Between the Quill and the Press: The Representation of Japan in the collection Letters from Évora, from 1598
Representation; Jesuit Japan Mission; Portuguese Empire.
This present research has the goal of identifying and analyzing the representation attributed to the Japanese, in the collection of Jesuit Letters published in 1598, commonly known as Letters from Évora. When reporting about Japan, the missionaries described the archipelago according to their catholic beliefs, valuing and condemning certain aspects of the cultural, political and religious life led by the Japanese. Beyond that, the Évora edition elevates these issues, when it takes into account the Jesuit narratives and alters those to better fit the Catholic Church and the Society of Jesus interests, resulting in a biased interpretation of the actions performed by the Jesuits and of Japan itself. Therefore, the analysis of this document intends to demonstrate how this text was built and its raison d'etre, deliberating on its historical context and its creators. Moreover, the examination of the narrative is focused in the means in which the writer takes the reader into consideration, using textual resources of travel literature and catholic ethos. This work was accomplished through the reading and examination of missives within the Évora edition, while also comparing theses accounts with the descriptions made by the priests in another collection, namely the one from 1575’s Alcalá and the digitalized manuscripts of the codex 4532, available in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal.