This TL is the story of a very different relationship between Japan and America.
The lands of salmon and rice
[FONT="]Brief history of the Japanese in north america
Author: Boris Hashimoto
[/FONT] It was in the year 1643 that Oda Nobuhide, the ninth youngest son of a formerly impoverished Samurai clan turned to trading based in Nagoya, set out sails to explore the pacific. The journey was sponsored by the chief clan of the area Shiba that had for a long time enjoyed good trading relationships with Portugese, Dutch as well as British merchants. The ship itself was an imitation of portugese caravelas, a rather small but efficient vessel. For centuries pirates and merchants had sailed from Japan to China, but this was the first exploratory mission undertaken. The Shiba clan may have had some ideas of enriching themselves by trading with Europe without the intermediaries of European shipping companies, but if so they severly underestimated the size of the pacific. Nobuhide did not make it further than to the philippines and back, his mission did not bring any new knowledge of distant lands nor any profitable ideas. The Shiba clan continued sponsoring shipbuilding mostly due to the curiosity of the young Daimyo, but when Nobuhide asked for the creation of a bigger vessel, possibly even two or three decent sized caravellas (one document indicates he wanted to buy one from a Dutch captain), the answer was that funds were insufficient.
The story of Japanese pacific exploration might have ended there. However, it just like Portugese explorations were kicked off by an enthusiastic prince and Chinese explorations funded by the chinese Ming a hundred years earlier, the monarchy stepped in and changed history.
The lands of salmon and rice
[FONT="]Brief history of the Japanese in north america
Author: Boris Hashimoto
[/FONT] It was in the year 1643 that Oda Nobuhide, the ninth youngest son of a formerly impoverished Samurai clan turned to trading based in Nagoya, set out sails to explore the pacific. The journey was sponsored by the chief clan of the area Shiba that had for a long time enjoyed good trading relationships with Portugese, Dutch as well as British merchants. The ship itself was an imitation of portugese caravelas, a rather small but efficient vessel. For centuries pirates and merchants had sailed from Japan to China, but this was the first exploratory mission undertaken. The Shiba clan may have had some ideas of enriching themselves by trading with Europe without the intermediaries of European shipping companies, but if so they severly underestimated the size of the pacific. Nobuhide did not make it further than to the philippines and back, his mission did not bring any new knowledge of distant lands nor any profitable ideas. The Shiba clan continued sponsoring shipbuilding mostly due to the curiosity of the young Daimyo, but when Nobuhide asked for the creation of a bigger vessel, possibly even two or three decent sized caravellas (one document indicates he wanted to buy one from a Dutch captain), the answer was that funds were insufficient.
The story of Japanese pacific exploration might have ended there. However, it just like Portugese explorations were kicked off by an enthusiastic prince and Chinese explorations funded by the chinese Ming a hundred years earlier, the monarchy stepped in and changed history.