[Buddha-l] Re: Spread of Buddhism

[zelders.YH]

Joanna Kirk wrote :

>I'd suggest that as Christianity was spreading to Japan via the Portuguese
>and later Dutch and English merchant ships during the period of European
>exploration, ..

Well, the Portuguese - or rather the Jesuits - were succesful at first in 
their missionary activities in Japan, but all that ended in a bloody 
massacre of Japanese converts, and they were kicked out in 1640.  For more 
than two hundred years after that the Dutch were the only Europeans in 
direct contact with Japan, but they were confined to a trading post in 
Nagasaki harbour. One of the strict conditions for their stay was that they 
would not try to win over Japanese to the Christian faith. As a matter of 
fact that wasn't their first concern. Making money was.

>I have a hunch that the Portuguese and the Dutch governments also supported
>the missonizing that accompanied the trading ships to China and Japan.

It wasn't the Dutch government who sent out the trading ships but a company 
of private entrepreneurs, the V.O.C. or Dutch East India Company, that had 
trading posts on nearly every Asian coast.

Herman Zelders