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Mediterraneans 85
instance) the much more extensive use of textiles in that region
it was possible to deduce that the Spaniards were on the edges of
an exotic and opulent world.
7. the japanese mediterranean
This exotic and opulent world was not supposed (according to
Columbus) to be an undiscovered civilization but Cathay and
Cipangu, China and Japan, though he relied for the latter only
on the vague words of Marco Polo, who portrayed a highly
luxurious society rich in silks and precious metals. In fact, the
real medieval Japan fits well into the theme of societies tranformed
by their contacts across a ‘Mediterranean’. Japan’s
Mediterranean consists of two main parts: in the north, there
are the waters between the main island, Honshu, and the Asian
mainland, including the eastern coast of Korea and the early
medieval kingdom of Parhae between Harbin and the sea; in the
south, the Korea Strait acted as a bridge between the southern
Japanese island of Kyushu and Korea, while to the west of
Kyushu lay the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, bordered
by the chain of the Ryukyu islands, the best known of which is
Okinawa, and, at the southernmost point of the chain, the larger
island of Taiwan. This ‘Mediterranean’ offers some of the
richest parallels to the Classic Mediterranean as far as the
medieval period is concerned, just as the evolution of Japanese
society as a whole has certain striking resemblances to that of
‘feudal’ Europe; it therefore makes sense to look at the evidence
quite closely. 8
What is interesting about the Japanese case is that the flow of
ideas and artistic influences was primarily into Japan in the
Middle Ages, though trade between Japan and Asia was naturally
a two-way process. The Japanese, though often keen to
assert their political autonomy, were influenced in the way
they articulated the idea of that autonomy by Chinese models;
they acquired texts and part of their writing system from China;
8 For what follows, I have relied on Jean-François Souyri, The World
Turned Upside Down: Medieval Japanese Society, trans. K. Roth (New York,
2001/London, 2002), and on Charlotte von Verschuer, Le Commerce extérieur
du Japon des origines au XVIe siède (Paris, 1988) who have themselves built on
exciting new archival work by Japanese scholars.