Who could cross Dejima’s bridge? A closer look at Japan’s “closed country”
Trade continued, but movement was not free. A small island in Nagasaki helps us ask what overseas contact actually meant in Edo-period Japan.
Checked: 2026-11-08
What the sources say
Dejima was an artificial island in Nagasaki harbour that served as a trading post. In 1641 the Dutch trading post was moved there from Hirado, and from 1641 only Chinese and Dutch ships were allowed to come to Japan, with Nagasaki as the only harbour they could enter.
The island was joined to the city by a single bridge, and it was under the supervision of the shogunate’s governor of Nagasaki (the Nagasaki bugyō).
Who moved, and who did not
The Dutch were confined to the island. Their delegation did travel to Edo to pay respects to the shogun: yearly between 1660 and 1790, and once every four years after that. Chinese traders had their own district in Nagasaki and did not have this privilege.
So “who could cross the bridge” has several answers depending on who you ask about: Dutch residents, Japanese interpreters and officials, merchants and others. The sources we read describe restrictions, but they also note that enforcement was sometimes lax.
Interpretation: is “closed country” the right phrase?
The familiar label “closed country” (sakoku) suggests that Japan shut itself off. The evidence above shows something narrower: trade and contact continued through a few controlled places, under the shogunate’s supervision. Historians continue to discuss how best to describe this system.
A useful question for any account: closed to whom, for what purpose, and who decided?
After the Edo period
The Dutch negotiated their own treaty in 1858, which ended Dejima’s status as the exclusive trading post. The site was designated a national historic site in 1922, and Nagasaki has run a long reconstruction project since 1996.