Page 306 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

CIRCA 1492 IN JAPAN:

COLUMBUS AND THE LEGEND OF GOLDEN CIPANGU

Martin Collcutt

Marco Polo, Columbus, and the Dream of Golden Cipangu
T and in their subsequent historical assessment.

of the
island.
. he Japanese have for centuries called their
country Nippon or Nihon, "Source of the Sun." palace of the ruler he has a very You may take In the traditional view, one that went largely
it for granted that
large palace
As early as the seventh century the characters entirely roofed with fine gold. Just as we roof unchallenged until this century and is still gen-
for Nippon appear in a letter from the Japanese our houses or churches with lead, so this erally accepted, when Columbus sailed from
prince Shotoku to the Chinese emperor. The palace is roofed with fine gold. And the value Palos in 1492 he did so with the intention of
English word Japan is derived from Cipangu, of it is almost beyond computation. More- finding a shortcut to the gold and spices of the
the name by which Marco Polo (1254-1324) over, all the chambers, of which there are east by sailing west into the Atlantic, which he
designated a land of great wealth he had heard many, are likewise paved with fine gold to called the Ocean Sea. This view is enshrined in
about during his travels in Cathay (China) in a depth of more than two fingers' breadth. Columbus' own Diario (Journal of the First
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the service of the Mongol khan Khubilai during And the halls and the windows and every Voyage) and its prologue, in the Letter of
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the late thirteenth century. Probably Cipangu other part of the palace are likewise adorned Columbus describing the first voyage, in the
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was derived from Riben Guo, the Chinese pro- with gold.... biography by his son Fernando, in the accounts
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nunciation of the characters for "Kingdom of They have pearls in abundance, red in color, of the discovery of the Indies by las Casas, Peter
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Japan." Marco Polo never visited Japan, and no very beautiful, large and round. They are Martyr, and Oviedo, 9 and was expressed most
doubt based his description on not very reliable vigorously in this century in the Pulitzer Prize-
as much
as the white
ones,
and indeed
tales heard from the Chinese and Mongols he worth In this island the dead are sometimes winning study by Samuel Eliot Morison,
more.
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met on his travels. Although there were nonof- Admiral of the Ocean Sea. All agree that
ficial contacts between Japan and China in the buried, sometimes cremated; but everyone Columbus set out with the intention of sailing
in his
who is buried has one of these put
thirteenth century —Japanese monks visiting 2 west to Asia and hit America (although he failed
China in search of Chan (J:Zen) and other mouth. to realize it) by chance or divine providence. In
Buddhist teachings, Chinese Chan monks As Marco Polo's fabulous accounts of the wealth this great "enterprise of the Indies," he would
traveling to Japan, and Japanese freebooters and wonders of East and Southeast Asia filtered naturally have expected to find and explore the
engaging in illicit trade along the Chinese into the Western view of the world, they added island of Cipangu before reaching the coast of
coast —such contacts were at best sporadic and to the lure of the Indies and the Spice Islands in Cathay and the territories of the Grand Khan. 11
were interrupted first by the Mongol conquest the Western imagination. Cipangu joined the In this century the above view of Columbus'
of China and Korea and then by the Mongol Kingdom of Prester John, St. Brendan's Isles, grand Asian design was sharply challenged by
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attempts to invade Japan in 1274 and 1281. : and Antillia as yet another fabulous kingdom to Henry Vignaud and others, who argue that
In the account of his travels, written after his be reached and exploited. Polo's travels —by Columbus had no grand enterprise in mind
return to Italy, Marco Polo described Cipangu as pushing the boundary of China much farther to from the outset, that he was simply searching
a large island, one of more than seven thousand the east than Ptolemy's Catigara in Asia and for undiscovered islands in the Atlantic in the
in the seas far to the east of Cathay, richly locating Cipangu 1500 miles farther east than hope of winning a valuable estate for himself
endowed with gold, spices, and pearls: the coast of Cathay — extended the boundaries and his family. Then, having found islands
of the known world and reshaped contemporary much farther west than he had anticipated, Col-
Japan [Cipangu] is an island far out at sea to understanding of the size of the world, which umbus concluded that he had reached Asia and
the eastward, some 1,500 miles from the knowledgeable people were coming to think of changed his Journal to suggest that Asia had
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mainland [of China]. It is a very big island. as a globe. By the fifteenth century Cipangu always been his goal. It is true that no reference
The people are fair complexioned, good look- was marked on maps of the world. On a Gen- to the Indies as his hoped-for destination occurs
ing, and well mannered. They are idolaters, oese map of 1457 it is shown off the coast of in his Journal entries for the voyage across the
wholly independent and exercising no China. On the Behaim Globe of 1492 Cipangu, Ocean Sea to his landfall on the island that he
authority over any nation but themselves. depicted on the same meridian as the Canary would call San Salvador. And the prologue, in
Islands, is the largest of a cluster of islands off which he does refer to an Indies enterprise, may
They have gold in great abundance, because it the coast of Cathay. have been added at a later date. On the other
is found there in measureless quantities. And Columbus owned a copy of Marco Polo's hand, within a day of the landfall Columbus
I assure you that no one exports it from the travels, to which he added his own marginal records that he is enthusiastically seeking the
island, because no trader, nor indeed anyone comments. He must also have been familiar golden island of Cipangu. And, given the many
else, goes there from the mainland. That is with world maps showing Cathay and the references in Columbus' Journal to Cipangu,
how they come to possess so much of it —so golden kingdom of Cipangu. Cipangu (or the Great Khan, Cathay, and the Indies, some of
much indeed that I can report to you in sober Cipango, as he called it) played a crucial, and them self-contradictory or left obviously uncor-
truth a veritable marvel concerning a certain controversial, role in the voyages of Columbus, rected as Columbus sailed farther and learned

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