{"id":5159,"date":"2016-11-30T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T09:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=5159"},"modified":"2018-07-24T13:28:11","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T13:28:11","slug":"exploring-nagasaki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/exploring-nagasaki\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Nagasaki"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city of Nagasaki<\/strong> (\u9577\u5d0e) is located on the Japanese island of Kyushu<\/strong> (\u4e5d\u5dde). It’s the capital and largest city in the prefecture of the same name. Once a secluded fishing village, it grew into a major port city after trade developed with Portugeuse explorers. It was here that the second atomic bomb was dropped during WWII, killing tens of thousands of people. Since then, the city has been rebuilt and reinvented. Let’s explore this important Japanese city and learn about some of its most famous sights.<\/p>\n

Dejima (\u51fa\u5cf6)<\/h2>\n

Our journey around Nagasaki begins with a bit of a history lesson. Dejima is an artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki that was built in 1636 to both accommodate and constrain the European traders. It was partly to give them a place from which to trade, but also to prevent them from spreading their religion via missionary work. The Portuguese would soon be banned from the country entirely. This was during Japan’s isolationist period known as\u00a0Sakoku<\/b> <\/em>(\u9396\u56fd – lit. “closed country”). The Dutch alone were spared from the ban, but they had to move their trading post from Hirado to Dejima. It’s no longer an island, as the surrounding area was reclaimed in the 20th century. It is now a Japanese national historic sight, which you can visit by taking Tram 1 and forking over 510 yen for an entrance ticket.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suwa Shrine (\u8acf\u8a2a\u795e\u793e)<\/h2>\n
\"Torii<\/a>

Torii gates at Suwa Shrine.<\/p><\/div>\n

This major shrine has quite the backstory. Its origins date back to 1619, which just so happened to be the same year that the shogun<\/em>\u00a0Tokugawa Ieyasu<\/b> (\u5fb3\u5ddd \u5bb6\u5eb7) issued an edict against Christianity. At that time, the people of Nagasaki were predominantly Christian, and they had destroyed most of the Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. The shogun<\/em> and his government began forcing people to reconvert to these more traditional Japanese religions. A small shrine had been built, but it was frequently attacked by resisting Christians. Eventually, the large Suwa Shrine was constructed. All people were required to register at the shrine; failure to do so would out you as a Christian and lead to punishment.<\/span><\/p>\n