Minneapolis Institute of Art

Mirror with Nanban figures

Japan

Date

17th century

Medium

Bronze

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Nanban figures and motifs appeared on a variety of decorative objects and personal accessories such as this bronze mirror that depicts two Portuguese figures; an older man carrying a long tobacco pipe and a young servant carrying a bowl for his ashes. The term “Nanban, ” literally “southern barbarians, ” was originally a Chinese epithet used for Southeast Asians that the Japanese borrowed to refer to Portuguese and Spanish visitors in the sixteenth century. The term later served as a general term for all non-East Asian foreigners.

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