Dejima


Dejima or Deshima, in the 17th century also called Tsukishima, was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan, that served as a trading post for the Portuguese and subsequently the Dutch. For 220 years, it was the central conduit for foreign trade and cultural exchange with Japan during the isolationist Edo period, and the only Japanese territory open to Westerners.
Dejima was created in 1636 by digging a canal through a small peninsula and linking it to the mainland with a small bridge. The island was constructed by the Tokugawa shogunate, whose isolationist policies sought to preserve the existing sociopolitical order by forbidding outsiders from entering Japan while prohibiting most Japanese from leaving. Dejima housed European merchants and separated them from Japanese society while still facilitating lucrative trade with the West.
Following a rebellion by mostly Catholic converts, the Portuguese were expelled in 1639. The Dutch were moved to Dejima in 1641, under stricter control and scrutiny, and segregated from Japanese society.
For 200 years, the Dutch were not allowed to set foot in Japan. Instead they were confined and segregated to an artificial island of Dejima, under poor and bad conditions. They were often discriminated as criminals and seen as hostages of the Shogun. It felt like prison and trade was observed under high scrutiny. Only 19 people were allowed in Dejima and no women were allowed. No Japanese were allowed unsupervised contact with the Dutch.

They are strictly and strongly guarded, from the inside and outside by various guards, treating us not like honest men, but like criminals, traitors, spies, prisoners, or, to say the least, hostages of the Shogun. This jail goes by the name of Dejima.
— Engelbert Kaempfer, on visiting Japan

The open practice of Christianity was banned, and interactions between Dutch and Japanese traders were tightly regulated, with only a small number of foreign merchants being allowed to disembark in Dejima. Until the mid-19th century, the Dutch were the only Westerners with access to the Japanese markets. Dejima consequently played a key role in the Japanese movement of, an organized scholarly effort to learn the Dutch language in order to understand Western science, medicine, and technology.
After the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa set a precedent for more fully opening Japan to foreign trade and diplomatic relations, the Dutch negotiated their own treaty in 1858, which ended Dejima's status as exclusive trading post, greatly reducing its importance. The island was eventually subsumed into Nagasaki city through land reclamation. In 1922, the "Dejima Dutch Trading Post" was designated a Japanese national historic site, and there are ongoing efforts in the 21st century to restore Dejima as an island.

History

In 1543, the history of direct contact between Japan and Europe began with the arrival of storm-blown Portuguese merchants on Tanegashima. Six years later the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier landed in Kagoshima. At first Portuguese traders were based in Hirado, but they moved in search of a better port. In 1570 daimyō Ōmura Sumitada converted to Catholicism and made a deal with the Portuguese to develop Nagasaki; soon the port was open for trade.
In 1580 Sumitada gave the jurisdiction of Nagasaki to the Jesuits, and the Portuguese obtained the de facto monopoly on the silk trade with China through Macau. The shōgun Iemitsu ordered the construction of the artificial island in 1634, to accommodate the Portuguese traders living in Nagasaki and prevent the propagation of their religion. This was one of the many edicts put forth by Iemitsu between 1633 and 1639 moderating contact between Japan and other countries. However, in response to the uprising of the predominantly Christian population in the Shimabara-Amakusa region, the Tokugawa government decided to expel the Portuguese in 1639.
Since 1609, the Dutch East India Company had run a trading post on the island of Hirado. The departure of the Portuguese left the Dutch employees of the "Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie" as the sole Westerners with trade access to Japan. For 33 years they were allowed to trade relatively freely. At its maximum, the Hirado trading post covered a large area. In 1637 and 1639 stone warehouses were constructed within the ambit of this Hirado trading post. Christian-era year dates were used on the stonework of the new warehouses and these were used in 1640 as a pretext to demolish the buildings and relocate the trading post to Nagasaki.
With the expulsion of the last Portuguese in 1639, Dejima became a failed commercial post and without the annual trading with Portuguese ships from Macau, the economy of Nagasaki suffered greatly. The Dutch were forced by government officials to move from Hirado to Dejima in Nagasaki. From 1641 on, only Chinese and Dutch ships were allowed to come to Japan, and Nagasaki harbor was the only one they were allowed to enter.

Organization

On the administrative level, the island of Dejima was part of the city of Nagasaki. The 25 local Japanese families who owned the land received an annual rent from the Dutch. Dejima was a small island, by, linked to the mainland by a small bridge, guarded on both sides, and with a gate on the Dutch side. It contained houses for about twenty Dutchmen, warehouses, and accommodation for Japanese officials.
The Dutch were watched by several Japanese officials, gatekeepers, night watchmen, and a supervisor with about fifty subordinates. Numerous merchants supplied goods and catering, and about 150 interpreters served. They all had to be paid by the VOC. As the city of Nagasaki, Dejima was under the direct supervision of Edo through a governor.
Every ship that arrived in Dejima was inspected. Its sails were held by the Japanese until they released the ship to leave. They confiscated religious books and weapons. Christian churches were banned on the island and the Dutch were not allowed to hold any religious services.
Despite the financial burden of maintaining the isolated outpost on Dejima, the trade with Japan was very profitable for the Dutch, initially yielding profits of 50% or more. Trade declined in the 18th century, as only two ships per year were allowed to dock at Dejima. After the bankruptcy of the East-India Company in 1795, the Dutch government took over the exchange with Japan. Times were especially hard when the Netherlands, then called the Batavian Republic, was under French Napoleonic rule. All ties with the homeland were severed at Dejima, and for a while, it was the only place in the world where the Dutch flag was flown.
The chief VOC trading post officer in Japan was called the Opperhoofd by the Dutch, or Kapitan by the Japanese. This descriptive title did not change when the VOC went bankrupt and trade with Japan was continued by the Dutch Indies government at Batavia. According to the sakoku rules of the Tokugawa shogunate, the VOC had to transfer and replace the opperhoofd every year with a new one. And each opperhoofd was expected to travel to Edo to offer tribute to the shogun.

Trade

Originally, the Dutch mainly traded in silk, cotton, and materia medica from China and India. Sugar became more important later. Deer pelts and shark skin were transported to Japan from Formosa, as well as books, scientific instruments and many other rarities from Europe. In return, the Dutch traders bought Japanese copper, silver, camphor, porcelain, lacquerware, and rice.
To this was added the personal trade of VOC employees on Dejima, which was an important source of income for them and their Japanese counterparts. They sold more than 10,000 foreign books on various scientific subjects to the Japanese from the end of the 18th to the early 19th century. These became the basis of knowledge and a factor in the Rangaku movement, or Dutch studies.

Ships

In all, 606 Dutch ships arrived at Dejima during its two centuries of settlement, from 1641 to 1847.
  • The first period, from 1641 to 1671, was rather free and saw an average of seven Dutch ships every year.
  • From 1671 to 1715, about five Dutch ships were allowed to visit Dejima every year.
  • From 1715, only two ships were permitted every year, which was reduced to one ship in 1790, and again increased to two ships in 1799.
  • During the Napoleonic Wars, in which the Netherlands was occupied by France, Dutch ships abstained from sailing to Japan directly due to the possibility of being captured by Royal Navy ships. They relied on "neutral" American and Danish ships. The Netherlands was annexed by Napoleon Bonaparte, while Britain captured several Dutch colonial possessions and after the 1811 invasion of Java, Dejima was the only place in the world where the Dutch flag still flew, as ordered by commissioner Hendrik Doeff.
  • In 1815 the Dutch East Indies was returned to the control of the Netherlands and regular Dutch trading traffic was reestablished.

    Trade policy

For two hundred years, foreign merchants were generally not allowed to cross from Dejima to Nagasaki. Japanese civilians were likewise banned from entering Dejima, except interpreters, cooks, carpenters, clerks and yūjo from the Maruyama teahouses. The yūjo were handpicked from 1642 by the Japanese, often against their will. From the 18th century, there were some exceptions to this rule, especially following Tokugawa Yoshimune's doctrine of promoting European practical sciences. A few Oranda-yuki were allowed to stay for longer periods, but they had to report regularly to the Japanese guard post. Once a year the Europeans were allowed to attend the festivities at the Suwa-Shrine under escort. Sometimes physicians such as Engelbert Kaempfer, Carl Peter Thunberg, and Philipp Franz von Siebold were called to high-ranking Japanese patients with the permission of the authorities. Starting in the 18th century, Dejima became known throughout Japan as a center of medicine, military science, and astronomy. Many samurai traveled there for "Dutch studies".
The Opperhoofd was treated like the representative of a tributary state, which meant that he had to pay a visit of homage to the shōgun in Edo. The Dutch delegation traveled to Edo yearly between 1660 and 1790, and once every four years thereafter. This prerogative was denied to the Chinese traders. The lengthy travel to the shogunal court broke the boredom of the Dutch stay, but it was a costly affair. Government officials told them in advance and in detail which gifts were expected at the court, such as astrolabes, a pair of glasses, telescopes, globes, medical instruments, medical books, or exotic animals and tropical birds.
In return, the Dutch delegation received some gifts from the shōgun. On arrival in Edo, the Opperhoofd and his retinue, usually his scribe and the factory physician, had to wait in the, their mandatory residence, until they were summoned at the court. During the reign of the somewhat eccentric shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, they were expected to perform Dutch dances and songs for the amusement of the shōgun after their official audience, according to Engelbert Kaempfer. But they also used the opportunity of their stay of about two to three weeks in the capital to exchange knowledge with learned Japanese and, under escort, to visit the town.
Allegations published in the late 17th and early 18th century that Dutch traders were required by the Shogunate to renounce their Christian faith and undergo the test of treading on a fumi-e, an image of Jesus or Mary, are thought by modern scholars to be propaganda arising from the Anglo-Dutch Wars.