Mirror with Nanban figures, 17th century, Unknown Japanese, 7 5/8 × 3 13/16 × 1/4 in. (19.37 × 9.68 × 0.64 cm), Bronze, Japan, 17th century, Nanban figures and motifs appeared on a variety of decorative objects and personal accessories such as this bronze mirror that depicts two Portuguese figures; an older man carrying a long tobacco pipe and a young servant carrying a bowl for his ashes. The term 'Nanban,' literally 'southern barbarians,' was originally a Chinese epithet used for Southeast Asians that the Japanese borrowed to refer to Portuguese and Spanish visitors in the sixteenth century. The term later served as a general term for all non-East Asian foreigners.