The VOC and Japanese Rice in the Early Seventeenth Century

According to traditional scholarship, Sakoku or the national seclusion of Japan in the early seventeenth century was primarily carried out with the intention of prohibiting Christianity. It is generally agreed that the seclusion ofJapan was completed through a series of edicts, the socalled Sakokurei (which were issued between 1633 and 1639 by the Bakufu (the Tokugawa Shogunal government). Through these edicts the Christian religion was forbidden in Japan. Japanese trading activities abroad were also prohibited through the issue of Kai-kin or maritime prohibitions. Finally the Portuguese trade from Macao was terminated. It is generally believed that the seclusion ofJapan was brought about as a means to gain better control of theJapanese people. In the final analysis the closure of Japan had a double meaning: the political meaning, the prohibition of Christianity, and an economic meaning, the restriction of trade.