page_title: Dejima
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Dejima / History
caption_attribution_description: English: View on Dejima in Nagasaki Bay 日本語: 長崎湾の出島の景色 Español: Vista de Dejima en la bahía de Nagasaki Deutsch: Aussicht auf den hafen und die bai von Nagasaki. Nederlands: Gezicht op de haven en de baai van Nagasaki.
context_page_description: Dejima was a small fan-shaped artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki. It was built in 1634. The island was made by digging a canal through a small peninsula. It was the only place of direct contact and trade between Japan and the outside world during the Edo period. Dejima was built to keep foreign traders out of Japan as part of "sakoku" self-imposed isolationist policy. It was built at first for Portuguese traders. It then changed to a Chinese and Dutch trading post from 1641 until 1853. It covers an area of 120 m x 75 m and has now become part of the city of Nagasaki.
  "Dejima Dutch Trading Post" is now a Japanese national historic site.
context_section_description: In 1543 Portuguese traders were the first to set foot in Japan, on the island of Tanegashima. Six years later Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier came to the island of Kyushu at Kagoshima. At first Portuguese traders were based in Hirado. Then they started a search for better port. In 1570 a powerful landowner or daimyo called Ōmura Sumitada became a Catholic. (He chose Bartolomeu as his Christian name.) He made a deal with the Portuguese to make Nagasaki better for trading. Soon the port was open. In 1580 Sumitada gave the jurisdiction of Nagasaki to the Jesuits. The Portuguese became the only ones trading silk with China through Macau.
  Shogun Iemitsu ordered the creation of the artificial island in 1634. He did this at first to keep the Portuguese merchants living in Nagasaki in one area. After a rebellion of the mostly Christian population in the Shimabara-Amakusa region, the Tokugawa government banned all Western nationals except the Dutch employees of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC). Without the yearly Portuguese ships from Macau, the economy of Nagasaki suffered heavily.
  Since 1609 the Dutch had a trading post on the island of Hirado. Government officials made the Dutch move from Hirado to Dejima. From 1641 on, only Chinese and Dutch ships were allowed to come to Japan.
  Every ship that came to Dejima was inspected. The sails were taken off until that ship was ready to leave. Religious books and weapons were taken away. Religious services were not allowed on the island.
caption: View of Dejima island in Nagasaki Bay (from Siebold's Nippon, 1897)
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