Life in the Age of Discovery The arrival of the Portuguese in Japan in 1453 inspired a series of artworks depicting the namban-jin, or southern barbarians, as they were known. This detail from an early-seventeenth-century painted screen shows Portuguese sailors unloading trade goods from a merchant ship.

(Detail from a Namban Byobu Japanese painted screen/Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, Porto, Portugal/Bridgeman Images)