Times of trouble
With the treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 the new world was divided between Spain and Portugal. Japan had fallen into the sphere of influence of Portugal. In 1543 the first Portuguese arrived in Japan. With them came the first Jesuit missionaries. But the Spanish did not give up and started to send their own men from their base in Manila on the Philippines. Of 99 missionaries active in Japan 55 were Portuguese, 20 Spanish and the remainder Italian. The first was Francis Xavier, who had made friends with a Japanese from Kyushu Island. Soon the most important town of Kyushu, Nagasaki, became the centre of christian belief. From there the new faith quickly won new followers and spread out across the Shimabara Peninsula. At its height around 1579, Catholicism had over 130,000 converts in Japan, including many daimyōs, the local rulers. By 1611, Nagasaki, with 10 churches and eight parishes had become the Rome of the east.
Oura church in Nagasaki
The situation became more complicated when also the Dutch and English arrived in the area. With them the european religious rivalries between Catholics and Protestants arrived in the far east. While the British withdrew since they did not see any prospects of a profitable trade, the Dutch stayed put. To improve their trade advantages they tried to use the concerns of the Shogun against catholicism and the portuguese and spanish missionaries.
Old and new Nagasaki
The rising number of missionaries and christians raised the suspicion of the national rulers who saw it as a threat to national unity. However, edicts issued in 1565 and 1568 by emperor Ogimachi to stop Catholicism had little effect. After his unification of Japan in 1587 imperial regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned the Jesuit missionaries. In 1614 the Tokugawa shogunate outlawed Christianity. There were several serious incidents of persecution. In 1597, 26 Christians were crucified in Nagasaki. Other incidents in 1613 and 1630 caused more victims and in 1632 another 55 Christians were martyred in Nagasaki. There are about 1000 known christian martyrs in Japan. Many more Christians were dispossessed, exiled or went underground.
Shinto temples in Nagasaki
Meanwhile the Dutch tried to convince the shogun that the Portuguese and Spaniards had territorial ambitions in Japan and the only trustworthy case was theirs.
Canals and the spectacle bridge in Nagasaki
Shimabara used to be the domain of the Christian Arima clan, so many locals were also Christian. The following lord, Matsukura Shigemasa, and his heir Katsuie, were ambitious, hoped to rise to shogun, were involved in expensive construction projects such as building new castles like in Shimabara and planned an invasion of the Philippines. To raise money, taxes were increased. The population was further annoyed by the strict persecution of Christianity.
Nagasaki also had a big chinese community. Entrance to the chinese neighborhood and chinese temple
On December 17th, 1637 the local tax official was assassinated. A rebellion started under the leadership of a charismatic 16-year-old christian boy, Amakusa Shirō. The Rebellion started out over economic desperation and government oppression but later assumed a religious tone. The rebels started to besiege the castles in Tomioka, Hondo and Shimabara. After these attacks proved unsuccessful they retreated to abandoned Hara Castle, south of Shimabara, which they reinforced with the wood from their boats.
Shimabara castle
When I arrive in Shimabara on April 4th, 1993, the whole town is covered in dust. Just outside the town is Fugen volcano. In 1792, after a period of high activity, the collapse of one of its lava domes triggered a megatsunami of more than 100 m height that killed 14,524 people. Afterwards it was dormant for a long time and overgrew into an innocent looking green peak. However, after 1975 an increasing activity, noticeable by earthquakes, generation of fumes and small lava flows was observed. On November 17th, 1990, first eruptions began. In May 1991 viscous lava started to accumulate at the summit and formed a dome in the crater. Eventually the dome collapsed causing a pyroclastic flow with debris and volcanic gasses flowing down the mountainside at speeds of 100 km/h. 12,000 residents in the area were evacuated but on June 3rd, 1991, the volcano erupted violently and a pyroclastic flow travelling 4.5 km claimed the lives of 43 scientists and journalists. They were at an observation spot 4 km away from the source of eruption. One victim still held his Nikon F4 camera and shot pictures while he died. In the years until 1994 more than 10.000 pyroclastic flows were recorded. 2000 houses were destroyed. In 1995 the volcano’s activity ceased.
The port of Shimabara and mount Fugen in the background
Dust in the streets of Shimabara
When I arrived, Fugen’s activity was at its height. Eruptions were frequent and with the right wind the town was covered in dust. Vehicles, houses, plants, everything turned grey. Cars in the streets raised a cloud of dust. In the little harbor where the boats are stuck in the mud at low tide, the owners were trying to clean their vessels.
Boat owners cleaning their vessels in Shimabara
Dust covered car
Traditionally houses in Japan were built from wood. As a consequence there are few well preserved historic town centres. Shimabara has a small historic neighbourhood. Water gushes down a ditch in the middle of the historic alleyway. The narrow ditch is filled with huge carps. Iron grids prevent the fish from escaping. There is a temple with a famous reclining buddha, but it was not so impressive to waste one of the precious slides. I visit a cemetery. A guard watches me suspiciously. Maybe he thinks I will steal one of the many beer cans decorating the graves.
Cemetery and the reclining buddha in the background
The castle and the volcano tower above all. In Japan, the donjons of the castles were built from wood. Only very few survive. Most, like the one in Shimabara, are concrete reconstructions. It is surrounded by flowering cherry trees but the courtyard is used as a parking lot and the inside reveals the concrete construction. There is a model of the siege of Hara castle by the forces of the shogunate. In the water of the bay of the model a miniature fleet of western men of war.
The samurai quarter in Shimabara
Gold carp in the ditches
One of the Samurai houses
Because eventually the shogunate troops requested aid from the Dutch to conquer Hara castle from the rebels. The opperhoofd of the Dutch factorei, Nicolaes Couckebacker, first provided gunpowder and cannons, and eventually commanded the vessel “de Ryp” to a position offshore the castle. From the ship and the cannons mounted in a battery they started a bombardment of the fortress. Without great result. Eventually the ship was withdrawn at the request of the Japanese after they had received the following contemptuous messages sent by the rebels to the besieging troops:
“Are there no longer courageous soldiers in the realm to do combat with us, and weren't they ashamed to have called in the assistance of foreigners against our small contingent?”
The castle above the old center of Shimabara
The rebels at Hara Castle resisted the siege for months and caused the shogunate heavy losses. On April 4th, 1638, over 27,000 rebels mounted a desperate, yet unsuccessful attack against 125,000 shogunate soldiers. When it turned out that the fortress was out of food and gunpowder the Shogun’s troops finally launched an attack and took the fortress on April 15th, 1638.
The lava dome of mount Fugen above Shimabara
37,000 rebels and sympathizers are said to have been beheaded. The leader’s, Amakusa Shirō, severed head was taken to Nagasaki for public display. The victims were not considered martyrs by the Catholic Church since they took up arms for materialistic reasons. Because the shogunate suspected that European Catholics had been involved in spreading the rebellion, the Portuguese were driven out of the country and a policy of national seclusion started from 1639 onwards. The ban on the Christian religion was strictly enforced. The Dutch did not have to regret their help for the Shogun. Only they were allowed to maintain a trading post on Dejima, a tiny island in the harbour of Nagasaki.
A model of the island of Dejima in a museum in Nagasaki
I stay in the Youth Hostel in Shimabara. It is not only much cheaper than a hotel, but also a perfect place to not only meet other travellers but also local tourists. The dormitories are strictly separated in a male and female section. There are the typical japanese baths, where you can soak with the other (male) guests before dinner. After dinner everybody sits around the low tables on the ground. There is a blanket across the table. Everybody stretches his legs under table and blanket to get some heat from the radiator mounted to the lower surface of the table plate. Snacks and beer bottles are passed around. My supply is quickly exhausted but unfortunately they don’t sell beer in the youth hostel and I am too lazy to go outside to get a new supply from one of the ubiquitous vending machines. A japanese girl is sketching and asks me to sit for a portrait. There is a strict curfew at ten.
The ubiquitous machines selling drinks/beer, snacks and condoms 24/7
The road up to Unzen
Japan is full of hot springs. Not far from Shimabara is the hot spring resort of Unzen. Together with the volcano nowadays it even is the centre of a national park. The bus climbs uphill through clouds of dust. Outside the evidence of devastation by the various volcanic eruptions. Ruined houses, a landscape devastated by landslides and pyroclastic flows.
Boiling mud pool in Unzen
When we finally arrive, it is bitter cold outside. Steam rises from the ground everywhere. Ugly pipes guide the hot water into the bath houses. Women disfigured by thick, patted clothes, scarves and hats sell raw eggs which can be held into one of the many hot springs to boil. We get a coffee from a glass percolator in a nice coffee shop. The male toilet is decorated with pictures of nude women. I don’t dare to find out whether the female toilets have a similar decoration.
The steaming ground in Unzen
Pipes diverting the boiling water into the bath houses
Peasant women selling eggs
Then we try to get a view of the volcano. On a spectacular mountain road a bus brings us to the base terminal of a cable car which had been used to bring visitors to the top of the volcano. It is as closed as all the hiking trails around the mountain. It is so cold that the twigs of the scrubs are covered with a layer of ice. But we get a good view of the cracked smoking lava dome of the volcano.
The closed cable car and hiking path to the volcano
Shivering from the cold we hurry to the bus stop to catch a bus back to Unzen to warm up in one of the bath houses. Again there is a strict separation for men and women. After leaving behind my shoes I receive a towel and leave my clothes in one of the shelves. There is a bathtub with buckets to wash. Then I can soak in the scalding greenish water of the hot spring. The little pool is rather crowded. The guy next to me is surrounded by an air of alcohol. He tries a conversation, but without any knowledge of Japanese I am afraid I cannot contribute.
Close up of the lava dome
It takes some time until we find the bus stop to go back down to Shimabara. It starts to get dark and there seems to be much more dust on the way down. And then we witness one of the pyroclastic flows from an eruptions of one of the craters. A huge cloud of smoke, dust and debris rolls down the side of the mountain. The bus has to ride slowly to avoid the many curious observers watching the spectacle.
Pyroclastic flow on the evening of April 5th 1993
The next morning mount Fugen looks innocent
From the ferry leaving Shimabara the full extent of the destruction around the volcano is visible
During the time of seclusion the dutch on the island of Dejima were not allowed to leave the island. One of the visitors to the island was Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), a german naturalist and biologist. He arrived on August 11th, 1823 as researcher and physician in Dutch service. Soon his medical skills became known to the japanese residents and after he cured a government official he was one of the few allowed to leave the island on a regular basis. He founded a medical school and as reward for his services received handicrafts and natural specimen. With his japanese lover he had a daughter who later not only became the first female physician in Japan but also the personal doctor of the japanese empress. Like his contemporary Alexander von Humboldt, Siebold collected an incredible amount of specimen. Later he settled in Leiden and his collection formed the basis for the museum of Ethnography and the chair of Japanese Studies at the University of Leiden. Studies of his huge collection are still ongoing. Although his house in Nagasaki disappeared, his memory there is very much alive. The University bears his name, there is a park, hotel and restaurant bearing his name and the town has a Siebold memorial museum. The island of Dejima later disappeared under landfill but a reconstruction at the former site gives an impression. Outside Nagasaki, a Dutch theme park with the name “huis ten bosch” was built. It also features a replica of the steeple of the dome in Utrecht, the highest in the Netherlands. The replica is only 7 m lower than the original.
The modern part of Nagasaki in 1993
On the Shimabara peninsula, most towns experienced a severe to total loss of population as a result of the rebellion of 1638. Many christian residents fled from the main island to the small outlying islets. Immigrants were brought from other areas across Japan to resettle the land. Towns on the Shimabara peninsula still continue to have a varied mix of dialects due to the mass immigration from other parts of Japan. Buddhism was strongly promoted in the area. Priests had to control that all inhabitants were registered with local temples.
Old neighborhood in Nagasaki
Only after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 was Christianity legalised and re-established in Japan. The christian community resurfaced after years of hiding. Churches were built and a bishop installed in Nagasaki. With the opening, western visitors and residents arrived. Some of the houses of foreign residents were reconstructed and assembled in Glover garden, an open air museum.
Glover park museum with colonial houses from the time of Siebold
This building was actually a seamens' guesthouse built by Mitsubishi
Today the christian heritage in the Nagasaki region is recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site. All together 19 places are listed, among them the remains of Hara castle, Oura cathedral in Nagasaki and a number of villages on the small islands off the coast of Kyushu where part of the christian population survived the persecution. A huge memorial was built for the memory of the 26 victims of the persecution of 1597.
The epicentrum of the atomic bomb explosion in Nagasaki
After Hiroshima, Nagasaki was hit by the second atomic bomb on August 9th, 1945. There is a reason why this second atrocious attack never gets the same attention as the attack on Hiroshima even though the bomb dropped on Nagasaki was significantly stronger than the one dropped on Hiroshima. The intended target for the bomb was the town of Fukuoka. However, due to a dense cloud cover the pilots missed the target. During a short gap in the clouds they discovered an enormous shipyard, the Mitsubishi shipbuilding facility in Nagasaki, and dropped the bomb. The bomb exploded in a narrow valley leading down into the harbour. As a result, the destructive force of the explosion was raging up and down the valley but the town centre of Nagasaki was spared. Most of the historic buildings survived. However, the bomb immediately killed 40.000 people. As many died later from their injuries and radiation.
The only remaining ruin in the area of the center of the detonation
Link to the previous post
The modern Fukusai-ji
Temple replaced an ancient temple destroyed in 1945. The temple actually is a mausoleum for the japanese soldiers who died during WWII
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