Wagemon notes

Reference reading:

• Dutch-Japanese relations : IV 1641-1853: THE DUTCH IN DESHIMA (Source)

Episode 1

Japanese historical terms

• Bugyō-sho (奉行所): A name of a governmental office in the Edo period that was in charge of administration and judicature in an urban area in a territory. (Source: link 1 link 2)
• Bugyō (奉行): A title assigned to samurai officials during the feudal period of Japan. Bugyō is often translated as commissioner, magistrate, or governor, and other terms would be added to the title to describe more specifically a given official’s tasks or jurisdiction. (Source: link)
• Yoriki (与力): Working under the machi-bugyō was the yoriki. Yoriki were samurai—they managed patrols and guard units composed of lower ranking police officials. Yoriki, being of a higher class, were able to ride a horse while performing their duties and were trusted to carry out assignments of high importance. (Source: link 1 link 2)
• Dōshin (同心): Working under the yoriki was the dōshin. Dōshin were samurai but of a lower class than yoriki. They performed the duties of prison guard and patrol officer which required close contact with commoners (chonin). They investigated crimes such as murder and helped with executions. (Source: link 1 link 2)
• Ezo: Ezo is the Japanese term historically used to refer to the lands to the north of the Japanese island of Honshu. It included the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, which changed its name from “Ezo” to “Hokkaidō” in 1869, and sometimes included Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. (Source: link)
• Deshima/Dejima: A small fan-shaped artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki and a Dutch trading post at Nagasaki, from 1641 to 1854. The Dutch were moved to Dejima in 1641 and during most of the Edo period the island was the single place of direct trade and exchange between Japan and the outside world. (Source: link)
• Dutch chief factor or Dutch Opperhoofd (オランダ商館長): the chief traders of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC in old-spelling Dutch, literally “United East Indian Company”) in Japan during the period of the Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the Edo period. Opperhoofd is a Dutch word (plural opperhoofden) that literally translates to “upper-head”, meaning “supreme headman”. (Source link)
• Nukeni (抜荷; smuggling): Smuggling a part of a package in transit or in storage. It was conducted mainly with Dutch and Chinese nationals who came to Japan during Edo period. (Source: link 1 link 2)
• Shirahochuushin (白帆注進): (lit. white sail report) A system for reporting the arrival of foreign ships in Nagasaki during the Edo period.
• Tojin-Yashiki (唐人屋敷): A compound in Nagasaki where Chinese traders were confined during sakoku (closed country) period of Japanese history similar to Dejima for the Dutch. (Source: link 1 link 2)
• Nagaya (長屋; long house): A type of rowhouse, which was typical for Edo period in Japan. Nagaya was a long housing complex under the same ridge, one or two stories high, divided into small compartments for rent. The well, toilet and waste facilities were shared. (Source: link)

Historical figures

• Moriyama Einosuke (森山 栄之助, July 10, 1820 – May 4, 1872) was a samurai during the Tokugawa shogunate, and an interpreter of Dutch and English. He studied English under Dutch merchants and Ranald MacDonald. (Source: link)
• Ranald MacDonald (February 3, 1824 – August 24, 1894) was the first native English-speaker to teach the English language in Japan, including educating Einosuke Moriyama, one of the chief interpreters to handle the negotiations between Commodore Perry and the Tokugawa Shogunate. (Source: link)
• Otto Gottlieb Mohnike (27 July 1814 – 26 January 1887) was a German physician who was remembered for implementing the first successful nationwide smallpox vaccination in Japan. In 1849 he instituted the practice of delivering fresh cowpox vaccine from Batavia in the Dutch East Indies to the Japanese port of Nagasaki, thus creating a sharp reduction of smallpox in Japan. (Source: link)
• Joseph Henry Levyssohn (16 July 1800 – 6 March 1883) was born in Rotterdam, partially educated in England but subsequently joined the Dutch East Indian service and arrived in Batavia on 8 October 1823. In due course, at Deshima, Nagasaki, he was to be supreme headman from November 1845 to October 1850. He returned to the Netherlands in 1851 and died at Arnhem on 6 March 1883. (Source: link 1 link 2)
• James Glynn (1800–1871) was a U.S. Navy officer who in 1848 distinguished himself by being the first American to negotiate successfully with the Japanese during the “Closed Country” period. (Source: link)

Historical reference

• USS Preble: A United States Navy warship built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, launched June 13, 1839 and commissioned in 1840. She was named after Commodore Edward Preble. In 1848, Captain James Glynn took her first to Hong Kong and then to Nagasaki, Japan, where she picked up some fifteen American and Hawaiian seamen who had become castaways in that “closed country”. (Source: link)
• The Imprisonment of 15 American sailors: 15 American sailors was shipwrecked from the American whaleship Lagoda on the northern Japanese island of Yeso on June 7, 1848. They were later held prisoner in Nagasaki. (Source: link 1 link 2)

Episode 2

Japanese historical terms & reference

• Dutch news reports (Holland Fusetsu Gaki; オランダ風説書) and Separate news reports (Bestudan Fusetsu Gaki 別段風説書) are documents submitted by the Edo shogunate to the Dutch chief factor during the period when Japan adopted a policy of national seclusion. (Source link)
• The Dutch news reports mainly contained information on overseas affairs, it was written in Nagasaki, compiled by a translator from the Dutch chief factor’s dictation.
• In contrary, the Separate news reports was prepared by the colonial administration in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) from 1840. This was done because the colonial administration decided it would be better to inform the Shogunate of the Opium War and its effects. This one was prepared in Dutch and later translated into Japanese. From 1846, the information was not limited to Opium War-related matters, but was provided on a global scale. The source of this information was English-language newspapers published in British colonies in China and elsewhere.
• Annual court journey: Contacts between the Dutch and Japanese authorities also took place during the annual ‘court journey’. Just like regional Japanese leaders, the Dutch Opperhoofd from Dejima had to pay annual tribute to the Shogun in Edo and provide a detailed report on affairs in the outside world, the so-called “fusetsu gaki” (Source link)
• Mediator (Naitsuji; 内通詞): Interpreters in Nagasaki during the Edo period, who were not under the control of the Nagasaki Magistrate. They acted as mediators between merchants and Chinese/Dutch traders, and usually received around 10% of the transaction as commission from the buyer.

Nagasaki/Kyushu dialect

• Kurasu (くらす): in standard Japanese, it means “to live”. However in Kyushu dialect, it means “to hit”.

Episode 3

Historical figures

• Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (17 February 1796 – 18 October 1866) was a German physician, botanist and traveler. He achieved prominence by his studies of Japanese flora and fauna and the introduction of Western medicine in Japan. He was the father of the first female Japanese doctor educated in Western medicine, Kusumoto Ine. (Source link)

Episode 4

• The Nagasaki Kunchi (長崎くんち) is the festival of Suwa Shrine, held annually in Nagasaki on October 7-9. The festival has been celebrated for about 400 years and incorporates different aspects of Chinese and Dutch cultures, which have played a role in the city’s history. (Source link)

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