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In the 16th-18th centuries, Vietnam was divided, effectively, into three polities. [[Tonkin]], in the north, was ruled by the Trinh family, and [[Quang Nam]] in the central region, was ruled by the Nguyễn, while the southern region was the independent and ethnically distinct polity of [[Champa]].<ref>Tonkin (東京, lit. "Eastern Capital", V: ''Đông Kinh'') was also known as Đàng Ngoài (塘外, lit. "outside the dikes"), while Quang Nam (広南) was also known as Quinam, Cochinchina, and Đàng Trong (塘中, lit. "inside the dikes").</ref> The Trinh and Nguyễn domains were ruled by "lords," however, both under the ostensible authority of the emperor-kings of the [[Lê Dynasty]].  

In the 16th-18th centuries, Vietnam was divided, effectively, into three polities. [[Tonkin]], in the north, was ruled by the Trinh family, and [[Quang Nam]] in the central region, was ruled by the Nguyễn, while the southern region was the independent and ethnically distinct polity of [[Champa]].<ref>Tonkin (東京, lit. "Eastern Capital", V: ''Đông Kinh'') was also known as Đàng Ngoài (塘外, lit. "outside the dikes"), while Quang Nam (広南) was also known as Quinam, Cochinchina, and Đàng Trong (塘中, lit. "inside the dikes").</ref> The Trinh and Nguyễn domains were ruled by "lords," however, both under the ostensible authority of the emperor-kings of the [[Lê Dynasty]].  

The first contact between Quang Nam and any Japanese was with the pirate [[Shirahama Kenki]], who came raiding ships and shores in [[1585]]. He was driven off by Nguyễn ships, but returned in [[1599]]. The Nguyễn captured him, and wrote to Japan to ask what to do with him; [[Tokugawa Ieyasu|Tokugawa Ieyasu's]] [[1601]] response to Lord Nguyễn Hoang, explaining the [[red seal ship]] system,<ref>That authorized merchants would carry formal licenses marked with red seals, and that everyone else could be regarded as a pirate or smuggler, to be dealt with as the foreign polity (in this case, the Nguyễn court) saw fit.</ref> is considered the beginning of formal relations between the two polities.<ref>Li Tana, ''Nguyen Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries'' (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 60-61.</ref>

The first contact between Quang Nam and any Japanese is believed to have been with the pirate [[Shirahama Kenki]], who came raiding ships and shores in [[1585]]. He was driven off by Nguyễn ships, but returned in [[1599]]. The Nguyễn captured him, and wrote to Japan to ask what to do with him; [[Tokugawa Ieyasu|Tokugawa Ieyasu's]] [[1601]] response to Lord Nguyễn Hoang, explaining the [[shuinsen|red seal ship]] system,<ref>That authorized merchants would carry formal licenses marked with red seals, and that everyone else could be regarded as a pirate or smuggler, to be dealt with as the foreign polity (in this case, the Nguyễn court) saw fit.</ref> is considered the beginning of formal relations between the two polities.<ref>Li Tana, ''Nguyen Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries'' (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 60-61.</ref> An earlier document, however, dated to [[1591]], was discovered in 2013; seemingly written by the same Lord Nguyễn Hoang, it is addressed to the "King of Japan," referring presumably to [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]].<ref>「ベトナムから秀吉に？「日本国王」あての書簡発見」, Asahi Shimbun, 17 April 2013.</ref>

From about 1590 to 1640, the Quang Nam port town of [[Hoi An]], the largest port in all of Vietnam,<ref>Alexander Woodside, “Central Vietnam's Trading World in the Eighteenth Century as Seen in Le Quy Don's 'Frontier Chronicles” in Keith Taylor and John K. Whitmore (eds.), ''Essays into Vietnamese Pasts'' (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1995), 162.</ref> was home to a major [[Nihonmachi]] (Japantown), where a few tens of independent Japanese merchant families played a prominent role in the local trade. Some, such as [[Araki Sotaro]], married daughters of the Nguyễn family.<ref>Matt Matsuda, ''Pacific Worlds'', University of Cambridge Press (2012), 89.</ref> On average, more than ten Japanese ships visited the port every year during the period of the "[[red seal ships]]," that is, between roughly 1590 and 1635; this represented fully a quarter of all Japanese maritime economic activity, more than that of any other individual port.<ref>Chingho A. Chen, ''Historical Notes on Hội An (Faifo)'' (Carbondale, Illinois: Center for Vietnamese Studies, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1974), 13.</ref> Vietnam was likely the second most major source of [[silk]] imports into Japan during this period, after China.

From about 1590 to 1640, the Quang Nam port town of [[Hoi An]], the largest port in all of Vietnam,<ref>Alexander Woodside, “Central Vietnam's Trading World in the Eighteenth Century as Seen in Le Quy Don's 'Frontier Chronicles” in Keith Taylor and John K. Whitmore (eds.), ''Essays into Vietnamese Pasts'' (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1995), 162.</ref> was home to a major [[Nihonmachi]] (Japantown), where a few tens of independent Japanese merchant families played a prominent role in the local trade. Some, such as [[Araki Sotaro]], married daughters of the Nguyễn family.<ref>Matt Matsuda, ''Pacific Worlds'', University of Cambridge Press (2012), 89.</ref> On average, more than ten Japanese ships visited the port every year during the period of the "[[red seal ships]]," that is, between roughly 1590 and 1635; this represented fully a quarter of all Japanese maritime economic activity, more than that of any other individual port.<ref>Chingho A. Chen, ''Historical Notes on Hội An (Faifo)'' (Carbondale, Illinois: Center for Vietnamese Studies, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1974), 13.</ref> Vietnam was likely the second most major source of [[silk]] imports into Japan during this period, after China.

Some of these merchants married into the Nguyễn family, and the Nguyễn lords exchanged formal diplomatic correspondence with the likes of [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]] and the [[Tokugawa shogunate]], in XX and [[1601]] respectively. When war broke out between Tonkin and Quang Nam in [[1627]], the Nguyễn, along with members of the local Japanese community in Quang Nam, wrote to the Tokugawa shogunate, requesting that trade and formal relations with Tonkin be cut off. As a result, though Tonkin also saw some Japanese trade & settlement, it was to a considerably lesser degree. [[Suminokura Ryoi|Suminokura Ryôi]] is likely the most famous of the traders who were active in Tonkin.<ref>Marius Jansen, ''China in the Tokugawa World'' (Harvard University Press, 1992), 22.</ref> Fighting began in earnest between Tonkin and Quang Nam in [[1633]], and lasted until [[1673]], when the two made peace and defined borders between them. Members of the Quang Nam community served, at times, as interpreters, translators, and advisors to the Nguyễn lords, and the Nihonmachi was permitted to be self-governing to an extent. [[Funamoto Yashichiro|Funamoto Yashichirô]] was one such head of the Japanese community, holding that position beginning in [[1618]]. Formal envoys from Quang Nam also traveled to Japan on a handful of occasions.

Some of these merchants married into the Nguyễn family, and the Nguyễn lords exchanged formal diplomatic correspondence with the likes of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, in 1591 and 1601 respectively. When war broke out between Tonkin and Quang Nam in [[1627]], the Nguyễn, along with members of the local Japanese community in Quang Nam, wrote to the Tokugawa shogunate, requesting that trade and formal relations with Tonkin be cut off. As a result, though Tonkin also saw some Japanese trade & settlement, it was to a considerably lesser degree. Some scholars argue that Japanese trade at Tonkin was considerably smaller in volume to begin with, however, as Hoi An was simply a more major port, where Chinese silk was more available, in contrast to Tonkin, which supplied for the most part only local products.<ref>Hoang, 21-22.</ref>

 

[[Suminokura Ryoi|Suminokura Ryôi]] is likely the most famous of the traders who were active in Tonkin.<ref>Marius Jansen, ''China in the Tokugawa World'' (Harvard University Press, 1992), 22.</ref> Fighting began in earnest between Tonkin and Quang Nam in [[1633]], and lasted until [[1673]], when the two made peace and defined borders between them. Members of the Quang Nam community served, at times, as interpreters, translators, and advisors to the Nguyễn lords, and the Nihonmachi was permitted to be self-governing to an extent. [[Funamoto Yashichiro|Funamoto Yashichirô]] was one such head of the Japanese community, holding that position beginning in [[1618]]. Formal envoys from Quang Nam also traveled to Japan on a handful of occasions.

The [[Dutch East India Company]] first appeared in Hoi An in [[1633]]; for the remainder of that decade, before Tokugawa ''[[kaikin]]'' (maritime restrictions) policies cut off Japanese overseas trade, the Japanese continued to dominate the port's local economy, leaving the Dutch with second-choice of the remaining goods (mainly textiles), and at higher prices due to the diminished supply after Japanese merchants bought their fill each season. From 1640 onwards, however, the Japanese trade shrank and eventually died, and the Japanese community in Hoi An, as elsewhere throughout Southeast Asia, assimilated into the local Vietnamese community and effectively disappeared.

The [[Dutch East India Company]] first appeared in Hoi An in [[1633]]; for the remainder of that decade, before Tokugawa ''[[kaikin]]'' (maritime restrictions) policies cut off Japanese overseas trade, the Japanese continued to dominate the port's local economy, leaving the Dutch with second-choice of the remaining goods (mainly textiles), and at higher prices due to the diminished supply after Japanese merchants bought their fill each season. From 1640 onwards, however, the Japanese trade shrank and eventually died, and the Japanese community in Hoi An, as elsewhere throughout Southeast Asia, assimilated into the local Vietnamese community and effectively disappeared.