Japanese in the Philippines

Japanese in the Philippines, or Japanese Filipino, refers to one of the largest branches of Japanese diaspora having historical contact with and having established themselves in what is now the Philippines. This also refers to Filipino citizens of either pure or mixed Japanese descent residing in the country, the latter a result of intermarriages between the Japanese and local populations.

History

Classical period

Settlements

After the establishment of a single state within Japan, official trade records began between Japan and the Philippine islands in the Heian and Muromachi period (8th to 12th centuries CE). In the case of the proto-Okinawan chiefdoms, this was much earlier, and ties in with shared migration patterns of Okinawans and Austronesian areas like the Philippines stretching back to the Neolithic period. Notable settlements of the period include Bolinao and Agoo along Lingayen Gulf. Multiple genetic studies, however, found that there was no genetic input from Austronesian-related populations in Ryukyuans. The Japanese were trading with Philippine kingdoms well before the Spanish period, mainly in pottery and gold. Historical records show that Japanese traders, especially those from Nagasaki, frequently visited the Philippine shores and bartered Japanese goods for such Filipino products as gold and pearls. In the course of time, shipwrecked Japanese sailors, pirate traders, and immigrants settled in the Philippines and intermarried with the early Filipinos. The Wokous who were East Asian pirates mostly consisting of Japanese, even made it into the Philippines before their extermination in the 1600s. Aparri in the Philippines, which is located in Northern Luzon, was established as pirate city-state under the patronage of the Wokou. The area around Aparri was the site of the 1582 Cagayan battles between Japanese pirates and Spanish soldiers. When the Spaniards reached the island of Luzon in 1571, they found Japanese colonies and settlements in Manila and in some parts of the Cagayan Valley, the Cordillera region, Lingayen, Bataan, and Catanduanes Island. The relatively light complexion of the natives of Bontoc and Banaue is probably a result of the early contacts between the Japanese and other islanders from south of Japan and the natives of the Cordillera.

thumb|[[Red Seal ships transported Japanese merchants]]

Pottery trade

Precolonial Philippines had a rich pottery tradition as verified by the finds at Ayub Cave in South Cotabato and other parts of the archipelago. Japanese texts mention trading expeditions to the island of Rusun (Luzon) for the highly prized Martaban jars. , also known as "Luzon jars", were dark-brown to purple-black tapayan from the island of Luzon that had originally been made in Southern China and had been exported to the Philippines. These were highly sought after by Japanese traders in the 16th century Nanban trade and remain as valuable antique heirlooms in modern Japan. They are primarily used for the Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu). They were prized for their simplicity and rough, often uneven design, epitomizing the traditional Japanese aesthetics of wabi-sabi ("perfection in imperfection"). The Tokiko calls the Rusun and Namban jars, Ru-sun tsukuru or Lu-sung ch'i (in Chinese), which simply means "made in Luzon." These Rusun jars, which had rokuru (wheel mark), were said to be more precious than gold because of its ability to act as tea canisters and enhance the fermentation. In the 15th century AD, tea-jars were brought by the shōguns to Uji in Kyoto from the Philippines which was used in the Japanese tea ceremony.

Rusun jars were part of what is collectively known as Mishima ("three islands") ware. With the other two islands being indigenous Taiwan and the unidentified "Amakawa".

Many of the important pottery traditions that spread into the Oceania region had their counterparts in the Philippines including the well-known Lapita culture. This quote from American anthropologist Wilhelm Solheim illustrates the matter: