The Japanese at Batavia in the XVIIth CenturyNaojirō Murakami

It was well knuwn that there was a tolerable number of Japanese residents at Batavia, when the Shogun’s government issued in 1635 an edict forbidding on pain of death all the residents abroad coming back to Japan. The number was increased by that of the children of European descent and their mothers banished from Hirado in 1639. Very little, however, was known of those unfortunate countrymen after 1640, the only notice we had being about eight persons – Murakami Buemon, Ester, the widow of Hamada-Sukeyemon, Haru, Cornelia, Kiku, Fuku and Miya — who were according to the Empō-Nagasaki-ki still living in the Empō Era (1672-1680) and were corresponding with their relatives in Nagasaki or Hirado.