Cleveland Museum of Art

Arrival of the "Southern Barbarians"

Date

c. 1600

Medium

One of a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on paper

Culture

Japan, Momoyama period (1573–1615)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This screen and its corresponding screen show Portuguese merchants arriving in Japan, having crossed the oceans in their large ship with a multinational crew. The Portuguese were known in Japan as the “Southern Barbarians” because they arrived from the south and their customs and manners were unfamiliar to the Japanese, who had not encountered anyone from Europe until their first appearance in 1543. In 1639, the Portuguese were forced out of Japan, mainly owing to internal difficulties caused by their Catholic missionaries, but they were a major conduit for both objects and ideas from Europe for nearly 100 years. Europeans were called "Southern Barbarians" because their ships arrived in Japan from the south.

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