The Ansei Five-Power Treaties, which came into effect in July 1859, ended Japan’s long disengagement from international commercial and diplomatic networks. The treaties also provided for the establishment of designated settlements for foreigners in the five Japanese ports of Nagasaki, Kanagawa (Yokohama), Kobe, Niigata and Hakodate.
The foreign settlements subsequently served as springboards for the modernization of Japan. During the first years, Nagasaki played a particularly important role in that it was the closest port to China and a stepping stone for the introduction to Japan of everything from second-hand steamships to bowling balls and as a gateway for coal mining, railroads, newspaper publishing, shipbuilding and other technologies.
In the process, the Nagasaki foreign settlement developed its own unique style of administration, architecture and economic activity and provided a venue for international exchanges on various levels. The port also served as the setting for Madame Chrysanthemum, the 1888 novel by French author Pierre Loti that took nineteenth-century Europe by storm, deepened the cultural influence of “Japonisme” and paved the way for Giacomo Puccini’s famous opera Madama Butterfly.
From the outset, however, the Japanese government wanted to revise the treaties because of their inherent inequality: foreign residents of the settlements enjoyed the privilege of extraterritoriality (immunity from local laws) and unilateral authority over many aspects of trade, but this was certainly not the case for Japanese visiting Europe or America.
In 1894 Japan finally succeeded in negotiating the abolition of the former treaties and replacing them with trade pacts similar to those concluded among European countries. The new pacts became effective five years later in July 1899, placing Japan on an equal international footing with the Western powers.
As a result, the Nagasaki foreign settlement, like its counterparts in Kobe, Yokohama and other ports, ceased to exist as an official entity. But the great prosperity of the port around the turn of the century, brought on in part by the military and economic activity related to the Sino-Japanese War, the Spanish-American War, and the Boxer Rebellion, assured its continuation as an unofficial institution retaining its primarily foreign population, its unique social infrastructure and its quasi-Western architectural identity.
During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, Nagasaki was placed under special military supervision because of its proximity to the theaters of war. As a result, international shipping came to virtual standstill, and smaller ports in Kyushu such as Kuchinotsu, Moji and Hakata took over a large share of the trade and coal supply business once monopolized by Nagasaki. The following decades witnessed a steady decline in the number of foreign residents, and the outbreak of World War II caused an almost complete exodus.
After World War II, the homes, offices and hotels used by the residents of the former Nagasaki foreign settlement disappeared one after another under the wave of development and urbanization. Now only about one-tenth of the original buildings remain and memories have mostly faded in the old neighborhoods, but the area - and however indirectly the foreigners who once inhabited it - continue to contribute to the economy and culture of Nagasaki through its ongoing role as one of the city’s most important tourist attractions.
During Japan’s more than two-century long period of national isolation (1641-1859), the Japanese people lived in a state of peace and self-sufficiency under the benevolent dictatorship of the Tokugawa Shogun and his train of feudal lords. World news trickled into the country via the Dutch and Chinese in Nagasaki, but the insularity of the country was such that the Industrial Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and other important events were all but unknown to most of the nation. But by the 1830’s the reports of international upheaval were beginning to issue from sources alarmingly close. In 1842, the Chinese were devastated by the British in the Opium War and forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing, a set of unilateral demands including the payment of a crushing indemnity, cession of the island of Hong Kong, and the opening five coastal towns including Canton and Shanghai as trade ports with low fixed tariffs and extraterritorial rights for foreigners. The Dutch delivered warnings to the Tokugawa Shogunate about an impending crisis, but it was not until July 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry anchored a squadron of American warships in Tokyo Bay and demanded the opening of Japan to trade and diplomatic relations with the United States, that the Shogunate finally arose from its long hibernation. The following month, Russian Admiral Evfimii Putiatin sailed into Nagasaki Harbor to accomplish the same mission. Both the Americans and Russians eventually succeeded in winning agreements from the Shogunate, setting precedents that were followed by Britain, France and the Netherlands.
In 1858, the Shogunate signed full-fledged commercial treaties with the United States, Russia, Britain, France and the Netherlands and opened - effective July 1, 1859 - the three ports of Nagasaki, Yokohama and Hakodate. No warfare or outright force was involved in the forging of these treaties, but Japan’s huge military and economic disadvantage left it little choice but to agree to the tariffs fixed by the foreign countries, to grant extraterritorial rights to foreign residents, and to allow the construction of foreign settlements in each treaty port. Yokohama was close to the seat of the Shogunate in Edo (Tokyo) and would soon grow into the largest of the foreign settlements, but in 1859 Nagasaki was still the most important port because it had been Japan’s only open window during the period of national isolation and because it was close to Shanghai, the point of departure for most of the ships making the first voyages to Japan. Soon foreigners of various nationalities were arriving here in droves to begin the work of building communities on the blueprints of the foreign settlements in China and to establish links with Japanese merchants, officials and agents of feudal lords.
In Nagasaki, foreign representatives conferred with Japanese authorities and selected the mouth of Oura Creek and its adjacent hillsides - lands belonging to the Omura feudal domain - as the site for the foreign settlement. In 1860, workers began to fill in the mud flats along the coast and to build the waterfront bund that imitated its counterpart in Shanghai and would go on to serve as the facade of the foreign settlement. The two hillsides rising away from Oura Creek were earmarked for residential districts, the one close to the old town named Higashiyamate (”Eastern Hillside”) and the other Minamiyamate (” Southern Hillside”). During the following months, the hillsides were carved into ledges and reinforced with stone embankment walls to make space for the construction of Western- style houses, a network of stone-paved gutters was installed for drainage, and flagstone paths and steps were laid to provide access to individual lots. The two-phase construction project reached completion in early 1862, and all foreign residents of Nagasaki were ordered to move into the new neighborhoods by April 15, 1862. Land ownership was administered by a system of “perpetual leases.” Issued in lieu of a title deed, the perpetual lease allowed foreigners to buy, sell and own property but precluded legal possession of land. For example, Thomas B. Glover acquired - for a yearly fee of 194 dollars - the perpetual lease to the hillside lot of No.3 Minamiyamate, where he built his famous residence in 1863. But the Glover family did not actually own the land until 1911 when Glover died and left the house to his son Kuraba Tomisaburo, who was a Japanese citizen.
By the middle of the Meiji Period, the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement was home to a large multinational community. Fine Western-style buildings of companies like Jardine Matheson & Co., Great Northern Telegraph, and Holme Ringer & Co. cut a gracious figure on the waterfront “bund,” hotels, warehouses, merchant shops, newspaper offices and other establishments run by foreigners formed an orderly labyrinth in the rear quarters, and taverns and small hotels lined the banks of Oura Creek. The two hillsides, meanwhile, were studded with gracious colonial-style villas that displayed all the features demanded by the wealthy foreigners who inhabited them, such as high windows and doors, wood-strip floors ready for carpets, coal-burning fireplaces, spacious gardens and wide verandas commanding panoramic views of the harbor. The Nagasaki Foreign Settlement, in short, was like a patch of Liverpool or Vancouver sewn onto the waterfront of a Japanese town.
The Nagasaki British Consulate was the first foreign consulate established in Japan after the opening of this country’s doors in 1859, and until its closure on the eve of World War II it served as both the most important foreign representation in Nagasaki and the socio- political center of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement. The first British consul, C. Pemberton Hodgson, arrived in Nagasaki on June 13, 1859 and, after negotiations with the Nagasaki bugyo Okabe Suruganokami, rented a building at Myogyoji Temple and conducted consular duties there until being replaced by George S. Morrison in August the same year. Morrison, who had served as a diplomat in China, set out regulations for British citizens in Nagasaki and engaged in negotiations with Japanese officials about trade guidelines and living conditions in the settlement. He also arranged for the construction of a permanent British consulate at No. 9 Higashiyamate. This building was sold and the consulate moved to No.6 Oura in 1886. The British consulate remained here until October 1904, when it was moved temporarily to No. 47 Oura to allow for the construction of a new building. This building - a gracious two-story brick and stone building with a courtyard and dormitories for both British and Japanese employees at the rear - reached completion in 1908. The British consulate remained in operation until 1941, when the impending outbreak of war between Japan and Britain made conditions too dangerous for government officials to remain in Nagasaki. After the war the building was ceded to the City of Nagasaki and was used to house a science museum until 1996, when it was designated a national important cultural asset and reopened as an art gallery.
The United States, France, Germany, China and Russia also dispatched consuls to Nagasaki and established independent consulate buildings in the foreign settlement. Like the British Consulate, these institutions served the needs of the citizens of the respective countries residing in Nagasaki and engaged in exchanges on various levels with Japanese officials, business representatives and citizens. Although they did not have their own consulates or officially dispatched consuls, many other countries such as the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Brazil and Hawaii either enlisted the British consul or prominent Nagasaki entrepreneurs like Frederick Ringer to serve as acting consuls.
In this way, at its peak of activity around the turn of the 20th century, the small area of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement bristled with consulates of various foreign countries, like a miniature model of the world at large.
One of the most important features of the foreign settlements was that the foreigners who lived there were allowed the privilege of “extraterritoriality,” that is, immunity from Japanese laws. The rationale behind this was that Japan, as a nation only recently inducted into the international community, was not equipped to deal with legal issues affecting foreigners. It was also one of the main reasons for Japan’s later condemnation of the Ansei treaties as “unequal treaties” and its diplomatic efforts to abolish the settlements. Foreigners may have enjoyed immunity from Japanese laws, but that did not mean that they were free to commit crimes. In fact, it was the consulates of the respective countries that served as courts for the trying of criminal and civil cases and the consul who served as judge. Each consulate in Nagasaki also employed constables whose responsibility it was to maintain peace and order, to arrest suspected criminals, and to confine them in the jail built in each consulate.
After the revision of the Ansei Treaties and the official abolition of the foreign settlements on July 17, 1899, the consular jails and courts became obsolete because foreigners now had to answer to Japanese laws. The first arrest of a foreigner by Japanese police occurred on July 21 - only four days after the inception of the new treaties - and the history-making person was an American sailor, seriously the worse for drink, who damaged a Nagasaki rickshaw, assaulted its driver when asked for compensation, and soon had the sobering experience of being marched off to the Japanese police station.
Soon after the completion of the first phase of the foreign settlement construction project, the Oura, Dejima, Umegasaki, Higashiyamate and Minimiyamate neighborhoods were divided into lots and put up for rent, and on April 21, 1861, all the foreigners who had applied to rent land held a meeting at Myogyoji Temple, which was still serving as a temporary British consulate. The British consul George Morrison was appointed chairman. The main purpose of the meeting was to select a “municipal council” to supervise the administrative affairs of the foreign settlement. William Alt (British), John Major (British) and Franklin Field (American) were elected to seats on the council and submitted their first report three weeks later, calling for negotiations with the Japanese government and various measures to improve facilities and promote business in the new settlement. In 1876 the chairman of the Municipal Council was Thomas Glover.
The Municipal Council was later disbanded because of its redundancy with other organizations, but it played an important role in the early years of the foreign settlement by uniting residents of various backgrounds and nationalities and establishing the settlement as an autonomous community.
In 1861, less than two years after opening of the port, several British residents of Nagasaki joined to create a social organization called the “Nagasaki Club” in imitation of similar men’s clubs in Calcutta, Shanghai and other British colonial enclaves. The club rules were laid out in early 1862, and a permanent building was constructed at No. 31 Oura, the former site of the English-language newspaper Nagasaki Shipping List and Advertiser. The first trustees were British merchants W.J. Alt and H.M. Wright. In 1881, the club was moved to a fine two- story building at No.10 on the Oura Bund and continued under the supervision of British newspaper publisher Charles Sutton. Although a typical British institution, foreign residents of various nationalities as well as visitors to Nagasaki used the club as a place to relax and mingle with friends. The only qualification for entry seems to have been foreign nationality and a certain financial standing. Among the facilities were a reading room, library, bar and billiard room. Events such as dances and costume parties were held occasionally, especially to mark holidays and the departure of important residents. It was the Nagasaki Club that served as a model for the Nagasaki International Club formed in 1899 as a social venue for Japanese and foreign residents of Nagasaki. The Nagasaki Club moved to No. 4 Minamiyamate in 1933 and closed permanently in 1941. Click here for a photograph of Nagasaki Club members in 1910.
The Freemasons are a fraternal order whose basic tenets are brotherly love, philanthropy and truth. Although frequently mistaken for a religion or secret society, Freemasonry is neither of these. It is probably better understood as a friendship organization, like the Rotary Club or Lions Club. It does, however, have a long international history. Said to have started in the Middle Ages as a organization of skilled stone masons involved in the construction of the great cathedrals of Britain, the Freemasons grew into a gathering of men interested in making regular, enjoyable contact with other men of good character and thus reinforcing their own moral development. After the organization expanded to include men of all occupations, the tools of the medieval stonemason - such as the rule, the compass and the square -- became symbols for human equality, justice, and other ideals. The Nagasaki Masonic Lodge was inaugurated at No. 50 Oura on October 5, 1885. The founding members were all British, but during the following years, men of various nationalities and religions became members and participated in regular meetings and social events. The lodge moved to a new building at No. 47 Oura in June 1887. The Freemasons contributed to the Nagasaki community until disbanding in the early Showa Period due to a lack of members. Today, the graves of several former Freemasons can be found in Nagasaki’ s international cemeteries, and the stone gate of the former lodge is preserved in Glover Garden.
At the peak of its prosperity as an international port, Nagasaki saw the visits of hundreds of foreign ships a year and welcomed countless numbers of foreign seamen ashore. Because many of these men went on drinking and gambling sprees or visited the many brothels that catered to them, the missionaries of the foreign settlement made efforts to establish a facility where seamen and other travelers could rest and engage in healthier activities while ashore. In 1879, Walter Andrews of the Anglican Episcopal Church rented a building at No. 15 Oura and established a “Reading and Coffee Room” for sailors. Andrews and his successor A.B. Hutchinson ran this facility until June 1889, when the latter left Nagasaki to take up missionary work in Fukuoka. In February 1896, Protestant missionaries and a group of sailors on a visiting American navy vessel launched a fund-raising campaign that resulted in the inauguration of the “Christian Endeavor Seamen’s Home” at No.26 Oura (present- day Umegasaki Junior High School). After about 10 years, this facility had grown to such an extent that it had accommodations for about 90 men as well as a dining room, a large general room and a library. One difficulty faced in the early years was the lack of a married couple to manage the institution. Elizabeth Mills operated the home for the first two years, but it was not until October 1897 that Mr. and Mrs. John Makins were hired as permanent managers. Other managers who followed included Risher W. Thornberry, Mr. and Mrs. Jonus White, Mr. and Mrs. James Hatter and Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Clark. The Seamen’s Home saw many ups and downs over the following years but managed to remain open until just prior to the outbreak of World War II.
One of the problems that arose from the opening of Japan’s doors and the establishment of foreign settlements was the fact that, while the ban on Christianity enforced by the Tokugawa Shogunate since the early seventeenth century was still firmly in place, the foreigners taking up residence here naturally wanted to build churches and to conduct religious services. In view of the extraterritorial rights granted foreigners, the Shogunate had little choice but to permit the construction of churches within the confines of the settlements, but it strictly outlawed any attempt to win Japanese converts and only stepped up its efforts to suppress the religion in the local community.
The first Catholic church to appear in the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement was Oura Cathedral at No.1a Minamiyamate, a quasi-gothic structure built by Japanese carpenters under orders from French priests of the Paris Foreign Mission Society and completed in February 1865. It was at the door of this church - only weeks later on March 17 - that a group of peasants from Urakami village approached Fr. Bernard Petitjean and informed him that they shared his belief in “Santa Maria.” This event marked the discovery of the “underground Christians,” whose ancestors had sought refuge from persecution in remote islands and villages in the early seventeenth century and who had kept their religion alive for two centuries despite complete isolation from the Church. Petitjean and the other French priests defied the law and made surreptitious visits to Urakami and other villages where Japanese Christians were hiding. But the authorities learned of the existence of the underground groups and in the latter part of the decade took the drastic measure of exiling the entire population of Urakami to other parts of Japan.
In 1876, when the Vicariate Apostolic of Japan was divided into Northern and Southern Apostolic Vicariates, Nagasaki became part of the Southern Vicariate Apostolic, which had jurisdiction over the Kyushu, Chugoku, and Kinki regions. Ten years later, the Nagasaki mission was staffed by 16 French priests from the Paris Foreign Mission society, including Fr. Marco de Rotz, who was revered for his efforts to help the Catholic faithful in the poor villages of Sotome.
Catholic nuns also played an important role in the religious life of the foreign settlement. Answering a plea from the French missionary Bernard Petitjean for a contingent of sisters to come and serve in Japan, Sister Mathilde and four other members of the order Soeurs de l’Enfant Jesus moved their mission to Japan in June 1872. The first group of French sisters arrived in Nagasaki on July 6, 1877. In 1880, they opened a school called Seishin Jo Gakko (Sacred Heart Girls School) in Minamiyamate. By 1886, the school had been transferred to No. 5 Oura, where it remained until 1899 when it was established in a fine new building at No.16 Minamiyamate. This school welcomed the daughters of both foreign and Japanese families and soon grew into a Nagasaki landmark.
The foremost Catholic school for boys in the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement was Kaisei Gakko, founded by French Marianist brothers in 1892. The school purchased land on the Higashiyamate hillside and in 1898 began classes in a grand four-story brick building commanding a panoramic view over Nagasaki Harbor. A group photograph taken around the turn of the century shows how the school accepted pupils of various nationalities, races and religious backgrounds, just like the city in which it was located.
The Protestant denominations also established churches and schools in the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement. The American Episcopal Church, which had a station in China, sent two missionaries to Nagasaki prior to the official opening of the port in 1859, and one of these, C. M. Williams, constructed Japan’s first Protestant church at No.11 Higashiyamate in October 1862. After the abolition of the ban on Christianity in 1873, Henry Stout, a missionary of the Reformed Church in America serving as an English instructor at the government school, started bible classes for Japanese students in his home at No.14 Higashiyamate and, with his wife Elizabeth, opened mission schools for young men and women that would grow into Tozan Gakuin and Umegasaki Jogakko, respectively. Eliza Goodall, the widow of an Anglican military chaplain, started classes in English and dressmaking for girls in her house at No.3 Higashiyamate and thus laid the foundation for Nagasaki Jogakko (Girls’ School). The No.3 Higashiyamate lot had originally been rented by Guido Verbeck, the pioneer American missionary and educator who worked at the government school in Nagasaki. Another notable American missionary is John C. Davison, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church who came to Nagasaki in 1873, helped to establish a Protestant church at Deshima in 1876 and arranged through the American Board of Foreign Missions for the dispatch of ministers to found Methodist mission schools in Nagasaki. As a result of his efforts, Kwassui Jogakko (for young women) and Chinzei Gakuin (for young men) were established on the Higashiyamate hillside in 1879 and 1881, respectively, and went on to make important contributions to education in Japan. The “Nagasaki Directory” and other records for the period around 1897 show that, of the 17 lots in the Higashiyamate district, 13 were occupied either by the Protestant mission schools named above or by the homes of missionaries and teachers working there. It is no wonder that Higashiyamate was also known among foreign residents and visitors as “Missionary Hill.”
The Russian residents of Nagasaki joined together in 1883 to found a Russian Orthodox Church near the Russian Consulate at No.5 Minamiyamate. Just as the consulate served their political needs, the church served the religious needs of the Russian community of Nagasaki until both were closed in 1932. Today, the Russian Orthodox chapel in the Russian Cemetery at Goshinji Temple is a reminder of the religion’s former presence in Nagasaki.
Although Nagasaki’s early Catholic and Protestant churches have gained far more attention, the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement was also the site of Japan’s first Jewish synagogue. Jewish people began to arrive in Nagasaki from the 1860’s, most establishing hotels, bars and stores on the back streets of the settlement. Although united by their religion, these people hailed from various countries including Russia, Austria, Romania and Turkey, and many arrived in Nagasaki after moving around various international ports searching for financial security and freedom from prejudice. Their numbers increased in proportion to Nagasaki’s prosperity as a trade port, and in September 1896 they joined together to establish the Beth Israel Synagogue at No. 11 Umegasaki. The leaders in this endeavor were the prominent Jewish entrepreneurs Haskel Goldenberg and Sigmund Lessner. This synagogue continued to serve the Jewish community of Nagasaki until the building and property were sold in 1924, a point in time that coincides with the departure of the last Nagasaki Jewish residents. Today, nothing remains of the former synagogue, but the large number of Jewish graves in the international cemeteries speaks silently of the contributions made by the former Jewish community to Nagasaki.
Even before the official opening of Nagasaki to foreign trade on July 1, 1859, foreign merchants entered the port and began to establish contact with the representatives of various han (feudal clans) of southwestern Japan. Since land had still not been procured for the foreign settlement, these merchants rented rooms in houses and temples in the Japanese town. After the construction of the foreign settlement, the Oura neighborhood became home to dozens of trading companies, ship chandlers, shipping agencies, auction houses and other businesses run by foreigners. And just as they lay closer than any other Nagasaki neighborhood to the mouth of Nagasaki Harbor, the settlement and its cluster of foreign businesses sat at the vanguard of Japan’s push for globalization during the vibrant years of the Meiji Period.
One of the earliest merchants to begin operations in Nagasaki was William J. Alt. Alt arrived in Nagasaki on October 27, 1859 and opened a general commission agency called Alt & Co. After establishing business links with a number of feudal clans, the young Englishman made a quick fortune trading in tea, marine products, ships and weapons. One of his foremost contacts was Iwasaki Yataro, a young representative of the Tosa Clan who had been stationed in Nagasaki to negotiate trade deals and who would go on later, with Alt’s help, to found the Mitsubishi Co. Alt & Co. had offices on the waterfront at No. 7 Oura and also operated tea-firing warehouses No. 18, 19 and 20 Oura, where tea from the neighboring countryside was dried by hundreds of Japanese laborers working on rotating shifts 24 hours a day. Alt built his private residence at No.14 Minamiyamate, a choice spot on the hillside overlooking Nagasaki harbor.
Another prominent merchant in the early days of the settlement was Kenneth R. Mackenzie, who came here as a representative of Jardine, Matheson & Co. A skilled trader with years of experience in the Far East, Mackenzie rented a Japanese building at Myogyoji Temple and, when a French Consulate was opened there, served as the first French consul. After the construction of the foreign settlement, he also rented No.15 Oura and served as a local agent for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. In addition to his business and consular duties, Mackenzie also organized the first fire brigade in the foreign settlement in 1860.
When Kenneth R. Mackenzie left Nagasaki in June 1861, he gave the reins of the Nagasaki branch of Jardine, Matheson & Co. to a young fellow Scotsman named Thomas B. Glover, who had been working as a clerk in the office since the autumn of 1859. Glover established his own company (Glover & Co.) in 1862 and over the next few years made a fortune selling steamships, guns and other merchandise to the clans of southwestern Japan. He also introduced various modern technologies to Japan and arranged for both the import of related machines and facilities and the employment of British engineers to serve as advisors. His achievements not only facilitated Japan’s efforts at modernization but also contributed enormously to the development of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement. In 1863, Glover arranged with the Japanese master carpenter Koyama Hidenoshin to build a house on the Minamiyamate hillside. This building, which was designed for use by foreigners but built by Japanese hands using Japanese materials, symbolized the earliest meeting of European and Japanese culture in a new age of globalization. In 1870, Glover’s Nagasaki trading firm Glover & Co. went bankrupt as a result of debts incurred around the time of the Meiji Restoration, but the Scotsman stayed in Japan and became involved with expanding Japanese industries.
However successful, the companies established by Alt, Mackenzie and Glover were all short- lived. But Holme, Ringer & Co., established in 1868 by Glover & Co. employee Frederick Ringer, became a Nagasaki institution and stayed in business here until being forced to close on the eve of World War II. From its office at No.7 on the Oura Bund, the company unfolded a dazzling array of business activities. Starting out as a importer-exporter dealing in tea, coal, marine products, vegetable wax and tobacco, it later expanded into a banking, insurance and shipping agency with branch offices in China, Korea and several other Japanese ports. The company also operated a flourmill, steam laundry, tanning factory, gas supplier, power station, stevedore business, trawler fishing company and whaling company. At the peak of activity in the foreign settlement, Ringer also launched a daily English language newspaper, the Nagasaki Press, and led a group of investors in the construction of the grand “Nagasaki Hotel” on the waterfront in 1898. Although historians have paid him much less attention than his former employer Thomas Glover, Frederick Ringer made tremendous contributions, not only to the development of the foreign settlement and the economic prosperity of Nagasaki, but also to the cultivation of a new generation of Japanese enterprises that emulated the Western-style business practices of Holme, Ringer & Co. and borrowed from its international expertise.
Other foreign enterprises that appeared and thrived in Nagasaki are Major & Co., M.C. Adams & Co., N. Mess & Co., R.H Powers & Co. and R.N. Walker & Co. The hundreds of foreigners who worked for these companies over the years lived on the Higashiyamate and Minamiyamate hillsides or in rooms rented in hotels and buildings in the Oura district, many staying here for decades or finding an unexpected permanent home in the international cemeteries of Nagasaki.
Separated from the Japanese town politically, geographically and culturally, the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement by nature had to maintain a high level of self-determination and self- sufficiency. At every year of its existence - and particularly during the peak years around the turn of the 20th century - a cross section of the settlement reveals Europeans, Americans and Chinese at virtually every social station from diplomat and doctor to barber, undertaker and store clerk. Since the foreign residents naturally chose a lifestyle similar to that in their own home countries - and many necessities were unavailable in Japan - the supply of foreign furniture, clothing, accessories, foodstuffs and various other items became an important industry in the settlement and led to the development of an urban business core similar to that in European and American cities and in the older colonial enclaves of East Asia.
With regard to foods and drinks, slaughterhouses were established in the Naminohira waterfront area (at the southern edge of the settlement) soon after the establishment of the foreign settlement and provided a steady supply of meat. Since the Japanese people of the time did not drink milk, a dairy was also founded to provide fresh milk and other products. One of the foreigners who made a living in the dairy business was G. Napalkov, a Russian entrepreneur whose shop was located at No.36 Oura (on the southern bank of Oura Creek).
Another food in constant demand but unavailable in the Japanese town was bread. In the early part of the Meiji Period, a French entrepreneur named Charles Thomas opened a bakery and French provisions store at No.42a Oura. After his death in 1877, a Canadian of French descent named Jean Couder took over the bakery and later re-opened it along with a French restaurant at No.22 Oura. Although the proprietor later changed, this bakery remained in business throughout the years of the foreign settlement.
Soft drinks such as lemonade, ginger ale and soda water were also produced by foreign entrepreneurs and supplied to the residents of the settlement on a regular basis. One of the principal producers was an establishment called the “Medical Hall,” which, as the name indicates, also served as an outlet for various imported drugs and medical supplies. Launched in the 1860’s by an Englishman named James Gye and located at No.12 Oura (later No.11 Oura), the Medical Hall changed proprietors several times but served the foreign residents of Nagasaki throughout the settlement years. The final proprietor, William H. Evans, sold the establishment and its soft drink factory in September 1904. Historical records indicate that the equipment was purchased by R.N. Walker and given a new life at the “Banzai Aerated Water Factory” that he established in his warehouse at No.44a Oura in December the same year.
Some of the other shops that vied for customer attention in the streets and alleys of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement - and made visitors feel like they were our for a walk in Brighton or San Francisco - were the “Eureka Shaving Salon,” “Mrs. Fullerton’s Millinery Shop,” “G. Lodurqvist, Shoemaker,” “N. Stibolt & Co., Shipwrights & Carpenters,” “P. Bernardi, Wines & General Stores Merchant,” “D.F. Jacobs, Cabinet-maker,” “Sigmund Lessner, Fancy Goods and Auctioneer,” “Nagasaki Steam Laundry, J. Nicholson,” “Chang Fong, tailor.,” and “Saphiere & Co., Bicycle and Machines.”
During the early years of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement, foreigners who suffered injuries or came down with illnesses had very few choices with regard to medical treatment: they could either visit the government-run hospital supervised by a Dutch physician but staffed mostly by Japanese students with more potential than expertise, or they could wait for the visit of one of the foreign physicians who traveled around the ports of the Far East. The naval vessels calling regularly at Nagasaki invariably carried surgeons and physicians, but these men naturally placed priority on the crews under their care.
As the settlement developed, however, the navies of the United States, Russia and other countries built hospitals here for sailors who required intensive medical care. Also, foreign physicians began to settle in Nagasaki for extended periods and to attend to the needs of foreign residents, while at the same time often making medical and educational contributions to the Japanese community as well. British physician Charles A. Arnold came to Nagasaki in 1886 and opened a private practice in the Oura neighborhood. He also accepted a post as lecturer in the government-run hospital and earned the respect of both the Japanese and foreign communities. Dr. Edward Amuat, a native of Switzerland and naturalized American citizen, came to Nagasaki in 1889 to serve as director of the government-run hospital, and in addition to his duties there he opened a private practice for foreign residents in his home at No.11 Higashiyamate. Dr. Mary Suganuma, an American physician married to a Japanese man, came to Nagasaki in 1893 and opened (with financial assistance from the Methodist Church) a hospital in Junin-machi where she treated both Japanese and foreign patients.
Still another notable foreign physician who served the foreign and Japanese communities of Nagasaki was Robert I. Bowie, an American navy physician who came to Nagasaki in 1897 and stayed on after being appointed acting assistant surgeon of the U.S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service at Nagasaki. Robert Bowie opened a clinic beside his residence at No. 23 and No.24 Oura in January 1898. At the same time, he founded a Catholic hospital called St. Bernard Hospital in Kosuge-machi for the treatment of foreign residents and visitors. The hospital was situated on land owned by Les Soeurs de l’Enfant Jesus and was staffed by the French sisters. Robert Bowie died of kidney failure on April 24, 1911 at the age of 54. St. Bernard Hospital closed the following year, but the Bowie residence and clinic in Oura were purchased by a Japanese physician and later re-opened as “Aoki Hospital.”
Launched on June 22, 1861 by British auctioneer Albert Hansard, the “Nagasaki Shipping List and Advertiser” was the first modern newspaper published in Japan. As the name indicates, it was primarily a vehicle for shipping information and advertisements. The fact that more than half of the advertisements were placed by businesses in Shanghai shows how, especially in its early years, the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement was like a satellite to its larger and older counterpart in China. The newspaper also reported on various local events, such as the launching of the “Phantom” - Japan’s first yacht and first locally constructed Western-style ship - by Scottish carpenter James Mitchell. It was published twice weekly until October I the same year when Hansard moved his printing press to Yokohama and established the Japan Herald.
The next English newspaper, the “Nagasaki Times,” appeared in 1868 but lasted only a year. It was followed by the Nagasaki Shipping List, which also stayed in print for only a few months. It was the founding of the “Nagasaki Express” on January 15, 1870 that marked the beginning of an unbroken series of English newspapers that served the foreign community of Nagasaki until 1928. The editor was the Portuguese Filomeno Braga, who had been involved earlier in a newspaper in Kobe. The “Nagasaki Express” carried shipping information, business and banking reports, church notices, letters to the editor and articles on local events. It reported, for example, on the laying of the first telegraph cables linking Japan with the outside world (Nagasaki-Shanghai) in 1871, and published the first advertisement for telegrams. It also publicly criticized the Japanese government for dispersing some 3,000 Nagasaki Christians to other parts of the country in 1870 and in that way played a role in the lifting of the national ban on Christianity in 1873. With the growth of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement, other English-language newspapers such as the “Nagasaki Gazette,” the “Nagasaki Shipping List” and the “Rising Sun” appeared. The first two newspapers soon folded, and in May 1874 the Rising Sun and the Nagasaki Express merged into a new newspaper called the “Rising Sun and Nagasaki Express. “ This newspaper was also a weekly. It served the foreign community for more than two subsequent decades until its 956th, and final, issue rolled off the presses in September 1897. During the interval between 1894 and 1897, when international business activity soared in Nagasaki, four other English newspapers circulated: the “Cosmopolitan Press,” “Kiushu Times,” “Nagasaki Observer” and the third incarnation of the “Nagasaki Shipping List.” Thus, around the time of the Sino-Japanese War, there were no fewer than five English- language newspapers competing for attention in the tiny but prosperous Nagasaki Foreign Settlement. Frederick Ringer, president of the British firm Holme Ringer & Co. and the most influential foreign businessman in Nagasaki, bought both the “Rising Sun and Nagasaki Express” and the “Nagasaki Shipping List” and amalgamated these into a new daily newspaper called the “ Nagasaki Press,” the first issue of which appeared on September 6, 1897. Unlike its predecessors, the “Nagasaki Press” focused mainly on international news delivered by wire service and therefore lacked detailed information about local culture and events. Ringer tried to correct this shortfall in September 1904 by launching a 12-page illustrated monthly called “Cherry Blossoms,” which carried interesting articles about the history and culture of Nagasaki and about nearby points of interest. “Cherry Blossoms” ceased publication in 1908 after 37 issues. The most famous of the Nagasaki editors was Wilmot Lewis, who married Frederick Ringer’s daughter Jessie. After leaving Nagasaki he won acclaim as a war correspondent in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Later he was on the staff of the “Times” (London) and was knighted for his achievements as Washington correspondent during World War I. The “Nagasaki Press” continued its daily publication until July 31, 1928 (9,118 issues in all), when the dwindling foreign population of Nagasaki and the global economic depression forced the editors to close down the city’s last English newspaper. Most of the English-language newspapers published in Nagasaki are preserved today at the Nagasaki Prefectural Library and remain as an invaluable source of information about the former foreign settlement, about the activities of its inhabitants, and about the interaction of the Japanese and foreign communities of Nagasaki during the Meiji, Taisho and early Showa Period.
Another lesser-known foreign language newspaper is the “Volya,” a Russian newspaper published in Nagasaki from 1906 to 1907. After the humiliating defeat of Russia in the Russo -Japanese War of 1904-05, a band of Russian expatriates led by a political activist and former medical doctor named Nikolai Russell made Nagasaki a base for their activities, stirring up anti-czarist feelings among prisoners-of-war here and distributing populist literature on ships carrying the soldiers home. In April 1906, the band founded a Russian- language newspaper called Volya (”Will”) in the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement, using this as a vehicle for the propagation of populist philosophy. Working from the safe oasis of Nagasaki, the zealots were able to communicate ideas to a wide readership in the ports of Japan and China. In March 1907, they moved their base of activity back onto the continent, and the “ Volya” ceased publication after less than a year in print.
Although they enjoyed the privilege of extraterritoriality and were free to lead a lifestyle of their own design, the foreign residents of Nagasaki were confined, just like the Dutch on Dejima, to the relatively small space of the foreign settlement. During the early years when restrictions were particularly tight, they sought permission from Japanese authorities to hold picnics at Nezumijima, to make excursions on horseback to the surrounding countryside, and to travel to the hot springs at Obama and Unzen for “therapeutic” reasons. They also quickly developed a variety of recreational activities within the settlement and participated in these above the barriers of religion and nationality. These activities marked the introduction to Japan of various Western games and sports.
The foreign residents also entertained themselves with billiards, badminton, croquet and other games. One of the earliest forms of indoor recreation introduced after the opening of the port was bowling. In the June 22, 1861 issue of the Nagasaki Shipping List and Advertiser, a small advertisement announces the opening of the “International Bowling Saloon” on Hirobaba Street in the settlement, Japan’s first bowling lane. After this, bowling lanes became a standard feature in many of the hotels constructed in the settlement. The sport in fact became so popular that the “Nagasaki Bowling Club” was later established at No.10A Minamiyamate and served for many years as a social institution for residents of all ages and nationalities.
Another sport that gained popularity in the foreign settlement was tennis. Because of the spacious dimensions of the lots in Minamiyamate, the foreigners residing here - among them Thomas Glover and Nathan Mess - were able to build tennis courts near their homes and to use these, not only for tennis matches, but also for outdoor concerts, luncheons, wedding parties, and other social gatherings. A group of foreign wives even gathered to form the “ Ladies Lawn Tennis Club.” Today the tennis courts are gone, but the heavy stone grass roller left beside one of the pathways in Glover Garden serves as a reminder of their former presence here.
Still another athletic activity pursued by the foreign residents of Nagasaki throughout the foreign settlement period was boat racing in Nagasaki Harbor, the calmness of which provided an ideal environment for this traditional British sport. Every year in spring, the foreign residents gathered along with the crews of visiting ships for a day-long regatta, forming teams that participated in various events and vied for cash prizes and a championship cup. The Nagasaki Racing and Athletic Committee, which oversaw these events, built a Western-style boat house on the shore at Naminohira where spectators could watch the races from a wide second-floor veranda. At the “Nagasaki Regatta” of April 26, 1871, which was reported in detail in the Nagasaki Express, the program included races for yachts over seven tons, sailing boats, ships’ cutters and canoes. In the canoe race, a 32 year-old Thomas Glover came in second and so was unfortunately unable to collect the $10 prize.
Western-style hotels were among the first buildings erected in the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement after the opening of the country’s doors in 1859. The first mention of a “hotel” in records related to the foreign settlement is an advertisement for the Commercial Hotel carried in the July 10, 1861 issue of the English-language newspaper The Nagasaki Shipping List and Advertiser. The location of this establishment is unclear, but it was probably a refurbished Japanese building in the Hirobaba neighborhood. The content of the advertisement suggests that it was more of a tavern and bowling alley than a place for lodging. During the allotment of foreign settlement property carried out by the consular body in October 1860, two Americans residents -- Caroline Weeks and Nathaniel Simmons - acquired the leases to Oura Nos.25 and 26, respectively. Both would soon erect Western- style hotels on these lots, namely, the “Commercial House” and the “Oriental Hotel.” The 1865 issue of the “Japan Directory” shows the existence of three hotels in the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement: the “Commercial House” still run by Caroline Weeks, the “ Oriental Hotel” transferred to M. Broderick, and the “Bellevue Hotel” run by Mary Green, wife of the former British consulate constable. The word “hotel” was soon also being used by a large number of low-class taverns, many of them located along the banks of Oura River. These taverns, which catered primarily to foreign sailors, earned a bad reputation as hotbeds for drunkenness, brawls and illegal prostitution. In the spring of 1883, British Minister Sir Harry Parkes asked the acting consul in Nagasaki, John C. Hall, to conduct a thorough investigation because the British naval authorities had filed a complaint about the prevalence of venereal diseases in the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement. In a later report, Hall lists 22 foreign-run public houses in the settlement and states that, “of this number only five are hotels at which board and lodging for travelers is procurable, and of this five only two are fit for respectable people to stop at. The other 20 houses therefore consist of three low class hotels so-called and seventeen grog shops or taverns.” The only two establishments deemed “respectable” by Hall were the Bellevue Hotel and the International Hotel (opened at No.6 Umegasaki in 1872). After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5, however, Nagasaki saw a dramatic increase in the visits of large passenger liners plying the ocean routes linking Hong Kong and Shanghai with Vancouver, San Francisco and other ports on the North American west coast. The city also gained fame as Kyushu’s main international trade port, as an exotic sightseeing spot, and as a gateway to the summer resort of Unzen, and the wealthy foreign travelers who disembarked here created a demand for a finer class of hotel. As a result, several grand Western-style hotels appeared in the Oura neighborhood during the closing years of the 19th century. These included the Japan Hotel at No.25 Oura (site of the former Commercial House), the Hotel de France at No.33 Oura, and the Cliff House Hotel at No.10 Minamiyamate. The most imposing of the hotels built during Nagasaki’s golden age as an international port was undoubtedly the Nagasaki Hotel, a three-story brick and stone building erected on the Sagarimatsu (present-day Matsugae-machi) waterfront in 1897 by a group of foreign investors led by Frederick Ringer. The Nagasaki Hotel boasted a panoramic view of the harbor, telephones in every room, private electric plant, expensive European furnishings, appliances and tableware, richly stocked wine cellar, hairdressing salon and French chefs. However, Nagasaki fortunes as an international port declined after the Russo-Japanese War and one hotel after another closed in the former foreign settlement. The Hotel de France succumbed in 1909 and the Cliff House Hotel in 1918. The Bellevue Hotel, the oldest Western-style hotel in Nagasaki, closed in 1920. Meanwhile, the company running the Nagasaki Hotel declared bankruptcy in 1904. Holme, Ringer & Co. took over and revived the hotel, but it closed down again in 1908 and remained empty until 1918 when Japanese merchant Mori Arayoshi (森荒吉) assumed management. However, the hotel faltered again and was closed permanently in 1924. The Japan Hotel met an unexpected demise in December 1937, burning to the ground in an accidental fire. A few smaller hotels, including the Golden Eagle Hotel, Europe Hotel and Kaida Hotel, remained functioning in the former foreign settlement, but all of them were gone by the end of World War Two.
During the Edo Period, Goshinji Temple in the Inasa district (the side of Nagasaki Harbor opposite the main town) was the site of cemeteries for the Dutch and Chinese, who were the only foreigners allowed a foothold in Japan during the period of national isolation. In 1858, a Russian Naval Cemetery was opened beside the Dutch Cemetery for the burial of several seamen on the Russian frigate “Askold” who died during an outbreak of cholera. After the opening of the port in 1859 and the establishment of the foreign settlement, another cemetery was established at Goshinji to accommodate foreign graves, but this soon proved too small and also inconvenient for the foreign community clustered on the other side of the harbor.
In 1861 the British consul spearheaded negotiations with the Japanese authorities for the establishment of an international cemetery closer to the foreign settlement. The Japanese complied, and a new cemetery was opened in present-day Kawakami-machi. Referred to today as Oura International Cemetery, this cemetery contains 283 graves arranged in 13 rows on five levels. The earliest legible tombstone is dated June 21, 1861, but many of the other stones have eroded or disappeared over the years. Oura International Cemetery served the foreign community until becoming virtually full in the late 1880’s. In 1888, a large new foreign cemetery was opened at Urakami Yamazato (present-day Sakamoto-machi) and served the foreign residents of Nagasaki until after World War II. Today, Sakamoto International Cemetery and its adjacent addition contain about 440 graves where people of at least 16 nationalities lie in eternal rest. (Click here for an illustrated essay on the international cemeteries of Nagasaki.)
In July 1894 the Japanese ambassador to Britain, Aoki Shuzo, succeeded in negotiations with his British counterparts to revise the Anglo-Japanese treaty in force since 1858. Signed in London on July 16, 1894 and effective as of July 17, 1899, the new “Anglo- Japanese Commercial Treaty” called for an end to extraterritoriality and a restoration of Japan’s right to autonomy in customs tariffs. Britain agreed on the condition that Japan guarantee the rights of British entrepreneurs to travel, live and do business anywhere they wanted in Japan. The United States, France and other countries soon emulated Britain and agreed to treaty revisions. The momentous change in Japan’s relationship with the world and in the status of foreigners living in this country arrived on July 17, 1899. At the top of its editorial page, the Nagasaki Press gushed that: “Today, the 17th of July, marks an epoch in the history of Japan, a country that has already surprised the Occident by its wonderful adaptation in so short a time to the modern civilization of the Western world. After years of patient toiling on the part of her able statesmen, Japan today enters upon an equal footing with all the Powers, and now holds the proud distinction of being the first Oriental nation to exercise jurisdiction over Occidentals. The old Treaties have ceased to exist, and there is reason to believe that under the new order of things foreigners resident in this country, and those who come after, will have little to fear from the change.”
The end of extraterritoriality and the abolition of the foreign settlements was in fact a soft landing, mainly because Nagasaki was enjoying an unprecedented economic boom that issued directly from the visits of foreign ships to its harbor. Thus, although legally abolished, the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement persisted as an unofficial institution retaining its primarily foreign population, its unique social infrastructure and its quasi-Western architectural identity. And for the foreigners who lived there, the settlement continued to provide a safe gray zone neither really in Japan nor out.
For the first few years after the turn of the century, Nagasaki continued to prosper as a trade port, coaling station and shipbuilding center, but as soon as war broke out between Japan and Russia in February 1904, the Japanese government imposed martial law on the city because of its proximity to the theater of war, and military forces established checkpoints at key locations, laid mines at the entrance to the harbor and monitored all maritime traffic. In the ensuing months the city fell into a deep economic slump as a result of the suspension of commercial shipping. Companies run by Russians or involved in business with Russia, such as M. Ginsburg & Co., N. Mess & Co. and the Russo-Chinese Bank, closed their Nagasaki offices or transferred their agencies to British firms. Hotel rooms, restaurant tables and bar counters in the former foreign settlement meanwhile lay vacant.
In the years after the Russo-Japanese War, Nagasaki saw a few spurts of activity but never fully regained its former vitality as an international port. The foreigners living in the former foreign settlement gradually departed, selling their homes in Minamiyamate and Higashiyamate to Japanese buyers and casting their offices and stores in Oura to the winds of fate.
After World War II, the former foreign settlement was little more than an empty shell, and few of the Japanese inhabitants of the old buildings had any interest in its history or the stories of the people who once lived there. The demolition of historic buildings and their replacement with modern structures continued unchecked, and by the end of the 20th century less than one tenth of the buildings of the former foreign settlement remained. But when the dust is swept away and the forgotten stories of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement are recalled, researchers will find a unique period in Japanese history when a few foreigners of various nationalities and religions lived in peaceful cooperation with their Japanese neighbors and made important contributions to the modernization of Japan and to the industrial, educational, and cultural development of Nagasaki.
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Paske-Smith, M. Western Barbarians in Japan and Formosa in Tokugawa Days, 1603-1868. Kobe: J.L. thompson and Co., 1927..
Peeke, H.V.S. Sketch of the Japan Mission (New York: Board of Foreign Missions, Reformed Church in America, 1923.
Petersen, Julius V. Erindringen fra Japan. Copenhagen, 1877.
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------Vijf Jaren in Japan. Leiden: Firma van den Heuvell & van Santen, 1868.
------”Dissection of a Japanese Criminal,” North China Branch Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. II, No.1 (September 1860), 85-91. (Dated Desima November 1 & 17, 1859. Read before Society December 27, 1859)
------”On the Study of Natural Sciences in Japan,” North China Branch Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. I, No.2 (May 1859), 211-221. (Dated Desima October 29, 1858. Read before Society December 23, 1858)
Reed, Edward J. Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religions with the Narrative of a Visit in 1879. London: John Murray, 1880.
Rein, J.J. Japan: Travels and Researches. London” Hodder and Stoughton, 1884.
Ryder, Stephen. A Historical Sourcebook of the Japan Mission of the Reformed Church in America (1859-1930). York, Pa.: The York Printing Co., 1935.
Salvio, Regina. “Oura Kei, Nagasaki’s Remarkable Tea Merchant,” Crossroads: A Journal of Nagasaki History and Culture, No. 6 (1998), 31-36.
Shack, William H. “Notes on the Mineral Resources of Japan,” North China Branch Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. II, No.1 (September 1860), 92-94. (Read before Society September 12, 1858. Chief Engineer, U.S. Navy, Powhattan.)
Siebold, Alexander F. von. Ph. Fr. Von Siebold’s Lezte Reise Nach Japan, 1859-1862. Berlin: Kisak[u] Tamai, 1903
Smith, D. European Settlements in the Far East. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1900.
Smith, George. Ten Weeks in Japan. London: Longman, Green & Co., 1861.
Spiecs, Gustav. Die Preussische Expedition nach Ostasien, Wahrend der Jare 1860-1862. Berlin: Otto Spamer, 1864.
Stock, Eugene. History of the Church Missionary Society. 4 vols. London: C.M.S., 1879 and 1916.
------Japan and the Japan Mission of the Church Missionary Society. C.D. Snell, ed. 4th ed. London: Church Missionary Society, 1905.
Stout, Henry. “Nagasaki in Days of Yore,” Cherry Blossoms. October 1905-March 1906.
Sugiyama Shinya. “Thomas Glover: A British Merchant in Japan, 1861-1870,” Business History, Vol. 26, No. 2, 1984.
------”Glover and Co.: A British Merchant in Nagasaki, 1861-1870,” International Studies, London School of Economics, No. 1 (1982), 1-17.
Thomas, Winburn T. Protestant Beginnings in Japan. Rutland, VT & Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1959.
Tilley, Henry A. Japan, the Amoor, and the Pacific. London: Smith, elder & Co., 1861.
Tronson, John M. Personal Narrative of a Voyage to Japan. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1859.
Van Hecken, Joseph L. The Catholic Church in Japan since 1859. Tokyo: Herder Agency, 1963.
Verbeck, Guido F. “History of Protestant Missions in Japan,” Proceedings of the General Conference of Protestant Missionaries in Japan, 1900. Tokyo: Methodist Publishing House, 1901.
Wainright, S.H. The Methodist Mission in Japan. Nashville: Board of Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, 1935.
Walne, E.N. “The Japan Mission,” Southern Baptist Foreign Missions. T. Bronson, ed. Nashville: Sunday School Board, 1910.
Williams, Frederick Wells. The Life and Letters of Samuel Wells Williams. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1972.
Williams, Harold S. The Story of Holme Ringer & Co., LTD. in Western Japan, 1868-1968. Rutland, Vt. & Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1968.
------Foreigners in Mikadoland. Rutland, VT & Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1963.
------Shades of the Past, or Indiscreet Tales of Japan. Rutland, VT & Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1959.
------Tales of the Foreign Settlement in Japan. Rutland, VT & Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1958.
Williams, S.W. “Lecture on Japan,” North China Branch Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. I, No.2 (May 1859), 180-210. (Read before Society October 26, 1858)
Wood, Dr. William M. Fankwei. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1859.
Yokoyama Toshio. Japan in the Victorian Mind: A Study of Stereotyped Images of a Nation, 1850-80. London: Macmillan, 1987.
Young, John Russell. Around the World with General Grant, Vol. II (New York: The American Co., 1879), 480.
The Reformed Church in America, Archives-Commission on History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
The Reformed Church of America, Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
General Commission on Archives and History, The United Methodist Church, Drew University, Madison, NJ.
The Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin TX.
Foreign Mission Board Archives [Southern Baptist Convention], Richmond, VA.
Church Missionary Society Archives, University of Birmingham Library.
British Foreign Office, Japan Correspondence, 1856-1905, London.
British Foreign Office, Records of the Nagasaki Consulate from 1859, London.
U.S. National Archives, Despatches from United States Consuls in Nagasaki, Japan, 1860- 1906, Washington D.C..
U.S. Naval Historical Center, Washington D.C.
Y.M.C.A. International Archives, St. Paul, MN.
Nagasaki Prefectural Library, Nagasaki Local History Archives, Nagasaki, Japan
Nagasaki Municipal Museum, Western Book Collection, Nagasaki Japan
Yokohama Maritime Museum, Yokohama, Japan
Historiographical Institute, Tokyo University, Meiji Newspaper Collection, Tokyo, Japan
Western Language Newspapers Cherry Blossoms (Nagasaki) Nagasaki Express (Nagasaki) Nagasaki Press(Nagasaki) Nagasaki Shipping List (Nagasaki) Rising Sun and Nagasaki Express (Nagasaki) Nagasaki Shipping List and Advertiser (Nagasaki) Volya (Nagasaki) North China Herald (Shanghai) China Mail (Hong Kong) Israel’s Messenger (Shanghai) Japan Herald (Yokohama) Japan Times Overland Mail (Yokohama) Far East (Shanghai)
Other Western Language Primary Sources
The Chronicle & Directory for China, Corea, Japan, the Philippines, Cochin China, Annam, Tonquin, Siam, Borneo, Straits Settlements, Malay States, etc. The Nagasaki Directory. Japan Herald Directory. Christian Intelligencer. Japan Christian Yearbook. Woman’s Missionary Friend. The Japanese News Letter of the Japan Mission of the Reformed Church in America. Official Correspondence (Nagasaki Prefectural Library). Circulars (Nagasaki Prefectural Library). Despatches (Nagasaki Prefectural Library). General Correspondence (Nagasaki Prefectural Library). Foreign Correspondence (Nagasaki Prefectural Library). Certificate of Title by Governor of Nagasaki (Nagasaki Prefectural Library).