Dejima

Dejima, whose name means "Advance Island" in Japanese, was a small, fan-shaped artificial island in Nagasaki Bay. It was built up between 1634 and 1636 by local merchants to house the European traders living in the area, known as the Nambanjin, in one central location. After the Portuguese were expelled, the site lay unused at first, until the Dutch East India Company moved its trading post from Hirado to Dejima. This made it the only place in Japan during the Edo period where direct trade and cultural exchange between Japan and Europe took place. The island was secured by a wall and had a main gate to the city as well as a water gate to the sea, which was opened only for loading and unloading the Company's ships.

The infrastructure on the island was tailored to the needs of the trading post. Alongside numerous warehouses for imported goods, there were residential buildings, a kitchen, a bathhouse, and a garden. There were also dedicated buildings for the Japanese interpreters, who were indispensable for communication, as well as a house for the head of the post. The plots were privately owned by the merchants who had provided the capital for the land reclamation, while the Company paid annual rent and took care of maintaining the buildings. From 1672, Dejima was officially a district of Nagasaki, which brought it under local administration. Security and surveillance were the responsibility of the governor of the Nagasaki domain, while the Japanese service staff were paid by the Company but kept in check by strict regulations.

The lives of the European employees on Dejima were tightly regulated. The heads of the trading post, known as opperhoofden, had to be replaced after one year of service; they arrived in summer and handed over their duties to their successors in November. They were required to travel to Edo regularly to express their gratitude to the shogun for the trading permit. The post's physician, who was highly respected among Japanese patients and colleagues, was allowed to take part in these court journeys. Apart from these exceptions and attendance at the annual festival at Suwa Shrine, the Europeans were confined to the island. Despite close monitoring by Japanese officials, a lively private trade and smuggling operation, mostly tolerated, developed alongside the official trade and made it easier to obtain Western goods.

This unique situation made Dejima a central hub for the transfer of knowledge. Until the 19th century, numerous Western books, scientific instruments, medicines, and pieces of information reached Japan via the island. This spurred the rise of what was known as Dutch learning (Rangaku), which formed an important foundation for Japan's later rapid modernization. Conversely, the Japanese objects, maps, and books exported on Dutch ships helped deepen European understanding of the country during the era of isolation. Prominent figures such as the physician Philipp Franz von Siebold and the naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg carried out intensive studies of the country during their stays and, through their publications, contributed significantly to the European image of Japan. Medical techniques such as acupuncture and moxibustion were also introduced to Europe by the surgeons stationed on Dejima.

An often overlooked aspect of Dejima's history is the presence of enslaved people brought along by the Dutch heads of the post and their employees. These people, listed in the Company's records as personal slaves, mostly came from Southeast Asia, Bengal, or Mozambique. They served as personal attendants and appear in historical documents as well as in contemporary Japanese woodblock prints known as Nagasaki-e. In these depictions, they are often shown carrying parasols and, because of their low social standing, are drawn smaller than their masters. Their existence on the island was marked by dependence, and there were escape attempts and violent confrontations, which are documented in the daily journals of the trading post's heads.

After Japan opened up in the second half of the 19th century, Dejima lost its isolated function. As the city developed and new land was reclaimed, the island was absorbed into the center of Nagasaki, so that by the 20th century it was barely recognizable as a separate area. Today, most of the buildings have been reconstructed based on old plans and models. A modern main road does cut off part of the former water gate, but the site has largely been brought back together. Here, you can get a vivid impression of the history of trade and cultural exchange between Europe and Japan at the beginning of the 19th century, which was unique in this form.