Oita, Japão
Luís de Almeida foi o primeiro português a chegar a Nagasaki, em 1567. Introduziu no Japão a Medicina e a Cirurgia europeias. Não foi, contudo, o primeiro europeu a fazer de médico no Japão. Fernão Mendes Pinto estivera em Bungo em 1543. Ao verificar que o acesso à medicina chinesa era difícil e caro e que qualquer novidade na área dos cuidados médicos se podia tornar bem-vinda, exerceu medicina e praticou cirurgia, sem ter aprendido nem uma coisa nem outra. Na opinião do próprio, teve um sucesso assinalável.
Almeida não fez mais porque, segundo C.R. Boxer, a medicina europeia daquela época tinha pouco para ensinar. Ainda assim, o jesuíta português introduziu no Japão o moderno conceito de Hospital.
O êxito fulgurante da introdução do cristianismo no Japão, levado a cabo por um punhado de missionários da Companhia de Jesus, surpreende quem lê a História desse tempo. Foi, contudo, sol de pouca dura.
texto integral aqui
esta e outras fotografias aqui
Barbarian medicine in feudal Japan aqui
Luís de Almeida, Santo Popular japonês aqui
Whose Sleeves? (Tagasode)
Japan, late 16th century
Joao Rodrigues was born about 1562 at Sernancelhe in northern Portugal and sailed to the East while still a boy of twelve or thirteen years of age. He entered the Jesuit Order in Japan and obtained such a proficiency in Japanese that he acted as Valignano’s interpreter at the audience granted by Hideyoshi in 1591. From that date onwards he made frequent visits to court, acting as spokesman for the Jesuit missionaries and interpreter for the delegations of Portuguese merchants. After Hideyoshi’s death in 1598, Tokugawa Ieyasu continued to favor him and even appointed him as his commercial agent in Nagasaki. Jealousy and resentment on the part of local officials resulted in his exile to Macao in 1610 after living in Japan for thirty-three years, during which time he met many of the leading political and artistic figures of the day. [...]
In addition to his business activities in Japan he found time to publish at Nagasaki in 1608 the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam, a truly monumental work, for it was the first systematic grammar of the Japanese language. Not only does he describe the spoken and written language in exhaustive and possibly excessive detail, but he includes for good measure fascinating accounts of Japanese poetry, letter writing, and history.[...] It is in his account of Japanese art that he displays his outstanding talent, and his description of the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, painting, lacquerwork and calligraphy is unrivaled in contemporary European reports. His appreciation of the Japanese artistic temperament is remarkable, and he accurately and sympathetically portrays the elusive feeling of sabi, the transcendental loneliness of the homo viator in this fleeting world of dew, and the sentiment of wabi, the spirit of disciplined and aesthetic frugality in art and life. [...] Writing about the spirit of the tea ceremony, Rodrigues observes:
Hence they have come to detest any kind of contrivance and elegance, any pretense, hypocrisy and outward embellishment, which they call keihaku in their language… Instead, their ideal is to promise little but accomplish much; always to use moderation in everything; finally, to desire to err by default rather than by excess…The more precious the utensils are in themselves and the less they show it, the more suitable they are.
It would be difficult to improve on this summary description of the traditional Japanese canon of taste. Written today by a Westerner, the passage would indicate a commendable understanding and appreciation of an essentially alien culture; to have been written three and a half centuries ago reveals Joao Rodrigues as a unique interpreter not only of the language but also of the artistic genius of the Japanese people.
Michael Cooper
in The Southern Barbarians , The First Europeans in Japan
[Japan Described: The reports of the Europeans]
M. Cooper, A. Ebisawa, F.G. Gutierrez, Diego Pacheco
Edited by Michael Cooper
Kodansha Ltd, Japan and Palo Alto, Calif.U.S.A. in cooperation with Sophia University, Tokyo, 1971.
Notas:
Imagem: Whose Sleeves? (Tagasode) aqui
Texto citado aqui
Azuchi–Momoyama Period aqui
Prémio Rodrigues, o Intérprete aqui
Nagasaki Kunchi Festival (2011)
The Kunchi festival of Nagasaki was first celebrated in 1634.The festival was originally part of the bakufu policy to forge a Yamato spirit for Nagasaki, which up to 1614 had been Japan's only Christian town. The Kunchi festival started out as an anti-Christian festival, in which the anti-Christian forces in Nagasaki - the bakufu, Shinto, Buddhism and the brothel wards - all joined hands to provide an alternative to the famous Easter processions, which had been performed throughout the city during the Christian period (1570-1614).
After a devastating fire in 1857, Nagasaki Kunchi became a "new" festival in which the participating neighborhoods were free to innovate and to compete with each other in creating opulent and eye-catching performances. The result is the stunning array of presentations we see today, many of which reflect the international color and unique history of Nagasaki.
Suwa shrine (main location) Iwaibune ("celebration ship").
Nagasaki Kunchi Festival 2011
Nagasaki Kunchi Festival 2011
Nagasaki Kunchi Festival 2011
The dragon, Kokkodesho?
Captions: from text by Reinier Hesselink here
Embaixada de Portugal em Tóquio aqui
The Last Nan Ban Jin, Aventuras e desventuras de um português no Japão, em pleno Século XXI aqui
Chegada de Isabel II à Doca das Fontaínhas, Setúbal, 16 de Fevereiro de 1957
Sobre a Raínha Isabel II e a sua primeira e mais importante visita de Estado a Portugal, um artigo da Revista "Máxima" aqui
The Queen By Cecil Beaton aqui
Nota:
Fotografia de imprensa de autoria desconhecida, encontrada no espólio familiar. Por coincidência é uma das que ilustra o artigo da Máxima sobre esta visita de Isabel II. Não encontrei outras reproduções desta fotografia na internet.