Christian Nagasaki

Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest, was the first Christian missionary to reach Japan. He arrived in Kagoshima in 1549. He was followed by others and at first the message of Christianity was tolerated. Partly, this may have been because many people thought that it was a for of Buddhism. Later, when it was realised that Christianity was not a form of Buddhism, Oda Nobunaga, the military leader of Japan, allowed the missionaries to preach. This was partly because he wanted to challenge the power of the Buddhist monasteries and also he was interested in foreign trade. His successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned Christianity in 1587. This was partly because he saw that the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English disliked each other and he did not want them to bring war to Japan. In 1597, 26 Christians were martyred on Nishizaka hillside in Nagasaki. These martyrs were canonised in 1862. Tokugawa Ieyasu, the successor of Hideyoshi and the man who finally unified and pacified Japan after a long period of civil war, at first was lenient towards the Christians, but in 1614 he again banned Christianity and in the following years many thousands of Japanese Christians were killed because of their religion. One terrible massacre occurred at Hara Castle in Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture in 1638, when 30,000 were killed. After this, of the Europeans, only the Dutch were allowed to trade and they were kept isolated on the small artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki harbour. During this period, Suwa Shinto Shrine and the O-Kunchi festival were established by the central government to promote Japanese values and oppose Christianity. 

After Japan opened again to the west in the 1850s, Christians were allowed to enter Japan. The first catholic church was built in Yokohama in 1862 and another church was built at Oura in Nagasaki by 1865 for foreigners living there. Subsequently, Japanese people who had remained Christian throughout the two hundred years of the Tokugawa period came to the church. The Japanese government was frightened by the reappearance of Christianity and banished many Japanese Christians away from Nagasaki. In 1873 the ban on Japanese Christianity was repealed and the village of Urakami at the north of the town of Nagasaki, returned. After this, about 20,000 "hidden Christians" were discovered in Nagasaki and the surrounding islands. In 1895 they began to build a cathedral in Urakami. When this was finished it was the largest Christian church in Asia. The cathedral was destroyed in the atomic bombing but was rebuilt by 1959.

The Dutch in Nagasaki.

In 1641, the Dutch, who had previously been trading from Hirado to the north, were moved to the tiny artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki harbour. The Portuguese had been expelled from Nagasaki and from 1641 until 1855 Dejima was the only point of contact between Japan and the rest of the world. Control over the Dutch residents was very strict until very late in the Tokugawa period; they were only rarely allowed to visit the mainland and the were often searched to check for smuggling.

When a ship left, the director of the factory (warehouses) at Dejima stayed on with a small staff until the next ship arrived. Usually the director changed every year but sometimes he stayed for several years. When a new ship arrived, the captain (who usually became the director of the factory) reported to the Japanese government on the political situation in the world. This is probably a main reason why the Dutch were allowed to stay.

Once a year, the director and his staff visited Edo in order to pay respects to the Shogun. The Dutch appear to have been treated like daimyo (Japanese feudal lords), who were also required to make these visits. At first, these visits were strictly controlled, but later the Dutch had more chance to enjoy the journey and to study Japanese history and culture. The Dutch were also allowed to participate in the kunchi festival of Suwa Shrine. When a new governor of Nagasaki arrived in the town, he visited Dejima and the Dutch also entertained the bureaucrats - translators and administrators - who ran the trade between the to countries. 

At first, the main import of the Dutch was Chinese silk and they exported mainly silver and gold. However, the trade became varied and imports included chemicals, fruits, animal products, and wood and glass products. Exports included porcelain from Arita, which was so popular that is was copied at Delft in Holland. 

Translation was a constant problem. At first communication was in Portuguese. Later, Japanese students of Dutch were sent to Dejima. However, there were no teachers and the Japanese were not allowed to read and write foreign languages until after 1745.

The Chinese in Nagasaki.

In terms of numbers alone, the Chinese trade was much more important for Nagasaki than the Dutch trade. Chinese trade increased from 1600 on and in 1614 sixty or seventy Chinese junks arrived in Nagasaki, while in 1631 the number was eighty. From the beginning of this trade with China, many Chinese people settled in Nagasaki. Foreign trade was banned by the Manchu government which conquered China in the early seventeenth century and most of the traders at this time were Chinese who opposed the Manchu takeover. When the Manchus had completely united China under their control, they again made trade legal. After this, trade with China grew so much that in 1688 almost 200 junks entered the port of Nagasaki in three fleets. The ships came from all over China - Canton, Nankin, Fukien and from as far as Cambodia and Malaysia. The Japanese government appears to have been worried by the size and the variety of the fleets, because it set limits on the number of ships from China which could come to trade - in 1689 only seventy junks were allowed in and later this limit was reduced to thirty. In 1790 this number was reduced again to only ten.

Imports to Japan included silk, brocade, satin, crepe and pongee (undyed silk), sugar, animal skins, metals, medicines and books. Book imports (by both Chinese and Dutch traders) were encouraged after 1720, except for book dealing with Christianity. The ideas contained in the books imported by the Chinese were very important influences on the philosophical thought of the late Tokugawa period.

The Chinese trade was significant in the general economic development of Japan. Nagasaki is usually thought of as connected with the Mitsubishi company, which operates the main shipyards. In fact, the Mitsu company began as a specialist in importing Chinese textiles, while the Sumitomo company grew by mining copper for export to China from Nagasaki.

During the seventeenth century, the number of Chinese settlers in Nagasaki grew as large as 10,000 and in 1688, the Chinese were confined o one area of the town - Chinatown. Japanese needed permission to visit this place. 

The modern remnants of the early Chinese settlement were built before Chinatown, which is why they are spread over the city. Sofukuji temple, near where I live, was built in 1629, and Kofukuji also in the 1620s, though it was enlarged in 1654. Spectacle bridge was built by the second resident priest of Kofukuji in 1634. The Fukusauji temple was also built by the Chinese at this time, but is was destroyed by the atomic bomb and has since been rebuilt.