For sarahbellem

[gurdymonkey]

Someone is in our Middle Ages wearing her ruffs. (Well, that's not exactly what she wrote, but my genetic composition prevents me from writing in CatMacro.)

So I figured I needed to put this up: It's from the Kyoto Costume Museum and it depicts a 16th century Japanese convert to Christianity. (I would love to find the original artwork this is based on....)

Comments

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

I have not found evidence of a female version. Then again, one has to remember that the Europeans who got to Japan in the 16th century were all male.

Contact with the general population was strictly limited once the shogunate got involved - and vigorously suppressed once the shogun decided that conversion of his subjects to Christianity was dangerous and devisive. The only Europeans to survive the purges after that were the Dutch. They were allowed to stick around and trade as long as they stayed in their compound at Deshima.

There's a genre called "namban art" showing European ships and sailors and so forth. Pretty interesting stuff.