동북아역사재단 2023년 02월호 뉴스레터
- Kim Hyeon-cheol, research fellow at NAHF Korea-Japan Historical Issues Research Institute
The natural geographical location of Niigata and the history of port opening in the 19th century
The city of Niigata that opened Japan to the world in the 19th century is located north-northwest of Tokyo. It takes about two hours by the Joetsu Shinkansen. The Tokugawa shogunate designated Niigata as the shipping base of western Japan in 1843, incorporating the city into the shogunate territory. The shogunate established the Sado Magistrate's Office (Sado Bugyosho), a governmental post in Niigata, and installed defense facilities in the coast to watch foreign ships. Niigata Port opened in 1858 along with the ports of Hakodate, Yokohama, Kobe, and Nagasaki, through the the Treaty of Amity and Commerce made by the shogunate, the U.S., and Britain. Niigata Port was scheduled for opening on January 1, 1860, but the actual opening was in 1869. Western countries designated Ebisu Port on Sado Island near Niigata as a secondary port in 1867 and decided to settle foreigners in Niigata Port.
Niigata Port, which is the only one of the five open ports located at the mouth of the Shinano River on the coast of western Japan, was in an unfavorable location where large ships could not enter due the steep river slope and low water depth. The Port then underwent developments by expanding port facilities capable of accommodating large ships to take on the appearance of an open port.
Open port relics and the Former Customs House in Niigata
The Niigata Island located in between the coast of East Sea (Sea of Japan) and the Shinano River was the port of call for ships that left for northern regions. Streets and buildings that show what the past was like during the port opening still remain in Shimomachi. The Former Niigata Customs House, which is an important cultural property of the port opening time, is currently located across Minatopia (Niigata City History Museum).
The Former Niigata Customs House adopted Western architectural styles, such as symmetrical features, towers, and arches, and was built for customs affairs in Niigata Port in 1869. The stone steps on the riverbanks of the Shinano were made to unload freight brought by ships to the unjosho (custom house) which served as a customs facility during the port opening. The design of the history museum's main building, which was reconstructed in 2004, referred to the Niigata Office that was built in 1911. The site of the history museum reenacts the scenery of the port opening time by placing and restoring the Former Niigata Customs House, plaster of the Former Niigata Customs, former Sumiyoshi-cho Branch of Daishi Bank that was established in 1929, and willow trees.
Exhibitions of the Niigata City History Museum
The permanent exhibition features the history and customs of the port city of Niigata from the ancient times to present. It showcases a miniature of the Sado Bugyosho building, paintings of foreign ships in the port, photos of the streets of Niigata during the port opening, and images of foreign residents.
The main duty of Nagataka Kawamura, the first magistrate of Niigata, was to control smuggling in the city and maintain the coast guard base. Kawamura was skilled in artillery and creating cannons, and a replicate of an odzutsu (meaning a "big cylinder" in Japanese) is available in this exhibition. A picture depicting the arrival of a Russian ship on a leaflet advertising merchant's quarters in Niigata, an English-Japanese dictionary published after the port opening, and documents used by Niigata Customs are also on display.
The expansion of Niigata Port and operation of routes to the Korean peninsula and continents
Since the Edo period, Niigata Port has served as the central hub for logistics in the west coast, and rice was mostly exported from here. As Salmon and trout fishing prospered in Japan from the waters of Sakhalin, Primorsky Krai, and the Kamchatka Peninsula after the port opening, Niigata Port flourished as a relay port for North Sea fisheries. After the fishing pact between Russia and Japan in 1907, fishing in Primorsky Krai, Sakhalin, and the Kamchatka Peninsula became possible from Niigata Port, which also acted as a port of call of the sea route between Japan and Vladivostok.
Between the 1910s and 1920s, when large ships could enter Niigata Port through the Port Authority, sea routes operated to the northern Korean Peninsula and the border areas between China and Russia. In 1931, after the opening of the Joetsu Line that connected Tokyo and Niigata, Niigata became the shortest route that connected Tokyo and Changchun, the capital of the State of Manchuria. Ports of Unggi, Najin, and Chungjin were created for establishing northern Korean routes that connected with Niigata Port. Since the 1930s, ships that transported Japanese soldiers, weapons, and military supplies past Niigata Port to Manchuria frequented these ports. Niigata Port particularly played a critical role for transportation during war after the Asia–Pacific War. In 1938, the East Sea route was developed and launched to connect Tokyo, Niigata, Najin, and Changchun.
동북아역사재단이 창작한 '일본 근대 개항장, 니가타(新潟)를 가다' 저작물은 "공공누리" 출처표시-상업적이용금지-변경금지 조건에 따라 이용 할 수 있습니다.
