Dejima in Nagasaki, Japan

 Nagasaki was the most beautiful port.  Instead of stacks of container boxes and cranes, this port was the site of a lovely park.  What a nice change.  It also meant we were closer to 'town'.  Some of these ports are so industrial and so huge it takes a shuttle bus 15 minutes to just clear the port.  Nagasaki was one of my favorite places.  First, it was beautiful, and it was such a nice sized city - about 500,000.  It also plays a big part in the opening of Japan to the Western world.

Drake in the port park area at the Port of Nagasaki in front of the Volendam (our ship)

Truthfully, we avoided the atomic bomb area of Nagasaki.  Unlike, Hiroshima, the center of Nagasaki was not devastated.  We concentrated on the pre-1945 history.  Our ship project for Nagasaki was to make 1000 paper cranes to hang in the Peace Park, part of the bombed area.  I did contribute to that.

Nagasaki was the first Japanese port to tolerate Westerners to a restricted extent - specifically, the Portuguese.   In 1494, Spain and Portugal entered into a treaty dividing the world beyond Europe into two sectors - one to be explored/colonized/conquered by Portugal and the other sector by Spain.  These two, thus, didn't squabble between each other as they grabbed the 'spoils' of the uncivilized world.  (Uncivilized being the rationalization for colonizing a non-Christian country.)  The Japanese Islands were in the Portuguese sector.  

Initially, the Emperor of Japan and his political government tolerated the Portuguese and allowed them to build a trade settlement at the port of Nagasaki - the settlement was called Dejima.  Dejima was a series of warehouses with minimal living quarters for non-Japanese engaged in the China/Japan/World trade.

This is a representation of Dejima in the 17th century (1600's).  Dejima (which translates as 'exit island') was actually an artificial island which was reached by one bridge walkway. 

Modern bridge to Dejima

Today, Dejima is the Williamsburg of Japan.  You can walk a central street which has warehouses, accounting houses, and a few living quarters.  There is also an on-going archeological dig which is turning up all types of finds answering questions of what it must have been like for the Europeans in 17th century Dejima.  The dig finds are displayed in a museum which is part of today's Dejima.  

Dejima today

Archeological finds

Europeans had never encountered a country based on the Bushido code with separate entities for the political and spiritual governing elements.  In 1549 the Portuguese Jesuits arrived in Japan seeking permission to build a Catholic mission.  Initially, the Shogunate granted permission as a way to counteract the Buddhist influence and open limited trade.  Over the next 50 years, conversions to Christianity exploded with over 300,000 converts. 

As more Westerners arrived in Japan, the Shogunate began to hear about Catholic Christian missionaries as being an advance force which would be followed by a military takeover of Japan citing instances in the Americas and the Philipines.  As a result of obtaining that information, the Shogunate bans Christianity, and to bring home his point, he executes 26 Catholics including Jesuits, Japanese converts, and even a couple of altar boys.  They were crucified after being tortured.  This method was repeated to discourage Catholicism.  Japanese Catholics were driven underground, and 200 years later with the official opening of Japan in 1859, there were still hidden practicing Catholic communities in Japan. Additionally, the Shogunate expels the Portuguese from Dejima - the trading hub - in 1639.

The Dutch, who are NOT Catholic, but Protestant, fill the trade vacuum in 1641 taking up limited residence in Dejima and being the intermediaries of Japanese trade with China and other countries for 200 years.  Dejima is not closed until the 1860's.  

During the 200 year period before the formal opening of Japan to the world in 1859, there was an exchange of scientific information between Europeans and the Japanese.  This was called 'Western Learning' and books began to be translated into Japanese in a variety of fields including medicine, and botany was translated from Japanese to German in part because of the pioneer Philipp Franz Von Siebold, a German scientist.

This was an interesting way to turn back the clock and get a superficial understanding of living and working in isolation on the artificial island of Dejima.  Check out my pictures.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DC9qiBuUukPHeJzd6

  

 

Amami Ochina, a Japanese Island

Amami Ochina Island climate was like Hawaii.  The weather was mild, and the sea was turquoise.  

The biggest attraction on this island was a museum of a watercolorist who was not famous in his lifetime, but the public/critics have come around.  His professional name is Tanaka Isson.  An artist being famous in his/her lifetime is very rare.  It's difficult to achieve any kind of recognition in any in the creative arts.  Actors take classes and audition endlessly for twenty years with no result.  Writers who are never published.  Painters and sculptors can't find buyers, much less a name for themselves in the art world.  Isson was an artist on the edge of recognition his entire lifetime. 

Isson, the man with the noble mind

He was born in 1908 and died in 1977.  He won a watercolor award at the age of 7, so he showed talent very early.  He briefly attended a prestigious art school, but had to drop out because of financial considerations.  He never stopped painting in the Nihonga style as opposed to the Yoga style.  The Nihonga style can be loosely translated as the Japanese style using ink and mineral pigments on silk or paper.  The Yoga style is the Western style using oil paints.

During his life Isson, lived away from the main art scene in Japan.  He worked odd jobs to stay alive while painting on the side.  In 1958 he moved to Amani Oshima (the island pictured above) and used the plants and wildlife as his inspiration.  He was very prolific during the 1960's and 1970's.  It wasn't until after his death that he was compared to Paul Gauguin during an art program on Japanese TV that interest sparked in the art world.  He was only displayed outside of Japan in 2018.  

The museum established on Amami is stupendous.  However, you will have to take my word for it because they wouldn't let me take pictures.  [This is an example of short sidedness.  This museum is getting 'cruise excursion attendance', and lack of pictures will insure they are forgotten by their visitors.]  I resorted to buying postcards and greeting cards to show you some of his work.

These are a pair of closet doors

There are changing seasons here

Native birds of Amami

Nihonga style of painting by Isson

The Isson museum is located in the Amani Park which includes an observation tower, a forest walk, and other attractions.  I loved the observation tower especially since it was a relatively clear day.  

direction away from the ocean

toward the ocean

Inside the education building, there was an interesting model of the Amami Islands on a global scale.  These are outsized.  We are at the tip of the topmost island.

This model should make more sense after seeing all the islands laid out.

This is just a portion of this model - all the signs are in Japanese - which makes it hard to figure out which island is which.  I do like the topography representation, and the little signs of 'attractions'.  

We caught the bus back to town.  The downtown area didn't look promising for shopping which Drake hates anyway.  One of my cruise friends found a second hand thrift store and bought all kinds of souvenirs - small pieces of pottery mainly.  She was kind enough to give me two, and I turned around and gave one away to another Australian friend, telling her I was only the intermediary.

I'll end with more photos via a link (that really works!) and Drake in front of the Volendam - our ship.

Drake in his Okinawa hat with my souvenirs of Amani Ochina Island

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gTVc9TPYyiHZrNtc6

Naha (Okinawa), Japan

 Here we are in Japan.  I can see this fantastic trip coming to an end.  Naha was marred by the weather.  This was the first day of constant rain, and I wasn’t well prepared for it.  I did have my rain jacket, but I needed a hat to keep the rain off my face.

We took another excursion which was very informative and included a World Heritage Site:  The SHURIJO Castle Park.  The castle we saw is a reproduction of the castle reconstructed from the 18th century one.  This place has burned down more than once since it was build in the 13th century.  Okinawa was the center of the Ryukyu Kingdom.  This kingdom was only on the island Okinawa and the people spoke their own language (which is now almost extinct).  The guide who is Ryukuan describes the people in this corner of Okinawa more in line with the Bali way of thinking:  Kind, considerate, and very mindful of the instant repercussions of poor behavior toward other people and toward the land.  These people definitely believe in bad karma.  

The castle was the home of the royal family as well as the seat of Ryukyu government.  The royal family offered tribute to the Japanese government, but stayed an independent kingdom until 1879 when Japan consolidated all the islands surrounding it into the country.  Okinawa became a Japanese prefecture at that point.  Japan discouraged the speaking of the Ryukyu language and customs.  

The castle has burned down three times:  1709, 1945, and 2019.  The first two fires destroyed it entirely, while the third was a partial fire.  Reconstruction began in 2020 and is still ongoing.

Because of the independent kingdom, the architecture of SHURIJO Castle incorporates both Chinese and Japanese influences.  It was the largest structure in the Ryukyu kingdom.  

Here are some pictures:

We managed to avoid these steps, taking the winding path up to the castle 

Drake is modeling the entrance to the castle - notice how much taller he is than the entrance.

I captured the camouflaged bird in this picture

The entrance to the castle

Restoration of a column with a ‘head’

I managed to capture a feeding butterfly

This lion/dog is capturing 'luck' with the open mouth.  His female counterpart has a closed mouth to hold in all the luck

One of the keepers of the castle

You find gargoyles everywhere in the world

The Welcome Center; formerly the house of the Ladies of the Court.

The castle is being reconstructed, so we couldn’t go inside.  Big disappointment.

It’s a massive structure, so this is going to take awhile.  

Naha was a beautiful island.  It was somewhat mountainous, and it's still the home of an American Airforce base.  Most of this island was destroyed in the battle for Okinawa in 1945.  It was this bloody, bloody battle that convinced President Truman to authorize dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Here are the pictures of Naha.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fGAzQkwRUAdqt3FQ7