Hội An Hội An, located a short distance from Da Nang, was the largest port in early modern Vietnam. The Japanese community there was quite small, consisting of only a few tens of households, in contrast both to the Japanese community of other cities such as Ayutthaya, and to the Chinese population of Hội An, which numbered in the thousands. Even so, the Japanese in the Nihonmachi of Hội An exerted a powerful influence upon the affairs of the trading port, the Japanese demand for silk being so great that the comings and goings of Japanese merchant ships every year caused dramatic cyclical shifts in market prices. On average, more than ten Japanese ships visited the port every year during the period of the "red seal ships", that is, between roughly 1590 and 1635; this represented fully a quarter of all Japanese maritime economic activity, more than that of any other individual port. For several months every year, when the trade winds allowed Chinese and Japanese ships to arrive, a vibrant marketplace would appear in the port, and Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese merchants engaged in trading a wide variety of goods. Among other factors which contributed to its prosperity, Hội An was well-placed to serve as a neutral port where Chinese and Japanese could trade without violating the Ming hai jin ban. During the rest of the year, members of the Japanese community in the port city prepared for the market by gathering goods from Chinese and Vietnamese merchants according to the particular demands of the Japan-based merchants who would be arriving with the ships. The first Dutch merchants arrived in the port in 1633, and were greeted by the head of the Nihonmachi. Though the shogunate would impose maritime restrictions in 1635, banning direct Japanese involvement in overseas trade, Dutch records indicate that for the few years which the Dutch and Japanese coexisted in Hội An, the Japanese completely dominated the port's economy. Even after 1635, Japanese were hesitant to deal with the Dutch, buying silks from the Chinese in such volume that the Dutch merchants were rarely able to purchase the amounts they desired, and had to face significantly higher prices resulting from the drastically reduced supply. Over the course of the 17th century, the Japanese community in Hội An gradually shrank and disappeared, assimilated into the Vietnamese community. Intermarriage not only within the Nihonmachi, but between notable