About Me

My photo
Alaska, United States
I am owned by Pauline and Mark Blasky. My hull was built at the Duncan Marine Yard in Taiwan and launched in Dec of 1980. It is a William Garden design based on the Pixie Design and called by Duncan Marine a Freedom 45. They are the fourth owners and have owned me the longest. They have done extensive refitting to me including replacing my entire deck structure and rig. My masts are roughly 10% taller than original and now are made of aluminium as opposed to the original wood ones, which, though pretty, were always problematic. You can read more about me under "MORE ABOUT SARI TIMUR"

May 30, 2014

Hirado Sightseeing


After coming from Nagasaki we thought we had seen a lot of history.  Or at least places where the East met West.  But tiny Hirado played a big part as well.

The first ship with Westerners to arrive was Portuguese in 1550.  But they soon had a falling out with the locals and had to withdraw to Nagasaki in 1551.  The Dutch established a trading house in 1609 and soon trade was flourishing.  Streets, bridges, land reclamation to make quayside wharfs, large buildings etc were soon part of Hirado.  The English came and established a trading house in 1613 but left after 10 years.  In 1639 the Shoganate closed all trade with foreigners except the Dutch.  But the Dutch were moved out of Hirado and re-established in Nagasaki in 1941. 

There are loads of sights to see and it is a very picturesque port.  We have to admit though everything is pretty much up and down.  Actually there are more ruins of steps than anything else.  Which means we got our exercise while sightseeing.

One of the things we found interesting was the gravestone of William Adams locally called Miura Anjin.  He was a Dutch seaman who drifted ashore in 1600 and soon became very influential and a foreign affairs advisor to the Shogun.  We both enjoyed James Clavel's Shogun and we think this figure was the inspiration for that novel.

Hirado played a huge part in the survival of Christianity during the closed door era and even today 15% of the locals are Catholic.  Francis Xavier made three trips.  There are loads of shrines and churches marking many martyrs and persecutions.

There is also some unique food here but one thing Hirado is famous for is the beef.  We splurged and went to one of the more famous Yakiniku restaurants last night for a feast of beef.  We westerners can talk about our tender beef but I don't remember any of it being so easy to cut with chopsticks as the cuts we had last night.  Definitely "Oishi".

Old wall built by the Dutch

Grave of William Adams aka Miura Anjin


The Francis Xavier Memorial Church

The church and temples
Hirado Castle
View of Sari Timur from the castle

View of castle from Sari Timur

No comments:

Post a Comment