Cross Cultural Influences From The Past

I'm a Portuguese-American living in Japan. This is actually the first time I have been in Asia. Since I have been here (8 months), I have learned about a lot of cross cultural things between Portugal and Asia (specifically Japan) that are so integrated into the cultures that we don't even notice them anymore.

Food:

Tempura- Tempura is a traditional Japanese dish of deep fried vegetables and/or seafood/ fish. It is deliciousness to the extreme. Sweet potato and pumpkin tempura are amazing.
Anyway, I have learned that tempura was brought here from Portuguese missionaries and traders.
Here is the information I found on Wikipedia. You know how I like wikipedia.

According to Wikipedia : Tempura was introduced to Japan in the mid-sixteenth century by early Portuguese[1] missionaries and traders.[2] The word tempura, or the technique of dipping fish and vegetables into a batter and frying them, comes from the word "tempora," a Latin word meaning "times", "time period" used by both Spanish and Portuguese missionaries to refer to the Lenten period or Ember Days (ad tempora quadragesimae), Fridays, and other Christian holy days. Ember Days or quattuor tempora refer to holy days when Catholics avoid meat and instead eat fish or vegetables. Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, loved tempura so much that he apparently died after eating too much of it according to lore. The idea that the word "tempura" may have been derived from the Portuguese noun tempero, meaning a spicy condiment or peppery seasoning, or from the verb temperar, meaning "to season" has not been substantiated.[2] There is still today a dish in Portugal very similar to tempura called peixinhos da horta, "garden fishies." However, the Japanese language could easily have assumed the word "tempero" as is, without changing any vowels as both languages are phonetically similar.



カステラ　(kasutera) - It's a popular Japanese sponge cake, which is considered a specialty in Nagasaki. Apparently it comes from the Portuguese Pão de Castela, which is similar to pão-de-ló.

According to Wikipedia: 　In the 16th century, the Portuguese reached Japan, and soon started trade and missionary work. Nagasaki was then the only Japanese port open for foreign commerce. The Portuguese introduced many then-unusual things, such as guns, tobacco, and pumpkins - and castella. It was able to be preserved for a long period of time, and so was useful for the sailors who were out on the sea for months. In the Edo Period, in part due to the cost of sugar, it was an expensive dessert. When the Emperor of Japan's envoy was invited, the Tokugawa Shogunate presented the Castella.[1] Over the years, the taste changed to suit Japanese palates.　

Now for the opposite: Tea : In Portuguese, we say chá for tea. I was surprised when I heard people using the same word here　ちゃ　（　or in kanji 茶　） cha for tea. I later learned the tea is cha in Bengali, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Japanese. According to Wiki, " In 1557, Portugal established a trading port in Macau and word of the Chinese drink "chá" spread quickly" to Portugal. I thought that was interesting that all of these countries were using the same word because it spread from China.


Weapons

Since I live in Kyushu, I thought this was interesting. The island of Tanegashima, a southern island of Kyushu belonging to Kagoshima prefecture, is where guns were first introduced into Japan. Apparently a Portuguese ship got blown off course, landed in Tanegashima, and the rest is history.

Religion (Roman Catholic)
Portuguese and Spanish missionaries were the first to bring Christian beliefs to Japan. When I went to Roman Catholic Mass here, the people called it ミサ　(misa), which is the same word we use for mass in Portugal. Since it's written in katakana, I just figured that it probably came from the first missionaries who entered Japan and then stuck. If anyone knows if this is true or not or has any more info, please tell me.

More info in Wikipedia of course. lol. You can find it here and here.

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I think that it's interesting that encounters that took place hundreds of years ago, can effect the countries, their cultures and/or languages so much. I think that now we take it for granted because with the new global age, we can be connected quickly to a person and learn about another culture so quickly through the internet and other forms of media, so we are constantly being influenced by other countries and vice and versa. However, this was even true hundreds of years ago, but in a smaller scale. It's interesting how these cultural things were spread and how they have lasted over the ages by being integrated to other cultures.


I wish I had moew information on how Portugal was influenced by Japan.
If anyone has any info about that, please share it with me.
Actually if you have any info about cross cultural connections that have lasted after hundreds of years, please share that too. I always find that interesting.

On a funny note, sometimes I find words that sound similar, but are completely different.
For example, in Japanese Sakana ( 魚　) means fish. In Portugal, we have a similar sounding word called Sacana, except it means devious or a**hole. lol.