Red seal ships

For the RCA or RCA Victor record series, see RCA Red Seal Records.

A modern scale model reconstruction of a red seal ship in the National Museum of Japanese History.
A 1634 Japanese red seal ship, incorporating both European-style lateen sails and Chinese-style junk rig sails, rudder and aft designs. The ships were typically armed with 6 to 8 cannons. Tokyo Naval Science Museum.
Japanese red seal trade in the early 17th century.[1]

Red seal ships (朱印船, Shuinsen) were Japanese armed merchant sailing ships bound for Southeast Asian ports with red-sealed letters patent issued by the early Tokugawa shogunate in the first half of the 17th century.[2] Between 1600 and 1635, more than 350 Japanese ships went overseas under this permit system.[3]

  1. ^ "Histoire du Japon", p. 72, Michel Vie, ISBN 2-13-052893-7
  2. ^ Cesare Polenghi, Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese warrior and merchant in early seventeenth-century Siam. Bangkok: White Lotus Press (2009), 18-19
  3. ^ "Shuinsen, or 'Red Seal ships', were Japanese armed merchant sailing..." Getty Images. 20 November 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2024.