic passages connecting the Straits of Malacca to the South China Sea, fought over by Portuguese, Dutch and Asian shipping. | Singapore Strait, between Singapore, the southern Malay Peninsula and Indonesia's Riau Islands; still a major sea lane. |
| 107 | Golden Chersonese | A classical geographical label reused in European cartography and writing for the Malay Peninsula. Its relevance is to how Europeans understood Asian geography. | Broadly the Malay Peninsula, now divided principally between southern Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia. An obsolete cartographic name, not a vanished settlement. |
| 108 | Pangasinan | A western Luzon region connected to coastal commerce and to Spanish expansion. Contextual: no specific Japanese settlement or encounter is established. | Pangasinan Province, Luzon, Philippines; historical and modern boundaries need not coincide. |
| 109 | Cagayan | A northern Luzon trading and frontier region. The Spanish clashes of 1582 with seaborne raiders, often described as including Japanese, belong to the history of Japan–Philippines maritime encounters. | Cagayan Province and the Cagayan Valley, northern Luzon, Philippines. This is not Cagayan de Oro on Mindanao. |
| 110 | Dilao | The Japanese settlement outside Spanish Manila, of merchants, converts and Christian exiles — the community Takayama Ukon arrived in in 1614. | Generally associated with Paco, Manila, where a Plaza Dilao commemorates the Japanese presence. The historical settlement boundaries and the present plaza need not coincide exactly. |
| 111 | Mindoro (Ma-I) | Mindoro belonged to the Philippine maritime trading world. Ma-i is a much earlier name from Chinese accounts and cannot be equated with Mindoro without qualification. | Mindoro Island, Philippines, divided into Oriental and Occidental Mindoro. The identification of historical Ma-i is debated, with Mindoro and Bay, Laguna among the proposals. |
| 112 | Tenasserim | A port and peninsular region linking Bay of Bengal commerce to Siam by overland routes, relevant to Portuguese and other Asian trading networks. | Tanintharyi, southern Myanmar. The name can mean the broad region or the historical river town of Tanintharyi / Tenasserim; it is not a synonym for Myeik alone. |
| 113 | Martaban | An important Lower Burmese port, associated above all with the trade in the large glazed storage jars used throughout Asian shipping. | Mottama, Mon State, Myanmar, across the river from Mawlamyine. The old international port lost most of its former prominence. |
| 114 | Mergui | A Bay of Bengal port connected to Siam through the trans-peninsular routes and used by European and Asian merchants. | Myeik, Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar; still a port. "Mergui" remains common in older English accounts and in the name of the offshore archipelago. |
| 115 | Cosmin | A port named in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European accounts of the western Irrawaddy delta, including Ralph Fitch's, and part of the wider Bay of Bengal network. | Probable: Pathein, formerly Bassein, in the Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar — or a port near it. The identification is conventional but not certain, because the delta has shifted and the old descriptions are loose. |
Entries 116 to 135. These places supplied or supported the wider Portuguese Asian system. Their connection to Japan usually ran through Goa, Malacca and Macau rather than by any direct sailing, and the further west the entry, the more indirect the link.
| No. | Historical name | Why it mattered | Where it is now |
|---|---|---|---|
| 116 | Goa | The administrative and ecclesiastical center of Portuguese Asia, which trained and dispatched the missionaries and supported the Japan mission. Xavier's body was brought here after his death. | The period's city is Old Goa / Velha Goa, in Goa State, India, a World Heritage site. Major churches survive. Panaji, the modern state capital, is a different urban center. |
| 117 | Cochin | An early Portuguese stronghold and pepper-trade center on the Malabar coast, supporting the maritime system through which Japan-bound people and goods traveled. | Kochi, Kerala, India; Fort Kochi and Mattancherry are the principal historical districts. |
| 118 | Diu | A Portuguese fortified base guarding the approaches to Gujarat and its valuable trading economy. Its connection to Japan was indirect, through the Estado da Índia. | Diu town and island, India, in the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. The Portuguese fort survives; the territory lies beside Gujarat but outside the state. |
| 119 | Chaul | A Portuguese fortified port in western Indian commerce and textile supply, within the system that financed and provisioned Asian trade. | Chaul and Revdanda, Maharashtra, India. The Portuguese lower-town fortifications are principally at Revdanda; historical Chaul also included a separate inland settlement. |
| 120 | Bassein | A Portuguese territorial and religious center north of Bombay, part of the personnel, revenue and shipping base of Portuguese Asia. | Vasai, Maharashtra, India, north of Mumbai. The extensive Vasai Fort ruins survive. Distinct from Burmese Bassein, now Pathein. |
| 121 | Nagapattinam (Negapatam) | A Portuguese trading settlement on the Coromandel coast, where textiles and private merchant connections tied it to Southeast Asia. | Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, India, still a coastal town and port. "Negapatam" is an older European form. |
| 122 | São Tomé de Meliapor (Mylapur) | A Portuguese Christian and trading settlement associated with the tomb of St Thomas, and part of the missionary and commercial networks of the Coromandel coast. | Santhome and Mylapore, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The present cathedral is later than the original Portuguese church. |
| 123 | Pulicat | The Dutch Coromandel headquarters in the early seventeenth century. Textiles bought here supported Dutch trade across Asia, including its Japan-oriented circuits. | Pazhaverkadu / Pulicat, north of Chennai, India. The town survives beside Pulicat Lagoon with remnants of Dutch heritage; the lagoon crosses the Tamil Nadu–Andhra Pradesh boundary. |
| 124 | Tuticorin | A pearl-fishery port associated with the Parava Christian communities and with Xavier's earlier mission — part of the Indian Christian infrastructure that preceded the Japan mission. | Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, India, a major port city. "Tuticorin" remains widely used in English. |
| 125 | Manar (Mannar) | A Portuguese fort and missionary base, associated with the fisheries and with control of the passage between India and Sri Lanka. | Mannar town and Mannar Island, Sri Lanka. The fort survives as a ruin, and its visible fabric includes later Dutch work. |
| 126 | Madurai | The center of Roberto de Nobili's Jesuit mission from 1606, and so important to the debates about adapting Christianity to Asian societies that ran parallel to those over Japan. | Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India; a living temple city. Its Nanban relevance is comparative and institutional, not maritime. |
| 127 | Calcutta / Bengal (Hugli, Pipli, Orissa) | The older Bengal and Odisha ports belong to this period; Calcutta's rise as an English commercial center came later and is anachronistic here. Hugli was a Portuguese settlement until Mughal forces took it in 1632, and Pipli was another early European trading outlet. | Calcutta is now Kolkata, West Bengal, India; Hugli is the Hooghly and Chinsurah area, West Bengal; Bengal is a historical region divided mainly between Bangladesh and India; Orissa is now Odisha, India. The relevant Pipli is the old port in the Balasore and Subarnarekha coastal region, not the better-known craft town near Puri; its exact site is unresolved without the original source. |
| 128 | Gujarat / Cambay | A major textile and manufacturing region whose goods circulated through Portuguese and Asian networks into Southeast Asia and beyond. | Gujarat State, India; Cambay is now Khambhat, the town and the gulf. The old harbor lost importance through silting. Region and town are distinct. |
| 129 | Malabar Coast | The pepper-producing southwestern Indian coast, and the early foundation of Portuguese Asian commerce that helped sustain the long route toward Japan. | The historical Malabar coast, principally the Kerala coast and adjoining southwestern India. Its extent varies by author; it is not one modern administrative unit. |
| 130 | Coromandel Coast | The textile-producing southeastern Indian coast. Cloth exports were central to the intra-Asian exchanges run by Portuguese, Dutch and Asian merchants alike. | The southeastern coast of India, especially Tamil Nadu and adjoining Andhra Pradesh; a geographical region rather than a province or a port. |
| 131 | Sri Lanka (Ceylon) | A cinnamon source and an arena of Portuguese conquest, missionary activity and later Dutch expansion, tied to the commercial system that supported trade further east. | Sri Lanka, a sovereign island state. "Ceylon" was replaced as the country's English official name in 1972. |
| 132 | Maldive Islands | The source of cowries and coir, commodities used in Indian Ocean exchange and shipping. The Japan connection is indirect and implies no Japanese trading base. | Maldives, an independent island state. |
| 133 | Ormuz (Hormuz) | A wealthy entrepôt and Portuguese fortified position controlling Persian Gulf trade, until Persian forces took it with English naval support in 1622. | Hormuz Island, Iran, near Bandar Abbas; Portuguese fort ruins remain. The island port is distinct from Old Hormuz on the mainland and from the strait as a whole. |
| 134 | Dofar (Defar) | An Arabian coastal port and region in Portuguese routes and accounts, connected with frankincense and Indian Ocean commerce. Its connection to Japan is contextual. | Broadly Dhofar, southern Oman. The historical port name attaches to Ẓafār / al-Balīd near Salalah, but identifying the exact harbor meant requires the original passage. Dhofar is today also the name of a much larger governorate. |
| 135 | Mozambique | A fortified stop on the Portugal–India sea route, where ships, passengers and supplies bound for Asia could refit. | Specifically Ilha de Moçambique / Island of Mozambique, in Nampula Province, Mozambique, a World Heritage site. The inhabited island, historic town and fortress survive; the country later took its name from this place. |
Entries 136 to 158. The western end of the route: the ports the ships left from, the courts the embassies were received at, the university towns that printed what Europe learned about Japan, and the American silver that paid for the silk.
| No. | Historical name | Why it mattered | Where it is now |
|---|---|---|---|
| 136 | Lisbon | Departure point and administrative center for the Portuguese voyages to India and onward to Asia; the birthplace of Fróis, and a major reception point for the Tenshō envoys. | Lisboa / Lisbon, Portugal, the national capital. The city survives, though the 1755 earthquake and the rebuilding after it transformed much of the Nanban-era center. |
| 137 | Seville (Sanlúcar de Barrameda / Coria del Río) | Seville regulated Spanish transatlantic commerce through the Casa de Contratación. Sanlúcar was the Guadalquivir's ocean gateway. Coria del Río received members of Hasekura's Keichō embassy. | Three separate surviving places in Andalusia, Spain: Sevilla; Sanlúcar de Barrameda, in Cádiz Province; and Coria del Río, in Seville Province. They are not alternative names for one city. |
| 138 | Madrid | The royal court where Japanese embassies sought patronage and diplomatic or commercial agreements. The Tenshō and Keichō missions met the Habsburg monarchy here. | Madrid, Spain, the national capital. |
| 139 | Rome | Papal destination of the Tenshō embassy in 1585 and of Hasekura's Keichō embassy in 1615. The audiences and ceremonies publicized the Japanese Christian mission across Europe. | Rome, Italy. The papal institutions are centered on Vatican City, now a separate sovereign state within the city. |
| 140 | Alcalá de Henares | A university town visited by the Tenshō envoys, part of their exposure to European learning and Christian institutions. | Alcalá de Henares, Community of Madrid, Spain; a surviving university and heritage city. |
| 141 | Coimbra | An important center of Jesuit education and recruitment, and a stop for the Tenshō envoys. Its colleges connected Portuguese learning to missionary work in Asia. | Coimbra, Portugal; the university and the historic religious buildings survive, though their institutional uses have changed. |
| 142 | Évora | A Jesuit university city and a major center for publishing mission literature, including the 1598 collection of letters from Japan and China. Books like it shaped what Europe knew about Japan. | Évora, Portugal; the city and the historic university buildings remain. |
| 143 | Torres Vedras | Contextual: an identifiable Portuguese town, but no person, visit or event establishes a particular role in the Japanese interaction. | Torres Vedras, Portugal; a surviving town and municipality north of Lisbon. |
| 144 | Portuguese towns and cities | Twenty-two towns named collectively. Some had clear maritime or courtly connections; for others the record does not establish a distinct Nanban episode. See the table below. | All 22 survive in Portugal, generally under the same names. |
| 145 | Ceuta | A Portuguese possession from 1415, and important as background to Portuguese overseas expansion and to the military careers of imperial personnel. It predates direct contact with Japan. | Ceuta, a Spanish autonomous city on the North African coast, claimed by Morocco. It is no longer Portuguese. |
| 146 | Alcácer Quibir | Site of the battle of 1578 in which King Sebastian died. The dynastic crisis that followed brought on the Iberian Union of 1580, which reshaped the monarchy under which Portuguese Asian trade operated. | Ksar el-Kebir, Morocco, near the battlefield conventionally associated with the Oued al-Makhazin. The town survives; the battle name is Portuguese. |
| 147 | Cadiz | An Atlantic port in the Spanish imperial shipping system linking New Spain, Europe and the Pacific trade. Its later supremacy should not be projected back: the Casa de Contratación moved here only in 1717. | Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain; a surviving port city. |
| 148 | Cordoba, Palencia, Medina del Campo | Contextual: no identifying events are recorded. Córdoba and Palencia were religious and urban centers, and Medina del Campo an important commercial and financial town, but those general roles do not prove visits by Japanese envoys. | Córdoba, Andalusia; Palencia, Castile and León; and Medina del Campo, Valladolid Province, Castile and León — three separate surviving places in Spain. |
| 149 | Genoa | A maritime republic whose merchants and financiers underwrote Iberian international commerce. Its relevance is to the European financial and maritime setting. | Genova / Genoa, Liguria, Italy. The city survives; the independent republic does not. |
| 150 | Flanders | A producing and commercial region whose textiles, artworks and luxury manufactures circulated through Iberian networks. "Flemish" in the sources does not always identify a precise town of manufacture. | Historical Flanders, spanning areas now in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Modern Belgian Flanders is a larger administrative region and not an exact equivalent of the historical county. |
| 151 | Amsterdam / Delft / Rotterdam / Enkhuizen | Four of the six chamber cities of the Dutch East India Company, which financed and organized Dutch Asian commerce, Japan included. The two chamber cities omitted here are Hoorn and Middelburg. | Amsterdam, Delft, Rotterdam and Enkhuizen, all surviving cities in the Netherlands. Their company establishments are historical, not operating offices. |
| 152 | London / Oxford | London was the headquarters of the English East India Company, which operated at Hirado from 1613 to 1623. Oxford was a center of collecting and scholarship relevant to the European reception of Asian objects and texts, though no particular Nanban-era event there is recorded. | London and Oxford, England, United Kingdom; separate surviving cities. |
| 153 | Calais | Contextual: a Channel port in the European travel and communication networks, with no particular Japanese embassy visit or commercial event established. | Calais, northern France; still a Channel port. |
| 154 | Acapulco | Pacific terminal of the Manila galleons, and the landing place of Hasekura's embassy in 1614. It connected Asian goods and Japanese travelers to New Spain. | Acapulco de Juárez, Guerrero, Mexico; the historic bay remains a port. |
| 155 | Mexico City / New Spain | Mexico City was the viceregal capital that Hasekura's party visited; New Spain supplied silver and the land bridge between Acapulco and the Atlantic. | Mexico City, Mexico remains the national capital. New Spain was an abolished viceroyalty, much larger than modern Mexico and not an alternative name for the city. |
| 156 | Veracruz | The Atlantic gateway of New Spain, used by Hasekura's embassy on the way to Europe and by the shipping that carried American silver to the Spanish monarchy. | Veracruz, Mexico, a surviving city and port. The port was relocated more than once, so earlier references to "Veracruz" do not always mean the same site. |
| 157 | Lima / Peru | Lima was the viceregal capital; the Viceroyalty of Peru was a major silver source in the global economy that supplied Asian trade. Potosí, a key source, lay in that viceroyalty and is now in Bolivia. | Lima, capital of Peru, survives. The Viceroyalty of Peru was abolished; it covered a changing area far beyond today's country. |
| 158 | Paraguay | The Jesuit missions there, from the early seventeenth century, are a parallel within the global Society of Jesus. The connection to Japan is institutional and comparative, not evidence of a direct trading route. | Paraguay remains a country, but the historical Jesuit Province of Paraguay reached into areas now in Argentina, Brazil and other neighboring states. Mission ruins survive across several modern countries. |
The shared background is Portugal's maritime, ecclesiastical and courtly network. Where no narrower connection could be securely established, the entry says so rather than assigning a town an embassy visit it may never have received. All these places remain inhabited; "same name" means continuity of the name, not survival of the sixteenth-century townscape.
| Place | Relevance to the Nanban world | Where it is now |
|---|---|---|
| Viana do Castelo | A maritime and shipbuilding center within Portugal's overseas economy. No individual Japan-related event is recorded. | Viana do Castelo, northern Portugal. In the period it was generally known as Viana da Foz do Lima; "do Castelo" is a later designation. |
| Barcelos | Unverified. A northern Portuguese town that may belong to the biography of a person in the record rather than to an episode. | Barcelos, northern Portugal; the same place-name. |
| Vila do Conde | A shipbuilding and seafaring community feeding Portugal's overseas expansion. Its connection to Japan runs through the maritime network. | Vila do Conde, on the Atlantic coast north of Porto. |
| Porto | A commercial and maritime city taking part in the national economy behind Portuguese overseas trade. | Porto, northern Portugal; "Oporto" is an older English form. |
| Aveiro | A port, salt-producing and maritime community, relevant to Portugal's broader shipping economy. No specific Japan link is recorded. | Aveiro, west-central Portugal; the lagoon and harbor entrances have changed considerably. |
| Covilhã | Unverified. An inland manufacturing town, and not to be represented as a Nanban shipping port. | Covilhã, central-eastern Portugal. |
| Castelo Branco | Unverified. No person, institution or episode links it directly to Japan. | Castelo Branco, central-eastern Portugal. |
| Leiria | Unverified. Part of Portugal's royal and ecclesiastical geography, with no direct Nanban event identified. | Leiria, central Portugal. |
| Tomar | Seat of the Order of Christ, closely associated with the earlier organization and patronage of Portuguese overseas expansion. Institutional background. | Tomar, central Portugal; the Convent of Christ survives. |
| Portalegre | Unverified. An ecclesiastical and regional center whose particular appearance in the record cannot be explained without the underlying source. | Portalegre, Alto Alentejo, Portugal. |
| Santarém | An important town on the Tagus and within the royal and religious geography of Portugal. No direct Japan-related episode is established. | Santarém, Portugal. |
| Salvaterra de Magos | A royal-residence setting within Portugal's courtly geography. A visit by Japanese envoys should not be assumed without a cited itinerary. | Salvaterra de Magos, in the Tagus valley, Portugal. |
| Sintra | A royal and aristocratic residence center. The relevance is potentially courtly or biographical; no precise encounter is recorded. | Sintra, west of Lisbon, Portugal. |
| Vila Franca de Xira | A Tagus town on the routes into Lisbon, and so potentially an itinerary location, but no specific Nanban event is established. | Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal. |
| Cascais | The harbor guarding the seaward approach to Lisbon, relevant to the movement and protection of overseas shipping. | Cascais, at the Atlantic approach to the Tagus, Portugal. |
| Vila Viçosa | The Braganza ducal seat, visited by the Tenshō envoys during their Portuguese journey — an instance of aristocratic reception of Japanese visitors. | Vila Viçosa, Alentejo, Portugal; the ducal palace survives. |
| Setúbal | A salt-exporting Atlantic port within Portugal's shipping and commercial economy. No distinct Japanese encounter is recorded. | Setúbal, on the Sado estuary, Portugal. |
| Moura | Unverified. Its presence may be biographical or itinerary-related; no precise link can be recovered. | Moura, Alentejo, Portugal. |
| Beja | Unverified. An important regional and ecclesiastical town, with no identified direct Japan encounter. | Beja, Alentejo, Portugal. |
| Portimão | An Algarve harbor and seafaring community, part of Portugal's wider maritime setting. | Portimão, Algarve, Portugal; historically Vila Nova de Portimão. |
| Lagos | Important in the earlier stages of Portuguese expansion into Atlantic Africa, and so background to the maritime system that eventually reached Japan. | Lagos, Algarve, Portugal; distinct from Lagos in Nigeria. |
| Faro | An Algarve port and ecclesiastical center. Its particular role in the Nanban record is unverified. | Faro, Algarve, Portugal. |
Old spellings are approximations of sounds heard by ear, written down by men who did not read Japanese or Chinese, and copied afterward by men who had never been there. A good many of them land close to a real modern name that is the wrong place. These are the ones that cause the most trouble; the numbers point back to the full entries.
| If you have | Read it as |
|---|---|
| Takashima (15) | Takushima (度島), an island north of Hirado, for Fróis's Japanese-language study under Juan Fernández in 1563 and 1564. Not one of the several islands called Takashima. |
| Sendai (13) | Satsumasendai (川内) in Kagoshima Prefecture, for anything in a Satsuma context. Sendai in Miyagi, castle town of Date Masamune, is a different city 1,200 kilometers away and belongs to the Keichō embassy. |
| Yatsuhiro (23) | Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture. An older or imperfect rendering, not a separate place. |
| Udo (24) | Uto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Konishi Yukinaga's castle town. |
| Nagoya (22) | Hizen Nagoya, in Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, for Hideyoshi's Korean headquarters. Not Nagoya in Aichi. |
| Cabexuma (16) | Kabashima (樺島) off the Nomo Peninsula, probably, and not the similarly named island in the Gotō group. Old accounts call it flat, which fits the modern island badly. |
| Fukae (21) | Early Nagasaki, in a Nagasaki Bay context, rather than the town of Fukae on the Shimabara Peninsula. |
| Amakubo (27) | Somewhere in the historical Ōmura domain, unresolved. Not Amakubo in Tsukuba. |
| Cochinchina (85) | The Nguyễn-ruled southern polity in central Vietnam — a region, not a port. Hội An (also Faifo) is the port with the Japanese quarter; Tourane is Đà Nẵng, a different harbor. The three names are not interchangeable, and Cochinchina later acquired a narrower French-colonial meaning further south. |
| Macassar (96) | Makassar, a city on Sulawesi. "Celebes" is the old name of the island, not of the city. |
| Larantuca (99) | Larantuka, at the eastern end of Flores — not a settlement on Solor, though it took over Solor's role. |
| Bima (100) | A city and region on eastern Sumbawa. It is not an island of its own, and it is not on Sulawesi. |
| Cagayan (109) | Cagayan Province in northern Luzon, for the clashes of 1582. Not Cagayan de Oro on Mindanao. |
| Bassein (120) | Vasai, north of Mumbai, in an Indian context. In a Burmese context, Bassein is Pathein in the Irrawaddy delta, which is entry 115. |
| Calcutta (127) | Anachronistic for this period. The Bengal ports that matter here are Hugli, Portuguese until 1632, and Pipli. Kolkata's commercial rise came later. |
| Pingxiang (74) | Pingxiang in Guangxi, on the Vietnamese border. Not Pingxiang in Jiangxi. |
| Lampacau (66) | A vanished island, not a mislabeled one. It merged with the mainland by sedimentation and is placed in the Jinwan area of Zhuhai. |
| Ma-i (111) | Not simply Mindoro. The identification is debated, and Bay in Laguna is among the other proposals. |
Four names remain unresolved, and are left that way. Yukishima (17), an anchorage of the São Sebastião somewhere near Hirado; Amakubo (27), the birthplace of the painter Mâncio Otao, somewhere in Ōmura territory; Tone (28), a Jesuit refuge in the same domain; and Ama Bay (36), described only as a southern Japanese anchorage. In each case a plausible modern name exists and has been left unclaimed, because a similar name is not an identification.
Three more are identified only provisionally, and would be settled by the original passages: Kamishima (20), where the association with Gaspar Vilela is what needs verifying rather than the island; Cabexuma (16), where the sailing description fits the likeliest island poorly; and Pipli (127), where two candidate ports carry the name. Cosmin (115) and Ujang Selang (105) rest on conventional identifications that are probably right and have never been proved.
What would settle them. For an unresolved entry, the decisive evidence is almost always the same: the title, edition and page of the original account, together with its own spelling or the Japanese or Chinese characters behind it. Very little here needs new research. It needs the passage.
It does not claim that the old place survives. A modern city under the same name may stand on a reclaimed shoreline, around a demolished castle, or several kilometers from the harbor the sources describe. Nagasaki's early waterfront is under fill; Dejima is no longer an island; Jurakudai, Azuchi and Kitanoshō are archaeological sites; Hokaura-machi is not a current address. Continuity of a name is the weakest form of continuity there is.
It does not promote a guess to a fact. Where the record gives a name and nothing else, the entry says Unresolved and stops. An old name's absence from modern maps is not evidence that the settlement disappeared — it is equally likely to have been absorbed, renamed, or written down wrong in the first place.
It does not assert a Japanese connection that the record does not support. Roughly a fifth of these places are here because a source lists them, not because anything Japanese happened there. Those entries are marked Contextual and left as they are, because deleting them would hide the shape of the record and inventing an episode for them would be worse. A Portuguese inland wool town is not a Nanban port, whatever list it appears on.
It is a finding aid, not a history. Each entry is a line, not an argument. Where the site has written the history at length, the entry links to it; the gazetteer of key places gives the twenty most important of these places a proper entry, coordinates and a position on the route map, and the guide to the Nanban trade explains the commerce that connects them. This page exists to get you from a name to the right place, and then out of the way.