Dejima

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Dejima around the middle of the 17th century ( Arnoldus Montanus : Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen der Oost-Indische Maetschappy in't Vereenigde Nederland, aen de Kaisaren van Japan . 1669)
Nagasaki towards the end of the 17th century. (from Engelbert Kaempfer's History of Japan , 1727)
Dejima at the end of the 17th century after a sketch by Gerrits Voogt, printed in Hedendaegsche historie, of tegenwoordige nationale van alle volkeren . 1729.
Japanese woodblock print by Toshimaya Bunjiemon (1780) in Isaac Titsingh's Bijzonderheden over Japan . 1824/25
View of Dejima, view of the bay and the port of Nagasaki in 1828 (Fig. 1 in Philipp Franz von Siebolds Nippon , ²1897)
Color print by Kawahara Keiga : A Dutch ship entering the bay of Nagasaki ( 蘭 船 入港 図 ): Philipp Franz von Siebold with a telescope, his partner Sonogi O-Taki with their daughter Kusumoto Ine on their back.
Dejima in April 2006

Dejima ( Japanese 出 島 , German roughly: "sub-island", in the 17th century also Tsukishima 築 島 , "heaped up island") was a fan-shaped small artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki . During the Edo period it was the only place of direct trade and exchange between Japan and Europe . In modern Japanese the pronunciation of the name in the syllabary scripts Hiragana and Katakana is reproduced as で じ ま or デ ジ マ and accordingly transcribed in Hepburn transcription as Dejima. In the Edo period, spellings like "Disma", "Decima", "Dezima", "Desima", "Desjima" and "Deshima" can be found in western reports. There is also evidence in Japanese sources that the pronunciation at that time was closer to the spelling Deshima ( で し ま ).

history

Heaped up by local merchants between 1634 and 1636, Dejima was supposed to accommodate the "southern barbarians" ( Nambanjin ) who lived scattered around the city . But after their expulsion, the island lay fallow. Since the local economy also fell into crisis with the absence of Portuguese merchant ships, the central government in Edo put pressure on the Dutch East India Company ( Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC ) until it relocated its trading post in Hirado here in 1640/41.

The land was privately owned by the merchants who had raised the capital for the land reclamation. The company paid an annual rent for its use and had to take care of maintaining the building. Since 1672 Dejima was a district of Nagasaki, which is why there was also a Japanese district chief (Japanese otona ) here. The governor of the imperial direct domain Nagasaki was responsible for the security and surveillance of the island. The Japanese service personnel were paid by the company, but were obliged by an oath to comply with various regulations of the governor. Japanese interpreters took care of the communication; the training of European language mediators remained banned until the 19th century.

Lower ranks of the VOC were sometimes allowed to live on Dejima for several years, but the leaders (ndl. Opperhoofden ) had to be changed after a year. They arrived on one of the East India Company ships in the summer and began their service when their predecessor left, usually in November. These leaders, known by the Japanese as kapitan (portug. Capitão ), were obliged to travel to Edo once a year (after 1790 only every four years) in order to express the company's gratitude for the approval of their trade in Japan by paying tribute in the castle bring to. The doctor from the trading station, who was highly valued by both high-ranking patients and Japanese colleagues, was allowed to take part in this court trip to Edo . As (temporary) residents of a district, the Europeans, under the supervision of numerous Japanese officials, were also allowed to attend the annual festivities in honor of Nagasaki's patron deity in the Suwa Shrine ( Suwa jinja ).

Otherwise, the employees of the VOC were limited to the island of Dejima. Access was regulated and controlled. The close coexistence and mutual dependency made it possible, however, that in addition to official trade, lively private trade and smuggling spread. This was usually tolerated. Personal requests from high-ranking figures in Edo were granted as quickly as possible, as such favors improved the environment for official trading. Through Dejima, numerous western books, instruments, medicines and information came into the country through Dejima up to the 19th century, which stimulated the rise of a so-called Dutch lore ( rangaku ) and formed the basis for the rapid modernization of Japan after 1868 . On the other hand, Japanese objects, books, maps, etc. were repeatedly carried on Dutch ships, which raised the level of knowledge of Europeans. During the coalition wars, the Dutch flag only waved in Nagasaki worldwide.

Some of the surgeons and doctors stationed on Dejima, such as Caspar Schamberger , Engelbert Kaempfer , Carl Peter Thunberg or Philipp Franz von Siebold , had a great influence on the development of Japanese medicine. Engelbert Kaempfer, Carl Peter Thunberg, Philipp Franz von Siebold, George Meister , but also factories such as Andreas Cleyer , Isaac Titsingh , Hendrik Doeff or Jan Cock Blomhoff carried out intensive regional studies during their stay and contributed to the European understanding of Japan through their publications and collections so-called age of the national degree ( sakoku ). Much of the early information about acupuncture and moxibustion was conveyed to Europe by Willem ten Rhijne and other doctors from this trading post.

After the opening of Japan in the second half of the 19th century, Dejima moved into the city center of Nagasaki in the course of the reclamation and was hardly recognizable in the 20th century. Most of the buildings have now been reconstructed on the basis of old plans and models, and almost the entire property has been brought together again, so that the visitor can get a good impression of the trade and change of Europeans in Japan at the beginning of the 19th century.

Head ( opperhoofden ) of the Dejima trading post

Hendrik Doeff, head of the Dejima trading post from 1803 to 1817

further reading

  • Jan Cock Blomhoff: The Court Journey to the Shogun of Japan. From a private account by Jan Cock Blomhoff. Introduction and annotated by Matthi Forrer. Hotei, Leiden 2000, ISBN 90-74822-18-5 .
  • Leonard Blussé et al. (Ed.): The Deshima Dagregisters. Their Original Tables of Content. Leiden Center for the History of European Expansion, Leiden 1995-2001, ( Intercontinenta . ISSN  0165-2850 ).
  • Leonard Blussé et al. (Ed.): The Deshima Diaries Marginalia 1740-1800. The Japan-Netherlands Institute, Tokyo 2004, ISBN 4-930921-06-6 ( Nichi-Ran Gakkai gakujutsu sōsho 21).
  • CR Boxer : Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1600-1850. An Essay on the Cultural, Artistic and Scientific Influence Exercised by the Hollanders in Japan from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries. Second revised edition. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague 1950.
  • F. Caron, Joost Schorten: A True Description of the Mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam. For Robert Boulter, London 1671 (Facsimile: Introduction and notes by John Villiers. Siam, Bangkok 1986, ISBN 974-8298-08-6 ).
  • Hendrik van Doeff: Herinneringen uit Japan. Bohn, Haarlem 1833 online .
  • Frank Legui: Isaac Titsingh (1745-1812). A passie voor Japan. Leven en werk van de grondlegger van de European Japanese Studies. Canaletto / Repro-Holland, Alphen aan den Rijn 2002, ISBN 90-6469-771-X ( Titsingh Studies 1).
  • Wolfgang Michel : From Leipzig to Japan. The surgeon and trader Caspar Schamberger (1623–1706). Iudicium, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-89129-442-5 , pp. 64-73 (The Deshima branch).
  • Wolfgang Michel, Torii Yumiko, Kawashima Mabito: Kyushu no rangaku - ekkyō to Koryu ( ヴォルフガング·ミヒェル·鳥井裕美子·川嶌眞人共編「九州の蘭学ー越境と交流」 , dt Holland customer in Kyushu - border crossing and exchange.) . Shibunkaku Shuppan, Kyōto, 2009, ISBN 978-4-7842-1410-5 .
  • David Mitchell : The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Roman, from the English by Volker Oldenburg. 2014, ISBN 978-3-499-25533-5 .
  • Nederland's Patriciaat . Vol. 13, 1923, ISSN  0928-0979 .
  • Yoshiko Morioka: Dejima ka, Deshima ka . (= Dejima or Deshima? ). In: Bulletin of the Japan-Netherlands Institute. Vol. 19, No. 2, March 1995, ISSN  0286-9381 , pp. 77-82.
  • Timon Screech: Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns. Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822. Routledge, London et al. 2006, ISBN 0-7007-1720-X .
  • Philipp Franz von Siebold : Nippon. Archive describing Japan and its neighboring and protected countries, jezo with the southern Kunilen, Sakhalin, Korea and the Liu Islands. 2nd Edition. Woerl, Würzburg et al. 1897.
  • Titsingh: Mémoires et Anecdotes sur la Dynastie régnante des Djogouns, Souverains du Japon. Publié avec des notes et éclaircissemens par M. Abel-Rémusat . Nepveu, Paris 1820.
  • Titsingh: Illustrations of Japan. Consisting of Private Memoirs and Anecdotes of the reigning dynasty of The Djogouns, or Sovereigns of Japan. Ackermann, London 1822.

Web links

Commons : Dejima  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 32 ° 44 ′ 36 "  N , 129 ° 52 ′ 23"  E