For the Hungarian TV news, See MTV Híradó is a
city in
Nagasaki Prefecture,
Japan. The part historically named Hirado is located on the island of the same name. With recent mergers, the city's boundaries have expanded, and Hirado now occupies parts of the main island of
Kyūshū. The components are connected by the
Hirado Bridge.
History
Hirado had been a port of call for ships between the Asian mainland and Japan since the
Nara period. During the
Kamakura and
Muromachi periods, the local Matsuura clan held the rights to trade with Korea and with
Sung Dynasty China. During the
Sengoku and early
Edo periods, Hirado's role as a center of
foreign trade increased, especially vis-a-vis
Ming Dynasty China and the
Dutch East India Company (VOC). The Portuguese arrived in 1550; and the Englisha and Dutch initially reached Japan at the beginning of the 17th century.
The first step in the profitable Dutch-Japanese trading relationship was the Shogun's grant of a trading pass (
handelspas) in 1609.
At its maximum the Dutch trading center covered the whole area of present-day
Sakikata Park. In 1637 and in 1639, stone warehouses were constructed, and the Dutch builders incorporated these dates into the stonework. However, the Tokugawa shogunate disapproved of the use of any Christian Era year dates, and therefore demanded the immediate destruction of these two structures.
[Edo-Tokyo Museum exhibition catalog, p. 207.] This failure to comply with strict
sakoku practices was then used as one of the Shogunate's rationales for forcing the Dutch traders to abandon Hirado for the more constricting confines of Dejima, a small artificial island in the present-day city of
Nagasaki.
The last VOC
Opperhoofd or
Kapitan at Hirado and the first one at Dejima was
François Caron, who oversaw the transfer in 1641. However, modern research indicated that this incident might actually have been an excuse for the Shogunate to take the Dutch trade away from the Hirado clan.
During the Edo period, Hirado was the seat of the
Hirado Domain.
Hirado Castle is today an historical and architectural landmark.
The modern city was founded on January 1, 1955. The city expanded by merging on October 1, 2005, with the neighboring towns of
Tabira,
Ikitsuki, and the village of
Ōshima. The local economy is dominated by agriculture, fishing and food processing.
Famous people connected with Hirado
Sister City relations
Hirado has one sister city in Japan and one friendship city outside Japan.
Gallery
