The island of Deshima

On 24 July 1641, the Dutch were removed from their original trading post at Hirado to that artificial island of Deshima ¹ built for the Portuguese some five years before in the harbour of Nagasaki on the shore of Edo-machi. ² During the Tokugawa era Nagasaki was in territory under the direct control of the Bakufu (designated as chok-katsuchi or tenryo) ³ with bugyo appointed from Edo responsible for the governance of the city. The first bugyo (called Gouverneur by the Dutch) of Nagasaki had already been appointed in 1592 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–95), the second of Japan’s three great unifiers. ⁴ In 1633, two bugyo were appointed, and this became the standard number with the two holding office alternately, one maintaining residence at Edo while the other remained at Nagasaki. ⁵ The bugyo were appointed from the hatamoto (banner knights); ⁶ their social status had to be fuyo no ma seki (literally: may sit in the lotus room of the shogun’s palace) ⁷ with a stipend of 1,000 koku; ⁸ the income for the post was 4,402 hyo (bags of rice). ⁹ Bugyo were principally charged with the conduct of foreign affairs and the administration of justice.