Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations

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Christian–Muslim Relations in China and Japan in

the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries

James Harry Morris

To cite this article: James Harry Morris (2018) Christian–Muslim Relations in China and Japan in
the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 29:1, 37-55,
DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2017.1401797

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ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN–MUSLIM RELATIONS, 2018
VOL. 29, NO. 1, 37–55
https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2017.1401797

Christian–Muslim Relations in China and Japan in the

Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries
James Harry Morris
Department of Divinity, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Building on entries written for Christian–Muslim Relations: A Received 8 February 2017
Bibliographic History, this article explores Christian–Muslim Accepted 23 October 2017
relations in China and Japan in the sixteenth and early
KEYWORDS
seventeenth centuries. The first half of the article considers Matteo Ricci; Alessandro
Christian–Muslim relations amongst the Japanese in and outside Valignano; Luis Frois;
Japan. Direct, indirect and potential interactions and Kirishitan; Jesuits; Yasuke;
contemporaneous commentaries are explored in order to build a slavery; Pedro Kibe; Japanese
picture of the sort of Christian–Muslim interactions that took religions; Chinese religions
place. However, due to the sparsity of sources, this section seeks
more to develop and open potential avenues of enquiry than to
provide definitive answers. The second section focuses on
Christian–Muslim interactions in the work of Matteo Ricci and
suggests that Christian–Muslim interactions in East Asia generally,
and in China more specifically, were significant not only to the
Jesuit mission itself, but also to the shaping of European
knowledge of the East.

Recent volumes of Brill’s Christian–Muslim Relations: A Bibliographic History

(Thomas and Chesworth 2015, 2017) have highlighted aspects of Christian–Muslim
dialogue and relations in Asia that deserve an exploration beyond the scope of that
series’ immense remit. Scholarship on Christian–Muslim relations in Japan before
the twentieth century is virtually non-existent; on the other hand, whilst scholars of
Chinese history have explored Christian–Muslim relations in China, they have
tended to focus either on the Jesuit–Muslim astronomical controversies of the seven-
teenth century in the context of Sino-European intellectual exchange or on the ways
in which Muslims and Christians attempted to adhere to Chinese cultural forms
(Benite 2005a, 2012, 2015). This article considers Jesuit interactions with Muslims in
China and Japan in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, with a particular
focus on the testimony of the Christian missionaries and their contemporaries. In so
doing, it seeks to explore direct Christian–Muslim interactions and impressions as
described in the accounts of the missionaries, and the evolving views that Christians
and Muslims developed of the religious Other and the world in the contexts of
China and Japan.

CONTACT James Harry Morris jhm53@st-andrews.ac.uk

© 2017 University of Birmingham
38 J. H. MORRIS

Japan
Although some theorize to the contrary, it is unlikely that Christians came to Japan for
evangelistic purposes prior to the arrival of the Jesuits in 1549 (Morris 2015a, 2015b,
2016, 2017a, 2017d). Nevertheless, there are some Christian–Muslim points of contact
that predate the genesis of the Jesuit mission. Traditionally, many Persian and Middle
Eastern visitors to Japan were Zoroastrians, although there is a possibility that some
may have been Christians or Muslims. The earliest visits by both Christians and
Muslims likely occurred during China’s Yuán 元 dynasty (1271–1368CE), when soldiers
representing both religions participated as allies in the Mongol invasions of Japan
(J. Genkō 元寇) in 1274 and 1281 (Toepel 2009). Records of a Mongol embassy to
Japan that arrived in 1275 are the earliest known Japanese source that describes a visit
by a Muslim to Japan (Saeki 1935; Hosaka 2011). Interestingly, one of this Muslim’s
travel partners, Guo 果,1 may have been a Christian, making the embassy possibly the
first recorded instance of Christian–Muslim interaction in Japan outside of the aforemen-
tioned invasions. In any case, it should be clear that, prior to the sixteenth century, Chris-
tian–Muslim interaction in Japan was virtually non-existent as neither religion was
present amongst the Japanese. Those interactions that did occur were the result of encoun-
ters and dialogue taking place in China, so, when Christians and Muslims first came to
Japan, they came as allies in the same military force to fight and die alongside each other.
The Portuguese met Japanese traders throughout Asia during the first half of the six-
teenth century, but entered closer relations following the capture of Malacca in 1511. Fol-
lowing the ‘discovery’ of Japan in the early 1540s, interest in the nation increased due to
the ability of the Portuguese to make large profits through facilitating Sino-Japanese trade
(Boxer 1951) and growing Jesuit hopes that a mission to Japan would bear fruit (Bartoli
and Maffei 1858; Coleridge 1871–1872). The Jesuit mission was established in 1549 by
a party of six missionaries consisting of three Jesuits, Francis Xavier (1506–1552),
Cosme de Torrès (1510–1570) and Juan Fernández (?–1567), together with three others
who had been converted in India, including the Jesuits’ translator Yajirō ヤジロウ.2 As
I have noted elsewhere:
Missionaries to Japan interacted with Muslims en route to East Asia: they met Muslims at sea
and in port; they kept Muslim slaves and employees; they facilitated Muslim–Christian trade;
they were variously attacked and transported by Muslim pirates; they were participants and
bystanders in wars against and between Muslim kingdoms; and most importantly they
attempted to convert Muslims to Christianity. (Morris 2017b, 333)

These sorts of interaction were commonplace and featured in the reports of contempora-
neous travellers and missionaries. A prominent example is Fernão Mendes Pinto’s (1509–
1583) account of his voyage to Japan, in which he refers extensively to his encounters with
Muslims and Islam, often criticizing the religion and its followers (1614). Nevertheless, as
common as they were, interactions with Muslims en route to Japan generally lacked
importance to the European travellers and missionaries, who regularly portrayed their
counterparts as little more than unimportant bystanders. Moreover, precisely because
these interactions took place outside Japan, they tell us little about Christian–Muslim
relations in Japan proper.
Luís Fróis (1532–1597), writing from Malacca in 1556, lambasts various Christian prac-
tices in the city, criticizing the relationships that Europeans had established with Muslims
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN–MUSLIM RELATIONS 39

there (1954). Through these relationships, the Portuguese transported Muslims around
East Asia, resulting in a voyage to Japan by a Muslim, who, Fróis argues, attempted to
spread his faith despite ultimately failing to do so (Lach 1965). As Donald Lach (518)
notes: ‘This threat to Japan, the pride and joy of the Jesuits, leads Fróis to a bitter denun-
ciation of the Moors as “the most pestiferous and hateful thing there is in these regions”.’
This reference to Islam in Japan is highly important, not only because it is one of very few
contemporaneous sources on the topic, but also because of the nature of its contents. The
information regarding the visit of a Muslim to Japan for the purposes of proselytizing does
not appear to be corroborated in other sources. There is a chance, therefore, that the claim
lacks historicity, that it was a rumour, a literary device or exaggeration used by Fróis to
emphasize his criticism of Islam and the state of Christian–Muslim relations in
Malacca. These possibilities aside, the letter is the first record of an Islamic mission to
Japan and, although the mission was short-lived and did not appear to produce converts,
it is pertinent to note that it was the role of non-missionary Christians who made this
mission possible; the Muslim was after all transported by Portuguese merchants to
Japan. In other words, the first Muslim mission to Japan was facilitated by Christians.
This is congruent with the observation of John E. Wills, Jr (1998, 335), who notes that
whilst the Portuguese had initially sought to disrupt Muslim trade, after 1550, ‘they
became more interested in their own inter-Asian trade and more accommodative
toward their Muslim competitors’.
Now, although Fróis takes a negative approach to Christian–Muslims relationships in
East Asia, the contents of his report betray a state of affairs wherein individuals of both
religions worked together towards their goals. According to Fróis, the Portuguese were
concerned with trade, and the Muslims with proselytization. In reality, both parties
were likely interested in turning a profit through trade and other ventures, developing a
knowledge of the East Asian region, conquest and colonization. If we believe Fróis’s tes-
timony, Christian–Muslim relationships formed in Malacca resulted in a short-lived
Muslim mission to Japan by a single man, who was almost counterintuitively planted
there by the Christians. Whilst Fróis’s report illustrates the maleficent views of Muslims
held by some contemporaneous missionaries, it simultaneously shows that ordinary
Christians maintained amicable relations with their Muslim counterparts.
In the context of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Japan, most of the interactions
that took place between Christian and Muslim were primarily grounded in the power
relationships of owner–slave and employer–employee. In 1590, there were 140 Jesuit
priests and religious brothers (J. iruman 伊留満), as well as some 480 other employees
including 180 lay catechists (J. dōjuku 同宿) and 300 servants and caretakers (Moran
1993, 144). Some 14 years later, whilst the numbers of priests and brothers had not radi-
cally changed, the entire personnel of the Jesuits numbered approximately 900. Many
Jesuit staff members were slaves who had been imported from Africa and elsewhere in
Asia (Borges 1994; Kowner 2014). Slaves were an important resource; they performed
menial tasks, reduced financial burdens on the Order and helped circumvent issues associ-
ated with the low number of personnel devoted to missionary work. Although the
Superior-General, Francis Brogia (1510–1572), had decreed that the Jesuits release all
slaves in 1569, anti-Christian legislation promulgated in 1587 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi
豊臣秀吉 (1536/1537–1598) illustrates that the Japanese still believed that the Jesuits
were intimately involved in the Portuguese trade in both Japanese and foreign slaves,
40 J. H. MORRIS

and perhaps that they also continued to hold slaves (Moran 1993). Interaction between
Christians, both religious and lay, and Muslim slaves and servants in the employ of the
Jesuits and European traders may have been common (see Furukawa 2010, 187).
However, the low level of importance placed on such interactions meant that they went
unmentioned in missionary reports and letters. Despite this, there is one potential
Muslim who came to prominence during the period, Yasuke 弥助,3 the servant of the
Visitor to Japan, Alessandro Valignano (1539–1606), and later retainer of Oda Nobunaga
織田信長 (1534–1582). Jesuit historian François Solier (1558–1638) describes Yasuke in
his Histoire ecclésiastique des isles et royaumes du Japon (1627) as the Moorish servant of
Valignano, who had come with him from India but originally hailed from Mozambique,
whose people are properly described as kuffār (plural of Ar. kāfir, unbeliever). In marginal
notes in the text and the index, Yasuke is described as a More Cafre (kāfir) or Moorish
infidel (Solier 1627, 444, 805). Such comments, which are congruent with Lourenço
Mexia’s 1581 description of Yasuke as a kafir (1598, 17), might suggest that Yasuke was
a Muslim. It is certainly the case that Mozambique had a large Muslim population
when intercourse with the Portuguese was opened in the late fifteenth century (Ndege
2007). Nevertheless, Thomas Lockley debates Yasuke’s ancestry, noting that, if he had
entered Valignano’s employ in Portugal, he was likely from Angola or Congo Brazzaville,
but that he may have entered Valignano’s employ en route to Japan in Mozambique, or in
India – making him likely a Mozambican or Ethiopian (2016). Lockley argues that, if
Yasuke was Muslim, the Mozambican or Indian theses would more likely be due to the
popularity of Islam in East Africa, and the higher conversion rates to Islam among
black people taken to India. He also suggests that Yasuke’s name may indicate that he
was from the East-African Yao ethnic group, a possible combination of the word ‘Yao’
and the Japanese male name suffix ‘suke’,4 further evidence that Yasuke may have been
a Muslim, given the large-scale conversion to Islam by the Yao during the fifteenth
century. Japanese sources provide few details as to Yasuke’s religious identity. The
Shinchō Kōki 信長公記 describes him as a black man or kāfir from the Christian countries
(Kondō 1921, 204), while the earliest source to mention Yasuke, the diary of Matsudaira
Ietada 松平家忠 (1555–1600), notes that he was presented by the Jesuits to Nobunaga
(1897). All in all, from Fróis and Solier, as well as Lockley’s debate on the subject of
Yasuke’s ethnicity, it seems likely that he was a Muslim. Accounts of Yasuke potentially
point to the presence of Muslim slaves and employees in Japan. This is pertinent, as inter-
actions between Christian masters and Muslim slaves or employees, despite being
common, often went unrecorded.
Akin to the aforementioned case of the Muslim missionary transported to Japan by
Christians, the case of Yasuke and Muslim staff members more generally illustrates that
Christian–Muslim relationships that developed elsewhere in Asia resulted in the transport
of Muslims to Japan. In both cases, the scantness of information on the matter is also of
importance, as it indicates the relative insignificance that Christians attributed to their
Muslim counterparts and staff members. In the case of Yasuke, however, a somewhat
different relationship between Christian and Muslim is illustrated. Whereas the Chris-
tian–Muslim relations in Malacca described by Fróis suggest that Christians and
Muslims were equal partners in their economic and social relationships, the case of
Yasuke points to a type of relationship grounded in inequality, wherein the Christians
were masters and the Muslims slaves, servants or employees.
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN–MUSLIM RELATIONS 41

The Portuguese slave trade resulted not only in the transportation of Muslims to Japan,
but also in the transportation of Japanese as slaves abroad. So widespread was the trade in
Japanese slaves that King Sebastian I of Portugal (1554–1578) prohibited the trade in 1571,
fearing it would hinder the mission there, although this does not appear to have been
enforced (Nelson 2004). In 1605, King Philip III of Spain and Portugal (1578–1621),
responding to criticisms of the slave trade on the one hand and its prohibition on the
other, decreed that the illegal taking of Japanese slaves remained prohibited, whilst
trade in those legally obtained was permissible. The sale of Japanese slaves to non-
Christians was an important issue for some of the missionaries. For instance, a Japanese
character in a fictional narrative written by Valignano implores:
… who can bear with equanimity that our people have ended up scattered all over the
heathen kingdoms of the world, [home to] abject peoples of false religions given over to
vice. Not only must they suffer bitter servitude among black barbarians, but also be filled
with false creeds. (Nelson 2004, 465)

The Jesuit Conference in Nagasaki in 1598 similarly noted the sale of Japanese to non-
Christians and indeed Muslims, stating: ‘Even the lascars and servants of the Portuguese
are buying up slaves and selling them in Macao’ (469).
The term lascar noted in the conference report often had a connotation of Muslim reli-
gious identity (Vaughan 1998) and, as noted in the discussion of Yasuke’s religious iden-
tity, it is likely that some African slave-owners such as those alluded to in Valignano’s
aforementioned work, identified as Muslims. Hosaka Shuji asserts that it was through
the sale of Japanese slaves to non-Christian and indeed Muslim masters, as well as into
Muslim kingdoms, that the first Japanese were converted to Islam (Hosaka 2011). It is
possible to conclude, therefore, that, as well as bringing the Japanese into contact with
Muslims through the transportation of Muslims to Japan, it was the actions of non-mis-
sionary Christian traders that led some Japanese to Muslim lands and to embrace Islam.
As noted, these actions were frowned upon by the missionaries and the Church. However,
it was also through their Christian countrymen, through fostering their own relationships
with Muslims and doubtlessly motivated by profit, that relations between the Japanese and
Muslims were fostered.
Thus far, the discussion has focused on the sorts of relations between Christians and
Muslims in the Japanese theatre that were ultimately of little consequence for those
who wrote the contemporaneous histories – as illustrated by the lack of space allocated
to related narratives and, indeed, silence on such matters in most sources. Ikuo Higashi-
baba (2015) has noted that academics have often approached the history of Japanese
Christianity in the period by focusing on either the political and economic aspects of
the mission or the figures at its centre. Similarly, in cases potentially pertinent to Chris-
tian–Muslim relations, scholars have overlooked the history of ordinary people and
indeed taken little interest in this aspect of the mission more generally. During the so-
called ‘Christian century’ (1549–1644), several Japanese Christians travelled to Europe
and the Middle East, either in official embassies or as individuals. Although it is almost
a certainty that all of them met and interacted with Muslims on their journeys, given
their extensive presence throughout European empires, trade and travel routes, there is
but one figure of particular interest, namely Petro Kasui Kibe ペトロ・カスイ岐部
(1587–1639), an aspiring Jesuit born into a Christian family. Following the Tokugawa
42 J. H. MORRIS

Shogunate’s (J. Tokugawa bakufu 徳川幕府) promulgation of the Bateren tsuihō no fumi
伴天連追放之文in 1614, which proscribed Christianity and its propagation, and the sub-
sequent expulsion of the missionaries and other prominent Christians, Kibe was exiled to
Macao, where he formed the desire to become a priest. However, his studies and entry into
the Order were brought to a halt by his superiors, and the seminary where he studied was
closed, leading him to decide to journey to Rome in order to attempt to enter the Society
there (Elison 1973). In 1618, Kibe arrived in India, as did at least two other prospective
Jesuits, Migel Minoesu ゲル・ミノエス (1597–1628) and Mancio Konishi マンショ
小西 (1600–1644), who travelled around the African coast and via Portugal. Kibe took
the overland route through Persia and the Middle East, arriving in Rome in 1620 and sub-
sequently entering the Society. Whilst Migel and Mancio likely interacted with Muslims
during their own journeys, Kibe’s journey is of particular pertinence, even though no
written record of it exists. Kibe travelled on foot through predominately Muslim areas,
including modern-day India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Palestine, becoming
the first Japanese person to visit the Holy Land and Jerusalem. Hubert Cieslik (1971) the-
orizes that Kibe probably did not face many difficulties on his journey through Persia as
there was a large Augustinian mission present there at the time, but notes that Kibe likely
encountered problems in the largely Muslim areas further west (Cieslik 1997).
Nevertheless, as Kataoka Yakichi (1984) notes, this was a journey undertaken by Kibe
without geographical knowledge, money or an understanding of the languages with which
he would come into contact. Moreover, interactions with Muslims were not confined to
his travels through areas west of Persia, but would have likely have formed a prominent
part of his journey from its start in Goa, whence he had to first cross the Mughal
Empire. In reality, little can be said on Kibe’s journey and its relation to Christian–
Muslim relations; indeed, the fact that he would have struggled to communicate with
those he met suggests that relations would have lacked the possibility of verbal inter-reli-
gious dialogue. However, it is pertinent that he, a Christian, is the first recorded Japanese
to have visited Palestine. Perhaps the absence of a record of his journey indicates a certain
level of irrelevance with which Christian–Muslim relations were viewed by prominent
Christians at the time. Kibe later returned to Japan as a priest, and was martyred in
Edo in 1639.
Another important, non-Jesuit, example is the journey of iruman Nicholas (J. Nikorasu
ニコラス) alongside Nicolau de Melo (J. Nikorasu Mero ニコラス・メロ) as part of an
Augustinian embassy to the Persian court (Flannery 2013). As I have noted elsewhere,
‘Islam and Muslims feature … as little more than footnotes in Christian histories and
reports on Japan from this period’ (Morris 2017b, 335). The few rare examples explored
above intermittently placed Japan, its inhabitants and Christian and Muslim visitors, at the
centre of a wider Christian–Muslim discourse taking place across Asia. Missionaries inter-
acted not only with Muslims en route to Japan, but also with Muslims present in Japan
itself, brought there following the development of friendships between lay Christians
and Muslims, employment and enslavement. Christians also fostered the first Japanese
conversions to the religion by selling Japanese slaves to Muslim slave-holders and
Muslim kingdoms, whereas Japanese Christian converts encountered Muslims on their
journeys to Europe. The mission came to an end in 1644 with the martyrdom of
Mancio Konishi (Miyazaki 2003), by which time Christian–Muslim exchanges had
already been severely limited through the Kaikin rei 海禁令 of 1635 (Laver 2011, 14–17),
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN–MUSLIM RELATIONS 43

which banned Japanese from travel abroad, and the proscription of relations with the
Portuguese in the Kaikin Kaikin rei of 1639. Nevertheless, some Christian–Muslim
exchanges continued through the presence of the Dutch. The Portuguese had introduced
Middle Eastern goods to Japan, including clothing and Arabian and Persian horses, and
the Dutch continued such trade and brought oddities such as camels and Egyptian
mummies. Like their lay Portuguese forbears, the Protestant Dutch also assisted lone
Muslim traders to visit Japan and interacted with and wrote on those who had come by
other means (Nagashima 1997).

China
Christian–Muslim relations in China are more complex than those that took place in
Japan, but are perhaps easier to discuss, given the relatively copious amount of source
material available. In this section, discussion of Christian–Muslim relations in China
will focus on the early part of the mission, ending with the death of Matteo Ricci (C. Lì
Madòu 利瑪竇, 1552–1610). As was the case with the mission to Japan, the capture of
Malacca, where the Portuguese met and traded with Chinese merchants, was essential
to the establishment of relations with China proper. Although both official and individual
visits took place from 1514 onwards, it was not until the establishment of Macao 澳門 in
1557 that the Portuguese gained a permanent foothold in China (Ross 1994). The Jesuits,
who had visited China intermittently since Xavier’s attempted journey there (Brockley
2007), followed the Portuguese to Macao but contented themselves with acting as
chaplains to their compatriots rather than attempting to establish a mission to the main-
land. Liam Brockley (2007, 32–34) notes that, although the genesis of the China mission is
normally attributed to Matteo Ricci in 1583, in reality it was Michele Ruggieri (C. Luó
Míngjiān 羅明堅, 1543–1607) who, through gaining permission to reside in Zhàoqìng
肇庆 in 1582 and subsequent authorization to have two more Jesuits join him, actually
started the mission.
In China, the Jesuits stepped into a country that, unlike Japan, had a long history of
facilitating Christian–Muslim relations and, indeed, a native Muslim presence. Syriac
Christianity (C. Jı̌ngjiào 景教) had arrived as early as 635 (Saeki 1916; Gillman and Klim-
keit 1999; Thompson 2009), whereas Islam (C. Huíjiào 回教) first appeared in 651 (Kita-
gawa 2002; Shoujiang and Jia 2004). Although the popularity of Syriac Christianity
momentarily waned following the anti-religious persecutions of the late Táng 唐
dynasty (618–907), both religions coexisted for centuries and grew to prominence
during the Yuán dynasty. This dynasty saw the establishment of various offices affiliated
to the religions, including the Office for Christian Clergy (C. Chóng fú sī 崇福司) active
between 1289 and 1315 (Moule 1930; Farquhar 1981), and a Muslim Office of Western
Medicine (1263) (C. Xīyù yīyàosī 西域醫藥司) and astronomical observatory (1271)
(Huíhuí sītiānjiàn 回回司天監) (Manz 2010), as well as the promotion of both Christians
and Muslims to positions of civic, military, governmental and advisory importance. In the
same period, Franciscan missions spearheaded by John of Plano Carpini (1185–1252),
William of Rubruck (1220–1293), John of Montecorvino (1247–1328) and others intro-
duced Roman Catholicism into the equation. This multi-religious context led to both
internal and external inter-religious dialogue and exchange. One prominent example is
Khubilai Khan’s (C. Hūbìliè 忽必烈, 1215–1294) dispatch of Jı̌ngjiào clergymen
44 J. H. MORRIS

Rabban Bar Sauma (1220–1294) and Rabban Markos (1245–1317) to the Middle East, and
the former’s later embassy to Europe (Budge 1928; Rossabi 2010). In the fourteenth
century, Jı̌ngjiào and Catholicism entered periods of decline and eventually disappeared
completely from China and Central Asia (Clark 2011; Halbertsma 2015). On the other
hand, during the Míng 明 dynasty (1368–1644), Islam came to new-found prominence
as policies of Sinicization and isolation transformed, as Raphael Israeli (2002) notes,
‘Muslims in China’ into ‘Chinese Muslims’. Interaction with these Chinese Muslims
became inevitable for those Christians who visited the country during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries and, perhaps due to reports from Galeote Pereira and Gaspar da
Cruz (1520–1570), the first Jesuit visitors even expected to meet them (Spence 1984).
As Benite (2012, 519) notes, ‘Muslims … were part of numerous direct or indirect dialo-
gues and exchanges that had been stirred by the presence of the Jesuits.’
As early as 1596, Ricci used the example of a Muslim woman as a memory aid in his
work of mnemonics, Xīguó Jìfa 西國記法 (Benite 2015, 504). Ricci writes: ‘You take the
character “yao”, imagine it as looking like a Muslim girl of Central Asia, forming the char-
acter “yao” … ’ (Hsia 2012, 152). Benite (2015, 504) comments that the multiple linkages
between word and concept made in this passage
could mean that the top part of yao (the ideograph xi 西, ‘west’) and the bottom part (nu 女,
‘woman’) carried with it the image of a woman from the western kingdom Xixia 西夏 … But,
as Spence explains, Xixia in this context denotes the north-west – a territory that by Ricci’s
time was home to large Muslim communities.

Both Spence and Benite concur that concepts of importance and duty associated with the
term Yào 要 necessitated the use of a marker of religion for the woman used in Ricci’s
mnemonic device. However, whereas Spence theorizes that the term Huíhuí 回回, used
with different suffixes to refer to Muslims, adherents of Jı̌ngjiào and Jews, could suggest
a wider monotheistic identity for the woman, Benite notes that the grouping of Christian-
ity, Islam and Judaism as monotheistic world religions developed in the modern world,
and he, therefore, favours a sole Muslim religious identity for the woman. Whilst the
term Huíhuí often took multiple meanings, referring to both religious and ethnic identity,
and although the Chinese used the term to refer to the three monotheistic foreign faiths,
we must concur with Benite that it would have been difficult for a person in Ricci’s time to
conceive of ‘Islam as part of the monotheist trio of great religions’ (Benite 2015, 506) or
indeed to have embraced the Chinese Huíhuí religious categorization. For Benite, the fact
that Ricci uses a Muslim woman in one of his memory devices is of paramount signifi-
cance. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that this is a single line in a text which, as
R. Po-chia Hsia (2012, 152) notes, ‘found little reception: only one edition was printed
and few copies disseminated’. Moreover, as Spence (1984, 94) notes, the image developed
by Ricci is one that would resonate with his Chinese audience. Perhaps the most pertinent
point of this small excerpt is that Ricci refers to the Muslim woman without value judge-
ment; her existence, and indeed the existence of Muslims in general, is a given. On the
other hand, as the primarily non-religious text was written for an audience of Chinese lit-
erati desiring to learn European mnemonic techniques, it would be unusual to find value
judgements on the nature of Islam or Muslims that we might expect from an apology or
polemic.
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN–MUSLIM RELATIONS 45

Spence notes other early references to Muslims in Ricci’s letters. A year after arriving in
China, Ricci wrote that ‘Moors’ were present there, but that he could not fathom how they
had arrived or ‘planted’ themselves in the country (Venturi 1913, 48; Spence 1984, 117). In
the same text, Ricci suggests that the Muslim population is large, but chooses to classify the
religion as separate from Chinese religious traditions. After learning more, Ricci notes the
existence of Persian and Central Asian trade routes to China as a possible explanation for
the presence of Muslims. He also records the visit of Muslims to the imperial court in
1598, to whom he dispatched a Christian convert to enquire of the visitors’ backgrounds
and to learn about them. The following year, Ricci’s friend, the Chinese official Zhù Shìlù
祝世禄 (1539–1610), sought to persuade him to settle in Nanjing 南京, an area with a
large foreign population, among which there were ‘an enormous number of Saracens
who followed the religion of Muhammad living there already’ (Spence 1984, 118). Such
examples are doubtless as important as Ricci’s use of a Muslim woman in the aforemen-
tioned mnemonic device, but, like the said device, they attest to little more than the exist-
ence of Muslims in China and Ricci’s knowledge of this fact. Nevertheless, unlike the case
of Xīguó Jìfa , these assorted remarks from Ricci’s pre-1600 letters suggest that he had at
least indirect contact with Muslims then present in China. Moreover, his dispatch of a
Christian convert to enquire about Muslim visitors to the imperial court illustrates that
his interest in Islamic counterparts spurred the formation of direct relationships
between Christians in his care and Muslims, although to what extent these developed
and what form they took is uncertain.
Among Ricci’s occasional references to Muslims, there are two lengthier passages that
illustrate a slow evolution in his opinion and approach. The first relates to the Muslim
population in Canton (Guangzho u 廣州), whom Ricci believed were spreading rumours
about Portuguese colonial ambitions.
Igniting this fire [are the] many Mohammedan Saracens, who live in the city of Canton, who
promptly told the Chinese that these men from Frankia, as the Mohammedans call the Chris-
tians of Europe (and since the Chinese cannot pronounce the letter r … they came to call
them till now Falanchi …), are valiant men, conquerors of other peoples’ kingdoms,
knowing already that they had subjected by military power Malaca [sic] and other Indian
kingdoms. (Benite 2005b, 2, my emphasis)

The passage is anti-Muslim in tone and content, directly accusing the Muslims present in
Canton of presenting the Portuguese in a negative light. Such rumours, whether Muslim or
non-Muslim in origin, were likely having adverse effects on the perception of the Jesuit
mission and so Ricci strives to use these rivals as scapegoats. As Benite (2005b) notes, it
is pertinent that the passage illustrates that Chinese Muslims played a central role in
forming Chinese impressions of the Europeans, who were referred to with Islamic
idioms. It is this act of viewing the Europeans through a Muslim lens to which Ricci
objects. However, Spence devotes little attention to this passage, focussing instead on
another lengthier observation made by Ricci in his Prolegomeni: La Cina e i Cinesi, first
published in 1609, which reads as follows:
Since in the far western regions China borders on Persia, at various times many followers of
the Muhammadan religion entered this country, and their children and descendants multi-
plied so much that they have spread over all China with thousands of families. They are resid-
ing in nearly all provinces, where they have sumptuous mosques, recite their prayers, are
46 J. H. MORRIS

circumcised, and conduct their ceremonies. But as far as we learned, they don’t act as mis-
sionaries, nor try to spread their religion, and live subject to Chinese laws and in great ignor-
ance of their own sect, and are held in low opinion by the Chinese.

For these reasons, they are treated as native Chinese, and not being suspected of plotting
rebellion they are allowed to study and enter the ranks of bureaucracy. Many of them,
having received official rank, abandon their old beliefs, retaining only their prohibitions
against eating port, to which they have never become accustomed. (translated in Spence
1984, 118; also refer to Ricci 2000, 112–113)

At its most basic level, the passage illustrates that Ricci had learnt more about the
Muslims present in China since his first references to them. For Spence, the pertinent
point in this passage is Ricci’s observation that, although the Muslims are large in
number, they are weak in their faith. Ricci doubtless intended to portray his Muslim
counterparts as weak in this respect; however, he also observes that the practice of
Islam is widespread, suggesting contrarily that Islamic practices were important to a
large number of Muslims. Spence contends that Ricci’s analysis points to a level of
wishful thinking regarding the place of Muslims in China. Indeed, what Ricci seems to
be describing and to some degree misunderstanding is the aforementioned Sinicization
of Islam. He seemingly contradictorily states that Muslims are both treated as natives
and held in low esteem by the Chinese.
Israeli (2002) notes that, by adopting Chinese names, language, clothing and architec-
tural design, Muslims of the period took a low-profile stance, assimilating with the native
population and accommodating to Chinese religious ideas. In fact, unlike Christianity, the
spread of Islam in China had long been linked to the low-profile status adopted by
Muslims, who focused on secular activities rather than on proselytization (Giles 2008),
extending through continued foreign relations, education, intermarriage and slavery
(Shoujiang and Jia 2004). In this sense, Ricci’s observation that Muslims refrained from
proselytism appears to be accurate. This reading of the passage as a description of the
assimilation of Muslims into China is also accepted by Benite, for whom this passage
seems to indicate a consolation for Ricci, who fears a Muslim uprising and takeover, as
the very thing that made Chinese Muslims dangerously well-disguised – their powers of
assimilation – also led to a weakening of their faith. Thus, even as they gained the means
to quietly infiltrate Chinese society they lost the will to assert their religion. (Benite 2005b, 7)

Benite’s translation (7) of the passage also offers a different nuance from Spence’s. Islam is
described as evil, adding to the passage an indication not only that it is a socio-historical
observation, but also that it is written from an anti-Muslim perspective and contains anti-
Muslim value judgements. Nevertheless, Benite also draws attention to the fact that, unlike
the earlier passage written about Muslims in Canton, here Ricci has come to believe that
Muslims do not cause trouble and instead abide by the law. It is also important that, whilst
Spence’s translation states that the Muslims are ignorant of their own religion, Benite’s
(2005b, 7) states, ‘[they] live subject to Chinese laws and in great ignorance of their
[the Chinese] sect … ’. Benite’s interpretation illustrates that Ricci is drawing several
parallels between Jesuits and Muslims; unlike the Jesuits, the Muslims do not proselytize
directly or indirectly, they are uninterested in Chinese customs and beliefs and have been
successful in entering the Chinese bureaucracy. Benite argues that the final section of the
passage, which refers to the loss of faith among those Muslims involved in the Chinese
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN–MUSLIM RELATIONS 47

bureaucracy, is a commentary on fears in Europe regarding the Jesuit policy of accommo-

dation. On the one hand, the final section’s juxtaposition with the passage before it acts to
set up a comparison between those Muslims who, through their ignorance of Chinese
beliefs, retained loyalty to their faith, and those who, through participating in the
Chinese bureaucracy, lost their faith. This simultaneously hints at Ricci’s own concerns
regarding Jesuits at the Chinese court and displays ‘tones of cultural superiority: while
the Muslims at the upper levels of Chinese society have lost their faith … the Jesuits,
will not’ (10). For Benite, the passage on the whole displays Ricci’s ‘self-assurance that
Muslims will pose no threat to Jesuit efforts – they are either isolated and ignorant, or
lost within the ranks of its [China’s] elite’ (10). When comparing this with the earlier
passage on Muslims in Canton, Benite notes a change in terminology. In the earlier
passage, Ricci referred to the Muslims as saraceni macometani (Muhammadan Saracens),
an ethnic term. However, in the later passage (Benite 2015), he has begun using the reli-
gious label della legge macomettana (followers of Islam). Benite’s analysis is useful as it
teases out several layers of meaning not immediately obvious to a modern reader.
Ricci’s account is not merely a historical observation of the presence and practices of
Muslims in China, but is also a device through which he could juxtapose the Jesuits
with their ‘inferior’ Muslim counterparts in order to create a subtle anti-Islamic criticism
and a Christian apology.
Several passages composed by Ricci record the categorizations of the monotheistic reli-
gions by the Chinese and, therefore, refer to Islam. In an early passage, he notes the exist-
ence of Christians in the north of China and writes that, although they once flourished,
they were forced into hiding, converting to Islam, Judaism or the Chinese religions (Löw-
enthal 1946). Ricci even suggests that the suspicious attitude with which the Chinese had
come to view these Christians was planted by the Muslims, who were working currently as
the Jesuits’ enemies. He then explores the term Huíhuí and its various suffixes, which are
used to refer to different groups of foreigners: ‘The Mohammedans they call the hui-hui of
the three laws; the Jews they call the hui-hui, who extract the sinews from the meat which
they eat; the Christians they call the hui-hui of the word ten … ’ (Löwenthal 1946, 394).
Like Ricci’s composition on the Muslims in Canton, this passage is anti-Muslim in senti-
ment, portraying the Muslims as enemies both of the Jesuits and of Christians more gen-
erally. As reflected in his earlier work, Ricci views Muslims in ethnic rather than religious
terms. Indeed, in Ricci’s conception, the Chinese categorizations of the three monotheistic
religions act to demarcate not the religions per se but three different ethnic groups. In
1605, Ricci met a Jew by the name of Ài Tián 艾田. Ài informed him that the Chinese
made little distinction between Jews and Muslims, but that the Jews held Islam in con-
tempt (Löwenthal 1946, 394). Ricci, therefore, provides a slightly more extensive explora-
tion of the categorization of the monotheistic religions by the Chinese. Although Ài told
him that the Muslims were referred to as the people of three laws (akin to the above-
mentioned passage), Ricci states that other ways to distinguish between the three creeds
are used: ‘namely they call the Saracens “the people, who do not eat pork”, the Jews,
“the people, who do not eat nerves” … and the descendants of the Christians “the
people, who do not eat round-hoofed animals” … ’ (395). Ricci also reports that Ài
would abandon his faith if he could receive academic credentials, like the Muslims who,
upon receiving their degrees, ‘were no longer afraid of their mullah and gave up their
48 J. H. MORRIS

faith’ (395). Furthermore, in another record of his conversations with Ài, Ricci is able to
obtain more information about Muslim history in China. He reports that
[Ài] said that they had preserved the tradition that many Moors, Christians and Jews had
come with king Tamerlane, when he conquered the whole of Persia and also China 800
years ago and that the Moors were predominant, while the Christians and Jews remained
[only] a few. (397)

Echoing the earlier passage, Ricci’s report after meeting Ài continues to use ethnic
categories to refer to Muslims, but he shifts focus so that Islam, Judaism and Christianity
are distinguished as three separate creeds or teachings rather than as three different ethnic
groups. Moreover, his comparison between Ài and Muslim practice introduces a theme he
would later use in his Prolegomeni: La Cina e i Cinesi, considered above – that of the aban-
donment of faith following entry into official positions. His interaction with Ài also
allowed him to ascertain more about the history of Islam in China and the origins of
Muslims there. It was not only Ài who aided in shaping Ricci’s changing thoughts in
the early 1600s, as Ricci
was trained in court etiquette by three Chinese Muslims who also accompanied him to cer-
emonies … [and] … (i)n the Board of Rites hostel he lodged with ‘Saraceni’ who could talk
with ease to him about the worlds of Venice and Spain, Portugal, Hormuz, and India.
(Spence 1984, 122)

Through such Christian–Jewish and Christian–Muslim interactions, the beginnings of an

evolution in Ricci’s thoughts on his Muslim counterparts can be seen.
Ricci’s contemporary, Diego de Pantoja (C. Páng Díwo , 1571–1618), in a letter to Luís
de Guzmán (1602), later published as his Relación de la entrada de algunos padres de la
compañia de Iesús en la China (1605), provides a short description of Islam in China in
which the descendants of the Mongols (Tartars) ‘remayned in China … there are many
which keepe and maintayne their Law of Mahomet, and have their Mezquitas or
Turkish Temples, and are much different in shapes and countenances from the
Chinois’ (de Pantoja 1906, 384). He provides the following account, similar to the afore-
mentioned report by Ricci (but probably not the same, given the dating he provides) of a
Muslim who presented a gift of lions to the King.
There is a Turke here … which above fortie yeeres agoe, brought one or two Lions to the
Father of this King: who, partly because hee knoweth no Learning nor Sciences, and partly
because hee sought to apply himselfe to the habite, customes, and manner of China, there
is none that will deale with him, nor come neere his house: And through the grace which
God hath given us, and because they see us apply our selves to their Apparell, Fashion,
and Courtesies, all the gravest Mandarins come home to our house and visite us, and doe
us the favour, to hold us publikely for their Friends: which they use not to do, to their
owne Countrey-men, of our qualitie and condition: praysed bee our Lord always, Amen.
(398)

Both this and Ricci’s earlier passage illustrate the importance of ethnic over religious iden-
tity. The Muslims have ‘Turkish temples’ and the Muslim who presented a lion to the King
is primarily described as a ‘Turk’. Moreover, de Pantoja treats the Muslims as a separate
ethno-religious group inherently different from the Chinese. This is likely due to the fact
that the division of religious and ethnic identity had yet to be conceived, although de
Pantoja does also use religious labels, referring to Muslims as those who maintain and
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN–MUSLIM RELATIONS 49

keep the law of Muhammad, although even this reference links Muslims to a Tartar ethnic
identity. Like Ricci’s earlier work, de Pantoja’s description of the history of Islam in China
shows a lack of interest in and knowledge of the topic; the passage describing their pres-
ence is but a few lines. The pertinent point about these passages is that they are almost
non-judgemental in their treatment of Islam. The religion is not attacked, and this may
suggest amicable relations or else a lack of direct relations. Like Ricci’s passage in Prole-
gomeni: La Cina e i Cinesi, the second passage quoted above from de Pantoja appears
to point to the failure of Muslim endeavours to accommodate to Chinese culture and
the success of the Jesuits in the same endeavour. Unlike in Ricci’s subtle comparison
between Muslims and Jesuits, there is no suggestion that the Muslims abandoned their
faith during attempts to participate in the Chinese bureaucracy. Rather, their attempts
to integrate failed not because of the Turk’s ability to embrace Chinese modes of life,
but because of his lack of learning. In contrast, the Jesuits are said to adopt Chinese
culture and attain success, implying that they are inherently intellectually superior to
their Muslim counterparts.
In my estimation, one of the most important themes pertaining to Christian–Muslim
relations in Ricci’s work is that of inter-religious sharing of knowledge. The example of
Christian–Muslim knowledge sharing is drawn from a single passage which, as Benite
claims, is the only record of a direct encounter between Ricci and a Muslim. This took
place in 1602, when Ricci met a ‘Moor’ who told him that
in those same far northwest regions of the former Xixia kingdom, where Muslims were now
so numerous, there were also ‘certain white men with flowing beards who had churches with
bell towers, ate pork, worshipped Mary and Isa (as they called Christ our Lord) and adored
the Cross’. (Spence 1984, 120)

Such testimony from Muslim traders helped to plant and confirm suspicions that adher-
ents of Jı̌ngjiào still lived in China. Although Ricci was unable to act on this information,
the fact that Muslims provided him with it betrays the image of another sort of relation-
ship existing between Christians and Muslims in which the co-religionists were benefici-
aries in the exchange of knowledge. This was not a one-sided relationship. Ricci reported
that his work Tiānzhŭ shíyì 天主實義 (1603 and 1607) had a wide Muslim readership and
Jesuit texts were cited and used by Muslim scholars. Benite (2012) notes that the Chinese
Muslim scholar Liú Zhì 劉智 (1660–1739) read some 137 Jesuit texts during his studies.
Liú drew upon Jesuit publications such as Giulio Alenio’s (C. Ài Rúlüè 艾儒略, 1582–
1649) Zhífāng wàijì 職方外紀 (1623), which included more accurate information on
Islamic territories such as the Ottoman Empire than did contemporary Chinese
sources, Ricci’s Qiánkūn tı̌yì 乾坤體義 (1608), and geographical works. Benite writes
that the use of Jesuit scientific and geographic knowledge by Chinese Muslims was selec-
tive and did not radically differ from Chinese engagement with the same sources; they
engaged with such knowledge for scientific purposes. There also appears to have been
some indirect theological exchange between Muslims and Christians. Benite (2012,
528–544) notes, for instance, a number of possible engagements with the work of Ricci
by Muslim scholar Wáng Dàiyú 王岱輿 (1570–1660), and later thinkers, which resulted
both in parallels with, and rejection of, certain Christian doctrines (see Ho 2017).
One of the most important areas of intellectual exchange during the first 30 years of the
mission was within the area of geography. The Jesuits produced and imported a number of
50 J. H. MORRIS

European maps. In drawing these maps, they were able to borrow from the Chinese litera-
ti’s more accurate knowledge of Asia, whilst simultaneously introducing more accurate
knowledge of European geography into the Chinese world (Hosne 2013). It is important
to note that Ricci’s 1602 world map, the Kūnyú Wànguó Quántú 坤輿萬國全圖, failed to
provide details of areas related to Islam, including Arabia, Mecca, Medina and Istanbul,
opting instead to portray the Middle East as a primarily Christian area (Morris 2017c).
This silence acted to suppress the importance of Islam within the Western world. As
well as the use of European geographic knowledge by Chinese Muslims, a more important
development was the way in which Christian–Muslim interactions changed European
understandings of global geography. During the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,
the understanding of world geography was quite different from that of today. Thirteenth-
and fourteenth-century travellers to East Asia, such as Carpini, Rubruck and Marco Polo
(1254–1324), visited the variously named land of Kitaia (Cataya, Cathaia), whilst later tra-
vellers set out to sail to this same land of Cathay (Wittfogel and Chia-Shêng 1946).
Although ‘Cathay’ referred to China in the works of these earlier explorers, those who
arrived in China in the sixteenth century were unaware that they had stumbled upon
the Cathay of old and assumed its existence as a separate country, a fact attested to by
reports the Portuguese heard during their travels through East Asia (Schantz 1970) and
further confused by a variety of myths and legends about the country (Keevak 2009). Con-
temporaneous world maps that drew on Polo’s account and the second-century geogra-
phies of Claudius Ptolemy (100–170CE), therefore, continued to demark Cathay. It was
through Christian–Muslim interaction that the Jesuits would come to realize that the
mythical country of Cathay was in fact the China in which they had arrived.
Having met with a caravan of Moors and a caravan of Turks, de Pantoja provides one
example of Christian–Muslim conversation that led to the questioning of contempora-
neous European geographic knowledge. Prior to recording the interaction with these
traders, he notes that European maps are erroneous as they
make a Kingdome above China, which they call Catayo, whereas indeed it is none other but
the selfe same Kingdome of China: and the Citie of Cambalu, which they put for the head
thereof, is this Citie of Paquin wherein wee are. (de Pantoja 1906, 362)

He notes that the realization that Cathay and China were one and the same had been
spurred by the similarities between the China the Jesuits were experiencing and reports
of Cathay they had received in India. After this, he continues to record the account of
his interactions with Muslims, in which this information is confirmed. The first part of
the passage argues that Turkish and Moorish traders deceived the king of China by pro-
viding him with counterfeit letters for the sake of aggrandizing him, whilst simultaneously
securing for themselves large profits from the trade in jade. He states:
When these men come to this Citie … they put them into a great house, which there is for this
purpose; (wherein wee were for two moneths) … Wee asked these men certaine questions …
How they called this Kingdome of China in their Countrey? They answered, Catayo, and that
in all the Countries of Mogor, Persia, and other parts, it had none other name, and that they
knew none other Kingdome that was called so. Wee asked them how they called this Citie of
Paquin? They said Cambalu, which … is that which our men set downe for the head Citie of
Catayo. Whereby it appeareth, that there can no doubt bee made, but that wee are heere resi-
dent in the Countrey which must bee Catayo, if there were no fault in the Maps; and wee
know that there is no such Countrey, nor Cities, but a few contemptible Moores and Gentiles
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIAN–MUSLIM RELATIONS 51

… These men say, That there is a Sea of Sand (which our Maps doe place in Arabia) neere
unto China, which divideth it from Mogor, and other Kingdomes. (363–364)

Although the passage includes potentially anti-Islamic material, such as the concept that
the traders entered the country under false credentials, this material is primarily descrip-
tive in nature, seeking to portray the reality of Muslim trade – albeit an embellished and
misunderstood one – rather than to decry Muslim practice or truth-claims. The point of
pertinence is that it was Muslims who confirmed de Pantoja’s suspicions that European
geographical knowledge was inaccurate. This suggests that, despite the contemptible
nature of these Muslims (to use de Pantoja’s words), the Jesuits trusted their Muslim
counterparts, taking seriously their testimony. In fact, de Pantoja’s testimony that it was
Muslims who confirmed the Jesuits’ geographical suspicions is not a lone example.
Ricci had come to some conclusions regarding the true nature of Cathay himself
through a comparison of the descriptions of Polo with his own surroundings, concluding
by 1605 that Cathay and China were one and the same. In other passages, he links this
realization again to Muslim–Christian intercourse, noting that the identification of
Cathay with China was confirmed through conversations with Muslims. Although Ricci
and other missionaries present in China attested to the fact that Cathay was China, it
was through the journey of Bento de Góis, itself spurred by Muslim reports in India refer-
ring to Cathay, that the question was put to rest (Kim 2004). Following de Góis’s arrival,
Ricci wrote:
It will now be clear to the viceroy of India, and to all the Jesuits, that there is no other Cathay,
nor ever was one, but just this China. And this city of Kambaluc, and the King of China is the
Great Khan. (Spence 1984, 126)

Nevertheless, even after this final confirmation there were scholars who still attested to the
existence of Cathay (Keevak 2009).

Conclusion
Interactions between Jesuits and Muslims in China were qualitatively and quantitat-
ively different from those that took place in Japan. Both direct and indirect, these
interactions were allotted space within mission reports, letters and other documents.
Through these reports, one can discern changing attitudes towards Muslims. The anti-
Islamic sentiment present in earlier works makes way for texts of greater neutrality in
seeking to describe historical realities, or those through which the Jesuits attempt to
justify the policies of their mission to a European audience by referring to the per-
ceived failure of Muslims. Like texts from Japan, which betray an image in which
Christians and Muslims coexisted and worked towards common goals, texts from
China also illustrate that Muslims were integral to, amongst other things, the devel-
opment of geographic knowledge of China which, in turn, transmogrified European
conceptions of East Asia.

Notes
1. Sometimes 杲.
2. Also known as also known as Anjirō アンジロー, Anger, Angier, Paulo de Santa Fé, Paul
and other variations.
52 J. H. MORRIS

3. Also rendered 弥介, 彌助 and 彌介.

4. As Lockley’s argument here is purely conjectural, it remains open that Yasuke’s name may
have been derived from other Japanese words, perhaps the ‘Ya’ of the word Yatsuko 家つ
子, or Yakko 奴, which referred to certain types of slaves or servants, is an equally plausible
candidate.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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