Nagasaki with Dejima – Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius, 1813

FINE VIEW OF NAGASAKI WITH DEJIMA

“Видъ города Нангасаки. | Ansicht der Stadt Nangasaky.” Copper engraving after drawings made in 1804–1805 by Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius, published in the atlas accompanying the account of the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe under the Baltic German admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern (Иван Федорович Крузенштерн). Published in 1813. Coloured by a later hand. Size: 35.2 × 63.2 cm.

After the expulsion of the Portuguese from Japan, only Chinese and Dutch ships were permitted to enter the country, and Nagasaki was the sole port open to them. Dejima, an artificial island in Nagasaki harbour, became in 1641 the trading post of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and for nearly two centuries represented Japan’s only point of contact with Europe.

Von Krusenstern had been commissioned by Tsar Alexander I of Russia to establish diplomatic and economic relations between Russia and Japan, particularly with a view to the fur trade.

The expedition reached Nagasaki in October 1804. The Russians brought numerous gifts, as well as survivors of a Japanese shipwreck from 1794 on the Russian Andreanof Islands, in the hope of opening Japan to foreign relations. The Japanese, however, were largely unimpressed by the presents, with the exception of an English automaton clock in the form of an elephant and a Russian kaleidoscope. The fox furs—highly prized in Russia—were received very poorly, as the Japanese considered them impure. Moreover, the conduct of the Russian ambassador did little to advance negotiations, and in the end the Russians failed to establish the desired relations.

It was not until 1858 that foreigners other than the Dutch and Chinese were again admitted to Japan.

The view shows Nagasaki with the island of Dejima, seen from a ship in the harbour. One can imagine that the Russians, not without a degree of envy, looked toward the trading post of the privileged Dutch.

Price: Euro 1.950,-