While Marco Polo never saw "the noble island of Cipangu" (Japan), his stories about it changed history. Polo's Japan was an eastern El Dorado, overflowing with gold and riches. "I can report to you in sober truth a veritable marvel concerning a certain palace of the ruler of the island. You may take it for a fact that he has a very large palace entirely roofed with fine gold . . . They have pearls in abundance . . . and many other precious stones in abundance. It is a very rich island, so that no one can count its riches."
Polo’s source of this information is unknown. Perhaps he heard it from the person who brought it to Kublai Khan, or perhaps it was he who told Kublai about it. In any event, when Kublai Khan learned of it, "he declared his resolve to conquer the island. Thereupon he sent…a great fleet of ships." It was this fleet, in 1274, that was repulsed and destroyed, as Japanese tradition says, by a kamikaze, or divine, wind.
Through Polo’s book, another explorer, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) became intrigued by the idea of finding this land of great riches. He believed that Cipangu was the ancient source of spices like nutmeg, cloves, cassia and Indonesian cinnamon, and declared that he was destined for that island in search of these types of aromatics. In 1484, seeking sponsorship, he wrote to King John of Portugal: "I have read a good deal in Marco Polo, and reached the conception that over this Western Ocean [the Atlantic] one could sail to this Isle of Cipangu and other unknown lands."
Polo had exaggerated the eastward extent of Asia, claiming that Cipangu was 2000 km, rather than 800, off the China coast. Columbus used this figure to plan his westward journey to the Indies, concluding that “there are no great spaces of sea to be passed.” King John, and others, considered Columbus an oddball with an over-active imagination. It took Columbus years to find a sponsor. In 1492, Queen Isabella of Spain agreed to fund his “Enterprise of the Indies.” He made a total of four voyages across the Atlantic. When he died, he believed that his legacy was not the “new world” but a westward route to Asia.