Battle of Fukuda Bay | |||||||
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Part of the Sengoku period and Japanese–Portuguese conflicts | |||||||
![]() Nanban Ship, Kano Naizen | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Matsura clan | Portuguese Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Matsura Takanobu | João Pereira | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
8~10 large junks, ~60 smaller boats, Several hundred samurai |
1 carrack, 1 galleon, 80+ crewmen | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
3 junks sunk, over 70 killed, 200 wounded[1] | 8 killed[1] | ||||||
Location within Japan |
The Battle of Fukuda Bay (福田浦の戦い, Fukudaura no tatakai) in 1565 was the first recorded naval battle between Europeans (the Portuguese) and the Japanese.[2] A flotilla of samurai under the daimyō Matsura Takanobu attacked two Portuguese trade vessels that had shunned Matsura's port in Hirado and had gone instead to trade at Fukuda (now within Nagasaki), a port belonging to the rival Ōmura Sumitada. The engagement was part of a process of trial and error by the Portuguese traders to find a safe harbour for their carracks in Japan that eventually brought them to Nagasaki.