ABSTRACT
Japan, which produced huge amounts of precious metals from the late 16th century, exported silver to China in order to purchase Chinese raw silk and silk fabrics. In fact, however, an alternative route for the export of Japanese silver remained open for 60 more years, and silver kept flowing to China through it. In the pre-modern era, the island of Tsushima, in the Korea Strait, was like a «bridge» connecting Japan with the Eurasian Continent. The beginning of the Tokugawa isolation policy in the 1630s struck a serious blow at many Japanese engaged in overseas trade. The role of the So family, however, increased in importance. Basically, the Tokugawa policy of isolation had two roles to play with regard to the external world: the first, vis-a-vis the West, to expel Catholicism, and the second, vis-a-vis East Asia, to make clear Japan’s independence from the Chinese world order – the Sinocentric community of pre-modern East Asia.
