Arrival of the "Southern Barbarians"

Unknown artist, c. 1600

Download3400 × 3098 px View on a wall Edit

Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper
Size: Overall: 146.7 x 337.2 cm (57 3/4 x 132 3/4 in.)
Culture: Japan, Momoyama period (1573–1615)
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

These screens show European merchants arriving in Japan. Almost certainly the persons represented are Portuguese, since they are accompanied by Roman Catholic priests. Early in the 1600s the Portuguese were forced out of Japan, chiefly because of internal difficulties caused by their missionaries. Later, between 1641 and 1853, the Dutch were the only Europeans permitted to trade with Japan but their presence was restricted to a port town in far western Japan, near present-day Nagasaki.