António da Mota was a Portuguese

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cr ...

r and

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

who, in 1543, together with

Fernão Mendes Pinto Fernão Mendes Pinto (; 1509 – 8 July 1583) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese explorer and writer. His voyages are recorded in ''Pilgrimage'' (), his autobiographical memoir, which was published posthumously in 1614. The historical accura ...

and Francisco Zeimoto, became one of the first Europeans to set foot in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Voyage

While traveling to

Ningbo Ningbo is a sub-provincial city in northeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises six urban districts, two satellite county-level cities, and two rural counties, including several islands in Hangzhou Bay and the Eas ...

with a Chinese junk in 1543 (some sources say 1542), Mota and the rest of the crew were swept off course by a bad storm. Among the crew were around 100

East Asians East Asian people (also East Asians) are the people from East Asia, which consists of China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. The total population of all countries within this region is estimated to be 1.677 billion and 21% ...

and several Portuguese. The Portuguese included were Francisco Zeimoto, António Peixoto, and Mota himself.

claimed that he was on the voyage as well, but this claim is unlikely since he also claimed (more accurately) that he was in

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

at the same time. Driven off course by the storm, the ship landed on the island of

Tanegashima is one of the Ōsumi Islands belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, in area, is the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands, and has a population of 33,000 people. Access to the island is by ferry, or by air to New Tanegashima Airp ...

on 25 August 1543. António da Mota and Francisco Zeimoto are recognized as the first Europeans on Japanese soil. António Peixoto is not recorded as having landed, and presumably died at sea before the landing. Mota and Zeimoto introduced handheld guns to Japan, which the Japanese found fascinating. In the decades that followed, the Japanese invested heavily in the mass production of

firearms A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originated ...

. The ship was then soon repaired and António da Mota departed from Japan. The rest of his life is unknown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mota, António da Explorers of Asia 16th-century Portuguese explorers 16th-century Portuguese businesspeople

Voyage

See also

References