•  The Muslim country shown in the early Weastern–style paintings–

When did the Japanese come to know Turkey, and what image did they have about it before the Meiji Era when the history of friendly relations between Turkey and Japan started? To our surprise, the materials which answer these simple questions are Byobu (folding screens) of the Momoyama Era. In the middle of the 16 th century, when the Portuguese came to Japan, Japan had its first contact with a Western country. By the end of the 16 th century, the missionary work by the Jesuits became active in Japan, and some Western-style paintings were produced by Japanese painters. Among those folding screens painted in typical Western style, we can find the Turkey that the Japanese came to know for the first time.

Let me introduce three typical examples of such Byobu. All of them were produced in connection with the missionary work with the intention of conveying the greatness of the Western world. It seems natural that Turkey would be portrayed as a hostile country against Christianity in these Byobu. The first question to ask, therefore, is if the Japanese really developed a negative first impression of Turkey.

The most explicit example to answer such a question is a painting called “The Battle of Lepanto and the World Map” (Kosetsu Museum of Art). The subject of this Byobu is the battle where Philip II, a Spanish King, defeated the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto, commanding Corinth Bay of Greece in 1571. It represents the victory of Christianity and the defeat of Islam. If people saw this Byobu with the explanation of the Jesuit missionary, they might have thought that the Ottoman Empire was the strongest enemy of the Western countries, and would further regard the Turks as savage pagans. However, the fact is not so simple. A letter written by a missionary at the time says that the Japanese liked the pictures of warriors and battles. In this context, we must consider the possibility that “The Battle of Leponto” was painted to suit their tastes, and that it was appreciated in such a way. In those days, many folding screens depicted the battle as a subject. For instance, the battles of Genpei, Sekigahara or Osaka all focused on the battle as the main subject of the painting. Therefore, we cannot judge simply which side was good or bad. In addition, the aesthetics particular to the Samurai class would have an affect on the battle itself beyond victory or defeat. They didn't simply regard the defeated as negative. In other words, we cannot generalize that they saw Turkey simply from the Western viewpoint. If they knew the importance of the victory of this battle, which is said to have saved the Christian world, they might realized that the Turkish army had been overwhelmingly strong before the battle of Lepanto.

There is another example to prove such a penetrating insight. In “Equestrian Kings Europe” ( Kobe City Museum and Suntory Museum of Art), the Christian and the pagan kings are painted facing each other. The two screens are thought to be the enlargement of the ornamental illustrations in the revised edition (published in 1609) of the world map published in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 17 th century. The leftmost figure in the screen of Kobe is considered as Rudolf II (reign: 1576-1612), King of the Holy Roman Empire, and the figure facing him with a sword over his head is considered an Ottoman Sultan. If the date of the original map is taken into consideration, we can logically identify him as Ahmet I (reign: 1603-1617). This screen was produced in connection with the Christian missionaries, and it was closely associated with some Christian Daimyo (feudal lords); however, there is no distinction of character between the two figures. In other words, there are no revealing qualities that make one figure look more favorable or beneficent, so to say, than the other. They are both painted as equally noble kings and brave warriors. Therefore, it is important to inquire if any “Daimyo” regarded Ahmet I as a savage king.

Another painting, “ Four Cities and Map of the World Byobu” (Kobe City Museum), depicts noble men, women and equestrian kings in the upper part of the painting. Below them, Istanbul, Rome, Seville and Lisbon from the right are painted from a bird's-eye view. If we see them along with the detailed world map, we can realize that various countries and four particular cities exist far west from Japan, and one of them is the metropolis of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, even if Rome was painted considerably larger than other cities, and we understand that the Byzantine Empire was destroyed by the Ottoman Empire, then the image of the large Muslim country will not be negative.

We cannot deny that the filter of the Christian world affected the views of Turkey at that time; however, these screens are not the sacred paintings depicting Jesus Christ, the Virgin Maria or the Bible. They are, instead, secular paintings to enjoy. Even if they have religious allegories, it is not certain how deeply people regarded them. At least, it might be dangerous to imagine simply that the Samurai society in those days considered the Turks as pagan savages. For the Samurai, who lived in the times during the Warring States period, during the unification of the whole country, during the establishment of Tokugawa Government, the first impression of the Turks might have been that of a brave enemy of the Western world in front of him.

In the first half of the 18th century after the ban on Christianity and the Isolation, Turkey appeared again among the Dutch descriptions of the Western world. In his book, Study of the Trade with China and the Occident: Enlarged Edition, Joken Nishikawa introduced Turkey as a country under the rule of law, and that the people looked like the Dutch and they produced various fabrics. Again Hakuseki Arai, in his book, Note on Hearing About the Western Countries, mentioned that Turkey was the big country covering Asia, Africa and Europe, and that the Turk was “too brave for us to antagonize.” At the same time, he referred to the historical fact that Europe had yielded to Turkey. Most importantly, however, there are no prejudices or ill-thoughts against Turkey in these descriptions, which again helps clarify the initial impressions that most Japanese people probably formed about the Turks.

The Japanese had known Turkey for several centuries before the history of friendly relations between the two countries started. Japan respected Turkey not as a country of pagan savages, but as a dedicated group of brave warriors.

iichiro Nakayama
Curator of Fukuoka City Museum