- Japanese: 坊津 (bou no tsu)
Bônotsu is a port town in southern Satsuma province. During the Muromachi period, it had been a particularly active port in the trade with China and with Ryûkyû. The port declined, however, with the rise of Nagasaki in the Edo period.
A community of Chinese merchants remained active at Bônotsu through the end of the 17th century, encouraged or at least condoned by the lords of Satsuma han, who allowed continued Chinese merchant activity all across the Satsuma coast until the early 18th century or so, despite the shogunate's maritime restrictions policies.[1]
References
- Watanabe Miki. "An International Maritime Trader - Torihara Sôan: The Agent for Tokugawa Ieyasu's First Negotiations with Ming China, 1600." in Angela Schottenhammer (ed.) The East Asian Mediterranean: Maritime Crossroads of Culture, Commerce and Human Migration. Harrassowitz-Verlag, 2009. p169n5.
- ↑ Robert Hellyer, Defining Engagement, Harvard University Press (2009), 46-47.