南蛮人

Japanese

Kanji in this term
南	蛮	人
なん Grade: 2	ばん Grade: S	じん Grade: 1
on’yomi

Alternative spelling
南蠻人 (kyūjitai)

Etymology

Compound of 南蛮 (nanban, “southern barbarian”) +‎ 人 (jin, “person”).

Originally used to refer to the southern 夷 (ebisu, non-Japanese ethnic groups living in the Japanese archipelago), later used to refer to westerners arriving in Japan from the south. In this later usage, nanbanjin first referred just to the Portuguese and Spanish, while the Dutch were called 紅毛 (kōmō, “red hair”). Over time, this distinction became less important, and nanbanjin referred to westerners in general.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) なんばんじ​ん [nàńbáńjíꜜǹ] (Nakadaka – [5])
• (Tokyo) なんば​んじん [nàńbáꜜǹjìǹ] (Nakadaka – [3])
• IPA^(key): [nã̠mbã̠ɲ̟d͡ʑĩɴ]

Noun

南(なん)蛮(ばん)人(じん) • (nanbanjin) 

1. (derogatory, archaic) a foreigner from Portugal or Spain; more broadly, a westerner in general
   • c. 1615-1644: きのふはけふの物語 (page 64)

     ちご、法師よりあひ、田楽をあぶり、「何にても、三はねたる事をいふて賞翫せう」といふて、「雲林院」の、「南蠻人」の、「煎茶瓶」の、「神泉苑」などいふて、みな一串づゝとられけるに、小ちご、「昆元丹」とて二つ参る。

Further reading

• Nanban trade on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• History of Japan#Sakoku—seclusion from the outside world on Wikipedia.Wikipedia