Nagasaki Dejima

Timeline

1. 1610–1620Nagasaki · NagasakiIn the early Tokugawa period Nagasaki was already a port visited by Portuguese, Dutch, and English merchant ships; in the 1610s the shogunate gradually restricted Christian and foreign activities, laying the policy groundwork for the later centralized management of trade and the construction of Dejima.
2. 1636–1641Dejima · NagasakiThe shogunate built the fan-shaped artificial island 'Dejima' by land reclamation in Nagasaki Bay, isolating and controlling the foreign residence area; in 1641 the Dutch East India Company factory moved there from Hirado, becoming the sole European trade outpost of the sakoku era.
3. 1641–1800Dejima factory · NagasakiDutch ships arriving each year brought raw silk, books, and scientific instruments, while Japan exported copper, lacquerware, and marine products; interpreters and Dutch-learning scholars came through Dejima into contact with Western medicine and astronomy, forming a distinctive channel of knowledge import in the Edo period.
4. 1859Nagasaki · NagasakiAfter the ports were opened under the Ansei Treaties, foreign concessions and the free-port system expanded, ending Dejima's historic role as the sole European window; in modern times Nagasaki became a multi-national trading port.