When feudal Japan re-opened to foreign relations after centuries of isolation in the 19th century, it had a lot technological catching up to do and Nagasaki was at the forefront of Japan’s rapid modernization. Previously the home of Japanese Catholicism and Japan’s Dutch trading post, it was already uniquely suited for international trade even before Western steel and steam entered Japan through the port city along with British merchants and French priests and many more that saw the nation’s emerging potential.
In 50 years they would go from a daimyo’s attempt at building a blast furnace in his backyard using smuggled foreign texts to having an industrial steel mill, shipyards that could produce indigenous-designed steel hulled and steam driven warships and become more energy self-sufficient as Japanese coal mines came online using the latest technology. Japan’s industrial revolution would mark the first successful transfer of Western industrial technology to a non-Western nation; which though it began before the Meiji Emperor took to the Chrysanthemum throne in 1868 it came to completion during his long reign. Recognizing the uniqueness of this achievement, 23 sites in eight locations around country have been collectively added to the UNESCO World Heritage List as the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution.
The biggest collection of these shipbuilding, iron and steel working, and coal mining sites is in Nagasaki. So on the eve of our move from Sasebo to Okinawa we set out for one last trip to learn the stories of these tangible heritage sites, their people and the triumphs that made revolutionary Nagasaki.
(My apologies to anyone who came into this hoping to read about revolutionary Sakamoto Ryoma and his Nagasaki shipping company.)
Former Pattern Shop at Mitsubishi Shipyard
Nagasaki Shipyard Museum
Boarding a van at Nagasaki Station we were taken on a tour of the Mitsubishi Shipyard, which with its industrial warehouses and cranes looks like any other shipyard or naval station except this one has five UNESCO sites. The shipyard began in 1857 as an ironworks specializing in ship repair using imported machinery but grew into a full shipyard which was taken over by Mitsubishi in 1884. The shipyard is active and normally off-limits, so the tour is the only way to visit.
Our destination was the museum, an akarenga (red brick) former pattern shop that was built in 1898 and one of the UNESCO sites. Along the way we stopped to view another one, the giant cantilever (“hammerhead”) crane, imported from Scotland in 1909 and Japan’s oldest still operating crane. (An identical crane is still operating in Sasebo but it was imported in 1913 and lacks any special status.)
The orderly museum is easy to walk through and understand with mostly small artifacts and photographs on display but its bigger pieces are historically noteworthy such as the oldest machine tool in Japan, ship and land power station turbines and a Type 91 aerial torpedo. (The torpedoes used at Pearl Harbor were built by Mitsubishi in a Nagasaki plant.) Both civil and military ship construction are covered and I could have spent hours looking at all the photographs of both ships and shipyard as the years went by and they evolved.
For warship enthusiasts though, there’s one section that really matters.
On Nov. 1, 1940 a secret ceremony was held at Nagasaki Shipyard for the launching of a new warship. It weighed 65,000 tons and over the past two years had been built in complete secrecy on Slipway No.2, hidden from sight by building-sized palm fiber curtains. An air raid drill had been arranged that day so that when the other largest battleship ever built slid into the water, the city of thousands beside it would be none the wiser. She was so secret the hatched used to cut the rope symbolically tethering her to land didn’t even give a name. “Warship No. 2” was carved into the handle, though Mitsubishi also documented it as Hull 800. After hitting the water she would be better known as “Musashi.”
Given the usual cult-like following of Yamato, her sister ship rarely gets attention. It’s not uncommon for military museums have a Yamato model, even if it has nothing to do with the museum, but here the scant artifacts of Musashi are treasured and their ship model is most definitely not Yamato. They have both the hatchet and a length of cut rope from the launch ceremony on display and I got to try my strength lifting a 22 kilogram sledgehammer used in its construction.
English is prevalent throughout the museum, though not everything is translated. Tours have to be arranged by phone. My only complaint is that there was not nearly enough time to go over everything in the museum; the tour gives visitors less than an hour. You can wander the museum alone or follow a tour guide who hits the highlights and elaborates (in Japanese) on certain stories.
Meiji Tram No. 168
The bus dropped us off back at Nagasaki Station with just a few minutes to spare to catch a special product of the Meiji industrial revolution. Riding a vintage 1950s tram is a daily opportunity in Nagasaki but we were here on Oct. 14, Tetsudo no Hi (Railway Day), the 147th anniversary of the opening of Japan’s first railway (Tokyo-Yokohama) and Nagasaki Electric Railways marked the occasion by bringing out a real classic.
Partially obscured by another tram at the opposing platform, we watched a wooden brown tram round the corner, a physical bell onboard announcing its eminent arrival. This was tram No. 168, built in May 1911 by Kawasaki Shipyards it has served Nagasaki for over a century.
This is the most ‘modern’ Meiji-era tram I’ve ridden in terms of basic design with its fully enclosed cab and passenger compartment. The painted wood and delicate trim exterior and the simple, elegant interior made it a rather charming way to move about the city.
Packed with train enthusiasts, I stood most of the trip to watch the conductor work the brass controls and bell. He’d dropped the front windows so we were getting a good breeze too as it clattered alongside aerodynamic modern cars that No. 168’s designers likely couldn’t have dreamed of when it came off the assembly line in the final full year of Meiji’s reign. It bears stepping back and appreciating just how much the world has changed since then, but this tram still works and does what it did, on the same tracks, as it did back then, no modern amenities or updates needed.
We got off at the last stop and continued on foot through Chinatown and past the historic stone bridges before arriving at Glover Garden and Oura Cathedral.
Mitsubishi Dockhouse at Glover Garden
Glover Garden
For the casual visitor, Glover Garden is a collection of beautiful colonial homes from the late 19th century in a relaxing park setting made for sunny days. Complementing its natural and architectural beauty are the stories within each building that tell of the colorful foreigners who lived in these homes and aided Nagasaki’s modernization.
Its unimpeded views of Nagasaki Bay and the Mitsubishi Shipyard are some of the best panoramas in the city; and sadly also part of the reason the Glover story came to an end and this park came into being.
The Glover in Glover Garden comes from Thomas Glover, a Scottish merchant who came to Japan in 1859. He arrived in a time of impending turmoil that boiled over into revolution and civil war and he made the most of it.
As a merchant, he befriended future revolutionaries, selling weapons to them and the legitimate government, and helping smuggle samurai out of the country to become scholars when such an act would be a death sentence if caught. As an industrialist, he aided in the creation of the shipyard and Japan’s first modern coal mine. Later in life he was a founder of the Japan Brewing Company, the creators of Kirin Beer. The Kirin’s red mustache is apocryphally inspired by Glover’s own. For his service to Japan Glover was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun in 1908. He died in Tokyo, but was buried in Nagasaki the same year tram No. 168 began serving Nagasaki.
Glover’s Japanese son Tomisaburo Kuraba was forced to give up the Glover House in1939 due to the secrecy around the construction of Warship No. 2 just across the bay. Because he was half-British the military police harassed him and any associates during World War II, leading a man once invited to a flower viewing party with Emperor Taisho to be shunned and withdraw from public life. He committed suicide less than two weeks after the war ended.
The former Glover House became the nucleus around which Glover Garden was built. The other eight homes and buildings moved around it form quite the historic neighborhood as all tell intertwining tales and help give the park as a whole an air of Meiji-era romanticism.
Each house is partly a home frozen in time and part museum with exhibits about the owners or related topics. Living rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms are furnished as their owners would have left them in Meiji’s Japan. These homes are unique in that they are early examples of imported British architecture as interpreted by Japanese carpenters. Glover’s home was built in 1863 and is part of the Meiji Industrial Revolution World Heritage for being the oldest Western-style home built in Japan.
Sadly, the Glover House itself is under renovation for the next few years so it is closed but the rest of the park is open.
We could only see two of the Mitsubishi shipyard UNESCO sites on the tour that morning, but from Glover Garden we could also see Dry Dock No. 3, which was finished in 1905 and is the oldest operating dry dock in Asia, and if you have a good camera zoom lens or binoculars you can also see the Senshokaku Guest House on the hill behind the shipyard which are two more sites.
Cantilever Crane as seen from Glover Garden
When visiting, a break needs to be taken at the café Jiyutei, which was Japan’s first European restaurant. Dutch coffee, coffee which is brewed by slow dripping cold water over grounds for up to 12 hours, is a potent option when you need your coffee at its strongest but without sacrificing the delicate flavor but this trip we opted for a lighter tea and some sweets. They serve Western-style cakes, parfaits and unique sugary creations.
All signage is in English except for rotating displays. Admission is 610 yen.
Oura Cathedral
While not part to Nagasaki’s industrial growth, the Cathedral is conveniently located beside Glover Garden and is another UNESCO world heritage site tied to different aspect of Nagasaki history- its Kakure Kurishitans, or hidden Christians.
When French Father Bernard Petitjean opened the first Oura Cathedral in 1864, he believed he would be bringing Christianity to Japan for the first time since it was outlawed centuries ago. He was surprised when a group of Japanese approached him and revealed that despite the constant threat of torture and death they had kept the faith.
When Christianity was outlawed those caught practicing would be brutally executed, many refused to recant their faith and instead practiced in secret. They passed down faith orally and modified Buddhist religious items to become Christian, such as Kannon statues venerated as those of the Virgin Mary. Many fled to what are now Nagasaki Prefecture’s outlying islands such as Goto and Ikutsuki where they could practice with less chance of discovery.
Despite the return of Christianity, it was still illegal for Japanese to practice and many of these now-public Japanese Christians would be arrested, tortured and sent to forced labor camps until international outcry led to the Meiji government ending the ban on Christianity in1873.
The current cathedral was built in 1879 though it was mostly destroyed by the atomic bomb and had to be rebuilt. It’s reminiscent of the beautiful old churches one finds in Europe, with fine wood work and vaulted ceiling. Inside a painting can be seen that suffered some atomic bomb damage.
The two adjoining buildings, a former seminary and archbishop’s residence, are now museums attached to the cathedral that cover the story of Catholicism in Japan from Francis Xavier to the hidden Christians and the religion’s legal return.
Though English translations are not everywhere in the museum, visitors are given booklets in English which give overviews of rooms and help flesh out the stories. Admission is 1000 yen.
To get the most out of a trip the industrial heritage sites I recommend visiting http://www.japansmeijiindustrialrevolution.com/en/ which has information on all the sites, how to access them and has an interactive app.
ADDRESSES
Glover Garden
8-1 Minami-Yamatemachi, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture 850-0931
81-95-822-8223
http://www.glover-garden.jp/english
Oura Cathedral
5-3 Minami-Yamatemachi, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture 850-0931
095-823-2628
http://kirishitan.jp/components_en/com012