Spatial and Linguistic Patterns in Early Modern Global History. Iberian and Dutch Merchants, Jesuit Missionaries, Buddhist Monks and Neo- Confucian Scholars and Their Interactions in Japan

This essay presents comprehensive research on how southern European Catholics, Dutch merchants and the Japanese confronted each other, interacted and mutually experienced religious otherness in early modern times. In their highly variable and asymmetric relations, during which the political-military elites of Japan at times not only favoured, but also opposed and strictly controlled the European presence, missionaries – particularly the Jesuits – tried to negotiate this power balance with their interlocutors. My essay analyses religious, cultural, linguistic and scientific interactions between the Christian missions and the Buddhist sects through processes of cooperation, acceptance, confrontation and rejection, dialogue and imposition, which led to the creation of new relational spaces and identities.