welocome to nagasaki

Kanbun Nagasaki-zu Byobu

Starting in 607AD, the Japanese envoys to China (Kenzuishi to the Sui Dynasty and Kentoshi to the Tang Dynasty) used a sea route along Iki, Tsushima and Gotoh Islands off the coast of Nagasaki and finally through mainland China. Nagasaki, because of its proximity to China and the Korean Peninsula, had always played the role of Japan’s front door for diplomacy and foreign trade.
In 1550, the first foreign ship to reach Nagasaki was a Portuguese ship that sailed into Hirado harbor in the northern part of Prefecture. The Portuguese then started to preach Christianity in the Nagasaki area and other areas of Japan.
In 1571, the Japanese government opened a port in Nagasaki for trading with Portuguese ships. After that, many western goods were introduced into Nagasaki.
Traders from the Netherlands and China were also doing business in Nagasaki in those days. The Bakufu (the Japanese government in those days), however in its closed door policy known as sakoku, closed all Japanese seaports to overseas ships. Nagasaki was designated as the only port where trade with foreign countries was permitted. The closed door policy continued until its abolition more than 200 years later.
Traces of foreign culture, introduced in those days, remain in many places in the prefecture.

Foreign goods and culture brought into Nagasaki have spread all over Japan and are now part of Japanese life.

Items spread from Nagasaki
into all over Japan

Camera

Solar Clock