Paper short abstract:

Early modern diplomatic exchange between Spain and Japan included the exchange of numerous letters and embassies, often discussing ways of legitimizing trade. Passes issued by the bakufu came to be regarded as official documents. This paper looks at the uses of passes in Japan and the Philippines.

Paper long abstract:

The Spanish Empire came to play a vital role in Japan's emerging foreign trade at the end of the sixteenth century, at a time when the central government busily established a new diplomatic order after 1591. The costly diplomatic Hispano-Japanese exchange of the following three decades was crucial for both sides. It included the exchange of numerous letters and embassies and the exceptional treatment of Spaniards being received in audiences and permitted to direct negotiations with Japanese rulers. Among other issues of bilateral importance they often discussed ways of legitimizing and controlling trade. For that sake passes issued by the bakufu (jap., shuinjō, a.k.a. vermillion seal trading licenses) came to be regarded as official documents with ceremonial character.

The aim of this paper is to understand the various uses of trading passes, both in Japan and the Philippines. Analyzing practices will show how passes were applied a) to build trust and b) to legitimize penetrating in the political domain of the other. The following three questions shall stimulate further discussion on the flexible function of written documents in pre-modern transcultural state relations.

- How the Japanese used shuinjō when dealing with the Spaniards

- How the Spaniards dealt with those passes and accommodated them to their own commercial and diplomatic purposes

- How passes replaced formal state letters (kokusho) in concluding treaties between countries of different rank in the Sinosphere