Since the summer before last, I have been traveling by car intermittently along the coastline of Japan, starting from Hokkaido and Tohoku, and last year driving around Hokuriku, Sanin, and Kyushu.
In the past, Japan, an island nation, had no choice but to rely on sea routes to travel to other countries. Conversely, the same was true for travel from other countries to Japan, and in that sense, there are many vestiges of exchange with the outside world, including ports, that remain along Japan's coastline.
I was driving along the Kyushu coastline from November to December last year. I started in Fukuoka prefecture and went counterclockwise, then on the fifth day I headed south to the Shimabara Peninsula in Nagasaki prefecture. Mount Unzen towers in the center, and on the eastern side of the peninsula are the remains of Hara Castle, the main battlefield of the Shimabara Rebellion, a peasant uprising that occurred in the early Edo period. At the very tip of the Shimabara Peninsula is the port town of Kuchinotsu (Minamishimabara City).
Although it is less well known than Unzen or Hara Castle, Kuchinotsu, which opened onto the sea, played a special role historically. The port of Kuchinotsu was deep enough for large ships to enter, was protected from storms by the surrounding mountains, and ships could enter in a straight line from the East China Sea, making it an ideal trading port.
As far back as the 16th century, Portuguese ships frequently came into the port, bringing raw silk and silk fabrics. At the same time, merchants and Christian missionaries also boarded the ships. With people and goods coming and going, the town became a bustling trading hub.
During the Meiji period, it flourished as a transit port for coal shipments. At the time, coal from the Miike coal mines was transported to Kuchinotsu on small boats, as large ships could not enter Miike Port, and was then transferred to larger ships for export. Inns, shops, and restaurants lined the streets, and merchants from outside the prefecture flocked to the area.
The unloading of coal required a large amount of labor, including loading and unloading work, and at that time the source of that labor was Yoron Island in the Amami Islands. Yoron Island and the neighboring Okinoerabu Island suffered devastating damage from a typhoon in 1898 (Meiji 31), and the residents who were struggling to make ends meet were relocated en masse to Kuchinotsu through the "mediation" of Kagoshima Prefecture and Mitsui & Co.
Later, when the new Miike Port was completed, the relay was no longer necessary, and with the exception of a few people, the people from Yoron left Kuchinotsu and the community disintegrated. I visited Kuchinotsu 17 years ago while researching a song with the same melody as "Nineteenth Spring," which was also sung by the people of Yoron, while doing research for my book, "Searching for 'Nineteenth Spring.'"
As a local hero
On this occasion, I visited the Kuchinotsu History and Folklore Museum along the seafront and spoke with the then director, Harada Takeo, and learned these facts, and that during the Meiji period, women from poor families were sold to Southeast Asia on board British coal-carrying ships that departed from the port of Kuchinotsu as "karayuki-san."
However, when I visited again this time, I noticed a historical story that I had overlooked. It was about a man named Nagano Manzo, who was from Kuchinotsu and was the first immigrant to Canada during the Meiji period. There was an exhibition about Manzo at the museum from that time, which is now the History and Folklore Museum and its annex. Manzo was also a local hero born in Kuchinotsu, a land that was open to the outside world.
Born in 1855 (Ansei 2), Nagano Manzo emigrated to Canada and became very successful in running a Japanese folk art store and exporting salted salmon, eventually building his own luxurious building in Victoria, Canada. However, the building was destroyed by fire and he lost all his assets, and in his later years he was afflicted by tuberculosis, eventually returning to his hometown of Kuchinotsu to recuperate and spend the rest of his life there.
The exhibition included items reminiscent of his activities in Canada, such as photographs of the store he ran, as well as photographs of Manzo's descendants visiting Kuchinotsu.
How did this man, Nagano Manzo, come to Canada, and what kind of footprint did he leave behind? There are records of this in local Japanese newspapers, but the full story is written in a book called "The Story of Manzo in Canada: The First Immigrant To Canada."
Published in 1977 by Osuzuyama Shobo in Tokyo, this book was written by Mori Kenzo and Takami Hiroto. It appears to have been compiled after extensive research, as it is interspersed with interviews with Manzo's descendants and photographs from the time, including of the early Japanese immigrants who landed in Vancouver, and the house in Kuchinotsu where Manzo lived after returning to Japan.
He worked on a foreign ship and eventually came ashore.
Following the contents of this book and with reference to the exhibits, we will trace Manzo's life below. Born in Kuchinotsu in 1855 at the end of the Edo period as the fourth son to father Kihei and mother Tane, Manzo had wanted to work abroad since he was old enough to understand, and at the age of 19 he left Kuchinotsu to board a British ship as a crew apprentice.
The ship made two or three round trips from Shanghai to Hong Kong, then to Annam (Vietnam), Thailand, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and India, before stopping in the United States and arriving at the port of New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada in May 1877. Manzo decided to enter Canada, and by blending in with the Chinese, he successfully entered the country illegally.
After a while, Manzo teamed up with an Italian to start salmon fishing, and then got a job as a stevedore in Gastown (later Vancouver). In 1884, he brought 500 Chinese people to Canada on a chartered ship from China to work on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. This was a job that only Manzo, who had been a sailor and was familiar with overseas conditions, could do.
In 1887, he went to Seattle, USA, where he used his savings to open a "tobacco shop" which was a success, and then opened a popular restaurant which also proved successful. After this, he opened a restaurant in Yokohama which ended in failure, but in 1892 he returned to Canada and started a "Japanese folk arts and crafts shop and general goods store" and a hotel in Victoria, which got on track.
Salted Salmon King
In the following year, he started manufacturing and exporting salted salmon, which proved to be a huge success, and he later came to be known as the "Canada Daijin," "Salmon Daijin," or "Salted Salmon King." In 1911, he established his own three-storey building in Victoria, "Nagano Manzo Shoten," and served as president of the local Japanese club.
He rose to success in this way, but as mentioned above, his company building burned down, he lost all his assets because he had not taken out insurance, and two years later, his tuberculosis worsened, so he returned to Kuchinotsu and took to his bed. He passed away in May 1924 (Taisho 13).
In 1977, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Manzo's arrival in Canada, a mountain named Mt. Manzo Nagano was built in British Columbia.
Manzo had two sons, and now his descendants span five generations, including Canadian figure skater Keegan Messing.
© 2023 Ryusuke Kawai
