Mirror with Nanban figures

Nanban figures and motifs appeared on a variety of decorative objects and personal accessories such as this bronze mirror that depicts two Portuguese figures; an older man carrying a long tobacco pipe and a young servant carrying a bowl for his ashes. The term “Nanban, ” literally “southern barbarians, ” was originally a Chinese epithet used for Southeast Asians that the Japanese borrowed to refer to Portuguese and Spanish visitors in the sixteenth century. The term later served as a general term for all non-East Asian foreigners.