PORTUGUESE JESUIT MISSIONARY JOÃO RODRIGUES’ BIRTH AND EARLY ACTIVITIES IN JAPAN葡萄牙傳教士陸若漢身世及於日本早期活動之考證
The article critically reconstructs the origin and early activities of João Rodrigues (c. 1561–1634), a Portuguese Jesuit missionary renowned as “Nanban Tçuzu” (interpreter of the Portuguese language) and author of the *História da Igreja no Japão* and of the first Portuguese-Japanese dictionary. Pr...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
April 2010
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40034/3541 |
| Summary: | The article critically reconstructs the origin and early activities of João Rodrigues (c. 1561–1634), a Portuguese Jesuit missionary renowned as “Nanban Tçuzu” (interpreter of the Portuguese language) and author of the *História da Igreja no Japão* and of the first Portuguese-Japanese dictionary. Proceeding from the historiographic observation that his family and childhood remain poorly documented, the authors carry out a comparative analysis of scattered and sometimes divergent sources—including references by Jesuit and Eastern scholars, internal catalogues of the Society (1588, 1593, and 1616), and a later autobiographical letter addressed to Rome. The methodology articulates textual reading, onomastic and geographic verification (variations such as Sernancelle/Cernancelte/Sernancelhe), and assessment of biographical plausibility based on evidence concerning his education and social context.
The main conclusions support that Rodrigues was born in Sernancelhe, in the district and diocese of Lamego, province of Beira, around 1561, and that he considered himself a “native” of that region when reporting his origin. The article also suggests that his initial educational trajectory took place predominantly within the Jesuit environment already in Asia, which helps to explain his rapid linguistic competence and his role of cultural and political mediation in Japan during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, favoring relations with central figures of the period. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |