ABSTRACT
The first embassy from Japan to reach China is recorded as 57 CE. Thereafter there was a long history of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations. After 1557 the Chinese broke off official relations between the two empires (which had lapsed anyway) in response to the ravages of the wako or Japanese pirates along China’s maritime provinces. According to Fróis, writing in 1565, the Japanese divided the world into three parts: Japan, China and Siam. Initially the Jesuits believed that Siam was the birthplace of the historical Buddha and that Buddhism was transmitted from Siam and China to Japan, hence the identification of Siam with India. João Rodrigues put the record straight, correctly identifying India as the birthplace of the Buddha. The Jesuits, and the Portuguese more generally, were not interested in Siam in the 16th century and other missionaries made little headway there.
