Cipangu

Cipangu on the world map by Martin Behaim , 1492

Cipangu (also spelled Cipango , Zipangu , etc.) was the name given to Japan in Europe during the Middle Ages .

etymology

The name Cipangu is derived from the Wu pronunciation of the country name日本国( Japanese Nihon- / Nippon-koku , Pinyin : Rìběnguó ).

Rìběn means "origin of the sun" or "sunrise" and guó means "(king) kingdom" or "land", thus roughly "kingdom of the rising sun".

history

Cipangu on the world map by Fra Mauro, 1459

The term Cipangu first appeared in Europe at the end of the 13th century in the travelogues Il Milione by Marco Polo . It was first mentioned on a European map together with the Fra-Mauro map in 1457, much later than on Chinese and Korean maps such as the Kangnido map .

According to Marco Polo's tales, Cipangu was imagined as a mystical paradise abundant in gold and pearls , a hope that after Europeans' first visits to Japan turned out to be deceptive or at least greatly exaggerated.

Only in relation to silver did this medieval view have any real basis. At a time when deep mining was not yet possible, surface ore deposits typical of a country of volcanic origin could be mined in Japan. In the 16th and 17th centuries, silver was still one of Japan's main export goods.

Web links

Folker Reichert : Gold, Idolatry and Kamikaze - Marco Polo and Japan . East Asia Institute of the Ludwigshafen am Rhein University of Applied Sciences , April 29, 2014
Names of Japan (English Wikipedia)

Individual evidence

^ Martin Collcutt: Circa 1492 in Japan: Columbus and the Legend of Golden Cipangu . In: Jay A. Levenson (ed.): Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration . National Gallery of Art, Washington; Yale University Press, London, 1991, ISBN 0300051670 .
↑ Alfred Kohler : Columbus and his time . CH Beck, Munich, 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-54212-1 , p. 97.
^ Friedrich Wilhelm Paul Lehmann : My Japan . Salzwasser-Verlag, Bremen, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86195-354-8 , p. 51 (first publication Hirt, Breslau, 1925, DNB 574587713 ).

[1] Martin Collcutt: Circa 1492 in Japan: Columbus and the Legend of Golden Cipangu . In: Jay A. Levenson (ed.): Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration . National Gallery of Art, Washington; Yale University Press, London, 1991, ISBN 0300051670 .

[2] Alfred Kohler : Columbus and his time . CH Beck, Munich, 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-54212-1 , p. 97.

[3] Friedrich Wilhelm Paul Lehmann : My Japan . Salzwasser-Verlag, Bremen, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86195-354-8 , p. 51 (first publication Hirt, Breslau, 1925, DNB 574587713 ).