The 450th anniversary of Portuguese in Japan
MACAO, 1993, Scott 705, and PORTUGAL, 1993, Scott 1965

Brother Juan Fernández was born in Cordoba, Spain. He was a rich merchant before he was converted and entered the Jesuits. He left Lisbon on March 17, 1548 for the Indies and arrived at Goa September 3. From there he, Francis Xavier, and Father Cosme de Torres set out together from Goa for Japan on Palm Sunday, 17 April 1549 and arrived at the city of Kagoshima in Japan on the feast of the Assumption, 15 August of the same year, the fifteenth anniversary of the vows at Montmartre. Fernández was the author of the first Japanese dictionary and grammar. The three religious on the stamp (note the rosary) are presumably the three Jesuit missionaries who arrived in 1549, but whose arrival was significant enough to commemorate on this occasion. More - More

NEXT