1640

Kan'ei 17 (寛永十七年)

Other Events of 1640

• Shogunal post of Shûmon kaiyaku is created to oversee and enforce the bans on Christianity. Ô-metsuke Inoue Masashige is the first appointed to the post.
• Fifty-seven (or, according to some sources, 61) of approximately 70 Portuguese sailors who sailed from Macao to Japan bearing gifts in an attempt to regain Portuguese trading and missionary rights in Japan are executed, and their ship burned.
• Ayutthaya dispatches an envoy to request the resumption of trade and relations with Japan. The ship succumbs to typhoon or inclement weather and never makes it to Japan.
• The Rokujô Mitsuji brothel district in Kyoto is relocated and restricted to the Shimabara district; prostitution in Osaka is restricted to the Shinmachi district.
• Ban on onna-kabuki is reissued.
• The shogunate forbids the Yoshiwara to operate at night.
• Shogunate begins using nengô (Japanese era names) in correspondence with China, indicating a lessened acknowledgment of Chinese authority or centrality.
• The shogunate issues an edict mandating all commoners throughout the realm to register with a Buddhist temple as parishioners (danka).
• Dutch factor gifts a candelabra to Nikkô Tôshôgû, in part as a show of gratitude for the re-opening of trade following incidents surrounding Pieter Nuyts; this is later mistakenly recorded as having been a Ryukyuan gift.

Births and Deaths

• Kokugaku scholar Keichû is born (d. 1701).

Previous Year 1639

1640

Following Year 1641