Print depicting five foreigners. Nagasaki, Japan, Edo period, around 1800 [2440×1732]
by MunakataSennin
Print depicting five foreigners. Nagasaki, Japan, Edo period, around 1800 [2440×1732]
by MunakataSennin
2 Comments
[Museum](https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1951-0714-0-29)
Right to left: Chinese, Korean, Ryukyuan, Dutch, Russian.
Interesting that the label for the Russian uses “鲁西亚 ”. I think one of the earliest references to that name in East Asia is in a late-Ming map of the world re-created for the Chinese court by Jesuit missionaries around 1580. Nowadays, China uses 俄罗斯 and Japan has a completely different, phonetic name for Russia. I doubt the Chinese characters would have sounded close to ‘Russia’ at all in Japanese usage. The Dutch are also labeled as coming from “Holland” but with a slight character adjustment: 阿兰 in Japanese, 喝兰 in contemporary Chinese, which is cool.
edit: date wildly wrong. the map was from 1602