Tanegashima enters the account as the landing place of the first Europeans to set foot on Japanese soil. In Father Domingo’s history for John Blackthorne, an accidental landfall there in 1542 immediately opens into trade, giving the place significance as the point where a maritime mishap becomes a lasting encounter.

The First European Landing

Father Domingo recounts that three Portuguese traders—da Mota, Peixoto, and a third man whose name he cannot remember—were travelling in a Chinese junk from a port in Siam while trading along the China coasts. A typhoon caught them and blew them off course; they landed safely at Tanegashima, at Kyushu. The account marks their arrival as the first time a European set foot on Japanese soil.

From Landfall to Trade

The landing is not described as a planned expedition or conquest. It follows from a storm’s sudden redirection of a trading voyage, and its consequence is immediate: trade begins at once. Tanegashima therefore serves in Father Domingo’s compressed history as the hinge between an unintended encounter and sustained exchange. The episode also enlarges John Blackthorne’s understanding of the routes and forces connecting Japan with the wider Asian maritime world.