Workshop of Kawahara Keiga: The island of Dejima (1833 - 1836)

(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

A painting from the workshop of the Japanese artist Kawahara Keiga (1786-1860). Deshima was a Dutch trading post located in Nagasaki, Japan from 1641 to 1854. The island was constructed on the order of the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651) to accommodate the Portuguese traders living in Nagasaki and prevent the propagation of their Christian religion. After the Shimabara-Amakusa Rebellion (1637-1638) however, a rebellion of christian Japanese peasants, Christian religion was forbidden and the Portuguese traders were expelled from Japan. This left the Dutch as the only Westerners with trade access to Japan (the Dutch supported the Shogun during the Shimabara-Amakusa Rebellion). They were forced by the Shogun to handle their trading business from the island of Dejima from 1641 until 1854. The island itself was tiny (120 m × 75 m or 390 ft × 250 ft) and housed about 20 Dutchmen and a number of Japanse officials, interpreters, workers, prostitutes and guards. The Dutch were forbidden to leave the island except during the annual trip to the shogun to pay him respect. Although tiny, Dejima was the single place of direct trade and exchange between Japan and the outside world and with the trade also came the introduction of Western medicine, books, military science, and astronomy. Japanese translators translated the Dutch books into Japanese which then were published, printed, and circulated. After the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854 the borders of Japan were (by American military force) opened to the outside world and Dejima was abolished. Because of the Japanese failure to stop the American military force, the country would rapidly industrialize and adopted western ideas and production methods (especially the army). The island was later integrated into Nagasaki city through land reclamation. The site was proclaimed an Japanese historical site in 1922 and after 1996 the site was reconstructed to its original design. This print comes from 1833-1836.