The paper examines Alessandro Valignano’s Advertimentos e avisos acerca dos costumes e catangues de Jappao (“Warnings and notices about the customs and manners of Japan”, 1583), a manual that provides directives for Jesuit missionaries in Japan. The work comprises a list of guidelines to behave in every public and domestic situation “in the Japanese way”, since the author believed this was a chance for Jesuit missionaries to be taken seriously by Japanese people and, therefore, convert them to Christianity. The Advertimentos serves as a critical resource for Jesuit adaptation, revealing Valignano’s commitment to understanding and integrating into Japanese culture while navigating the complexities of cross-cultural interactions within the Jesuit mission. In this context, Valignano’s observations on good manners and gestures of social relationships are particularly highlighted, as they are among the first direct testimonies of how the Catholic European culture of the late Renaissance perceived Japanese culture during the Tokugawa era.

Japanese manners through the eyes of a late-Renaissance Jesuit: Alessandro Valignano’s Advertimentos (1583) / Madella, Laura. - 2025:(2025), pp. 295-312. (Intervento presentato al convegno Circa Missiones. Jesuit Understandings of Mission through the Centuries tenutosi a Lisbon, Brotéria, Centro cultural dos jesuitas portugueses nel June 12-14, 2023) [10.51238/G2S329v].

Japanese manners through the eyes of a late-Renaissance Jesuit: Alessandro Valignano’s Advertimentos (1583).

Laura Madella
2025-01-01

Abstract

The paper examines Alessandro Valignano’s Advertimentos e avisos acerca dos costumes e catangues de Jappao (“Warnings and notices about the customs and manners of Japan”, 1583), a manual that provides directives for Jesuit missionaries in Japan. The work comprises a list of guidelines to behave in every public and domestic situation “in the Japanese way”, since the author believed this was a chance for Jesuit missionaries to be taken seriously by Japanese people and, therefore, convert them to Christianity. The Advertimentos serves as a critical resource for Jesuit adaptation, revealing Valignano’s commitment to understanding and integrating into Japanese culture while navigating the complexities of cross-cultural interactions within the Jesuit mission. In this context, Valignano’s observations on good manners and gestures of social relationships are particularly highlighted, as they are among the first direct testimonies of how the Catholic European culture of the late Renaissance perceived Japanese culture during the Tokugawa era.
2025
Japanese manners through the eyes of a late-Renaissance Jesuit: Alessandro Valignano’s Advertimentos (1583) / Madella, Laura. - 2025:(2025), pp. 295-312. (Intervento presentato al convegno Circa Missiones. Jesuit Understandings of Mission through the Centuries tenutosi a Lisbon, Brotéria, Centro cultural dos jesuitas portugueses nel June 12-14, 2023) [10.51238/G2S329v].
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11381/3006753
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact