March

*Shuinsen - A trading ship of the early 17th century with authorization from the government in the form of a red seal

Around a thousand years after the envoy ships - at the start of the 17th century -Japanese people had come to build highly reliable ships and ply the seas of Southeast Asia for trade. Japanese civilian trading boats, which were licensed by the Edo Shogunate and carried the red seal authenticating their permission to sail, carried silver from Nagasaki, via Taiwan, to Ayutthaya and Patthani (in Siam, the country now known as Thailand). At the time, Japan was one of the few countries producing silver. The most highly desired cargo in return was raw silk and silk products manufactured in China. At the time, China was often under attack by Japanese pirates, and had forbidden Japanese trading vessels to cross directly to China - hence the arduous routes taken, unavoidably, to obtain silk. In addition to silk, the boats purchased luxury items such as pigments for dye, deerskin, ivory and sugar, which could be sold at high prices. Some people began their own venture-type businesses, based on close links with local producers, such as Nagamasa Yamada, and if things had carried on in the same way, Japan today may have been a much more cosmopolitan nation. The Edo Shogunate, however, shortly after taking rule, decided it did not approve of regional Daimyo growing economically stronger as a result of overseas trading, and feeling the threat of European expansion, with the accompanying power of Christianity, the government closed the country completely. The age of the Shuinsen, or 'red seal' ships, lasted a mere 30 years.
Despite this, during the period when the ships were active, Japan took on board the advanced technologies of overseas shipping, and it appears that the tendency of the Japanese to adopt ideas and make them their own was well established by the 17th century. Guns were first introduced into Japan in the 16th century, but within 30 years, Japan was producing guns herself, and had begun using them in actual battles such as the Battle of Nagashino in 1575.