Kadoya Shichirobei

Kadoya Shichirobei was an international trader of the early Edo period (1615-1868) who was permitted by the government to trade with Vietnam. He was born in Matsuzaka in the old province of Ise in a family of successful shipping merchants. In 1631, at age 21, he sailed to Annam (Vietnam) and joined a community of Japanese in Turane (now Da Nang).

In 1633, the Tokugawa government declared the country closed, initiating a policy of national seclusion (Sakoku Jidai) that in effect was ended when Commodore Matthew Perry and his famous black ships (kurofune) arrived in Tokyo Bay in 1853. The policy was rigidly enforced for 300 years, but during the Kambun period (1661-1673), letters from abroad were permitted, and Shichirobei was able to communicate with his relatives, informing them that he was married to a lady of rank and that they had a son.

Shichirobei had become a leading member of the Japanese community, and he restarted trading with Japan. His son succeeded him in the business, after which nothing is known apart from a few letters dispatched by his widow.

Thereafter, with the exception of pirates, Japan had no connections with Southeast Asia until after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the growth of the Japanese Empire.