Houses, warehouses, wells, a mooring, and even a stable. All of this can be seen on the oldest known map of the island of Dejima, acquired by Leiden University Libraries (UBL). The map provides a highly detailed picture of a tiny living environment on the isolated island.
The hand-drawn map of the trading post of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) is an important source for research into Japanese-Dutch history.
Due to the selected cookie settings, we cannot show this video here.
Watch the video on the original website or Accept cookies
Detailed map
The hand-drawn map, measuring 87 by 38 cm, depicts the fan-shaped island in great detail. Houses, warehouses, and wells are visible around the central street. The landing stage, a stable, and the only bridge to the mainland are also depicted. The map was created around 1720 for Japanese officials to enable close monitoring of the Dutch island and its inhabitants. It is a kind of cadastral map: for each building, it indicates who lived there and how much tax was owed by the people living in the building. The map has several pasted-on tabs, to change the names of people living in certain buildings, indicating that the map was modified over time.
Fan-shaped island
Dejima was an artificial, fan-shaped island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan. The island was roughly the size of Dam Square in Amsterdam. From 1641 until 1859, Dejima served as a Dutch trading post and was the only location where contact between Japan and Dutch traders was permitted. All other Western powers were completely denied access to Japan. The Dutch living on Dejima did so under severe restrictions. Only a small number of them were allowed to stay on the island-no more than twenty people at a time-and they were almost completely forbidden from leaving. Additionally, approximately 270 Japanese are known to have worked on Dejima at a time, including translators, food vendors, cooks, servants, firemen, gatekeepers, porters, and courtesans.
Collection of maps and atlases
The hand-drawn map of Dejima is a wonderful addition to Leiden University Library's rich collection of Japanese manuscripts, printed works, maps, and atlases. A detailed map of Dejima like this one was not yet present in the collection. The acquisition of the map was made possible by an anonymous private donation to the Leiden University Fund.
