<P> Marine trades between China and Japan are well recorded, and many Chinese artifacts could be excavated . Baekje and Silla sometimes played the role of middleman, while direct commercial links between China and Japan flourished . </P> <P> After 663 (with the fall of allied Baekje) Japan had no choice (in the face of hostility from Silla, which was temporarily deferred in the face of Tang imperialism--as Tang imperialism posed a threat both to Japan and unified Silla--but resumed in after 730 or so) but to directly trade with the Chinese dynasties . At first the Japanese had little long - range seafaring expertise of their own but eventually (some suggest with the aid of Baekje expatriates who fled their country when it fell) the Japanese improved their naval prowess as well as the construction of their ships . </P> <P> Tang dynasty China received 11 Japanese girl dancers as tribute from Balhae in 777 . </P> <P> The ports of Ningbo and Hangzhou had the most direct trading links to Japan and had Japanese residents doing business . The Ming dynasty decreed that Ningbo was the only place where Japanese--Chinese relations could take place . Ningbo, therefore, was the destination of many Japanese embassies during this period . After going into Ningbo they then went to other cities in China . In 1523, two rival embassies were sent to Ningbo by Japan, then in a state of civil war known as the Sengoku period . One of the emissaries was a Chinese, Song Suqing (宋素卿), who had moved to Japan earlier . Song Suqing became involved in a disagreement with a rival Japanese trade delegation, which led to the Ningbo Incident where the Japanese pillaged and plundered in the vicinity of Ningbo before escaping in stolen ships, defeating a Ming pursuing flotilla on the way . As a result of the incident, the port of Ningbo was closed to the Japanese - only two more Japanese missions were received (in 1540 and 1549) until the end of the Ming dynasty . </P>

How did japanese political and cultural relations with china change between 1600 and 1990