Nagasaki City Local Quiz Practice: Questions and Explanations

Correct answerDejima

The shogunate had its Nagasaki magistrate reclaim a fan-shaped plot of land in 1636. Five years later the Dutch trading post moved here from Hirado, making it Japan's only official window to the West during the country's long period of seclusion.

Source:Dejima — official reference

Correct answerNagasaki Chinatown

The land began as reclaimed ground known as Shinchi-gura, built for unloading and warehousing goods. Once the seclusion policy eased, Chinese residents who had lived in the walled Tojin Yashiki quarter moved into the area and shaped it into a Chinatown. Today it is counted among Japan's three great Chinatowns, packed with roughly 600 shops and restaurants.

Source:Nagasaki Chinatown — official reference

Correct answerMeganebashi Bridge

Tradition credits the bridge to Mokusu Nyojo, a Chinese-born monk of Kofukuji Temple, in 1634. Its twin arches mirrored in the water are said to resemble a pair of eyeglasses, which gave the bridge its name. It is considered one of Japan's oldest stone arch bridges and is designated a National Important Cultural Property.

Source:Meganebashi Bridge — official reference

Correct answerNagasaki Tram

It opened in 1915 and was long known for its flat, low fare, though fares have risen in stages in recent years. It ranks among the oldest surviving tram networks in Japan, and part of its line reportedly resumed running just three days after the atomic bombing.

Source:Nagasaki Tram — official reference

Correct answerCastella

Its origin is traced to pão de ló, a nanban confection Portuguese traders introduced in the 16th century. Nagasaki went on to develop its own version through the centuries of seclusion that followed.

Source:Castella — official reference

Correct answerOura Church

The stained glass behind the main altar, depicting Christ on the cross, was donated in 1865 by a Carmelite convent in Le Mans, France, the hometown of Father Furet, who designed the church. The original was destroyed in the 1945 atomic bombing; the piece seen today is a replica restored after 1951.

Source:Oura Church stained glass — official reference

Correct answerOura Church

The 1879 expansion gave the church Kyushu's first brick construction, unifying its exterior in a single Gothic style. The renovation extended the front and sides, nearly doubling the building's floor area.

Source:History of Oura Church — official reference

Correct answerSofukuji Temple

The temple's great iron cauldron, a city-designated cultural property, is thought to have been cast in 1682 by Yasuzan Yahee, second generation of the Ayama casting family, for distributing rice gruel during a famine. An inscription recording its origin is engraved on the cauldron.

Source:Sofukuji Temple's great cauldron — official reference

Correct answerSofukuji Temple

Sofukuji's Mazu Gate, one of its three gates, is also called the Bodhisattva Gate, an eight-pillar structure with three bays. It enshrines Mazu, the sea goddess whom Chinese ship owners venerated for safe passage. The gate is covered in vividly colored carvings and is designated a National Important Cultural Property.

Source:Sofukuji Temple's Mazu Gate — official reference

Correct answerKofukuji Temple

The Chinese monk Ingen Ryuki arrived in Japan in 1654 and became this temple's head priest, an event regarded as the founding of Japan's Obaku school of Zen. Ingen later went on to open Manpukuji Temple in Uji, near Kyoto. He is also credited with introducing the green bean now named after him, ingen mame, to Japan.

Source:Kofukuji Temple — official reference

Correct answerSiebold

Siebold arrived in Nagasaki in 1823 as the Dutch trading post's physician, and in 1824 he obtained permission from the Nagasaki magistrate to open a school, Narutaki Juku, on the city's outskirts. There he taught Western medicine and natural science to Japanese students, training many scholars of Western learning.

Source:Kaempfer and Thunberg Monument — official reference

Correct answerSiebold Memorial Museum

The Siebold Memorial Museum opened in October 1989 next to the site of Narutaki Juku. Its exterior is modeled on Siebold's former home in Leiden, the Netherlands, and its entrance echoes the house of Siebold's grandfather.

Source:Opening of the Siebold Memorial Museum — broadcast archive

Correct answerKusumoto Ine

Siebold's daughter, Kusumoto Ine (1827–1903), is regarded as the first Japanese woman to train in Western-style obstetrics, opening her own practice in Nagasaki in 1861. She later served as a physician attached to the Imperial Household Ministry and is remembered as a pioneer of modern medicine in Japan.

Source:Kusumoto Ine — official reference

Correct answerNagai Takashi

Nagai Takashi, a radiologist at Nagasaki Medical College, was diagnosed with leukemia in June 1945 and given three years to live. Just two months later, in August, he was exposed to the atomic bomb in his examination room roughly 700 meters from the hypocenter. Though badly injured himself, he treated other survivors and later wrote several books, including The Bells of Nagasaki.

Source:Nagai Takashi Memorial Museum — official reference

Correct answerNyokodo

Bedridden with leukemia, Nagai Takashi lived in a tiny two-tatami-mat hut built for him by the people of Urakami and fellow Catholics. He named it Nyokodo, from the teaching to 'love your neighbor as yourself,' and continued writing there.

Source:Nagai Takashi Memorial Museum — official reference