TheRoadToUnzen short ~short ver.~
[Music]
and so the the present um tour um the
road to unzen was based on this concept
of uh not just Nagasaki and unzen but uh
the road from unen that was traveled by
foreigners in the late 19th century
early 20th century and the tour started
in Nagasaki and started with uh
information and explanations about uh
for example I mentioned the uh
NYK steamship service the Nagasaki Maru
and Shanghai M and the sort of the
romance of of Ocean Travel at that time
and then uh we got on a a vehicle and
traveled took a sort of a slow route
from Nagasaki to Moi via T tagami which
in fact was uh was sort of a restover um
in the in the 19 century when it was
traveled by ginda and uh horse cards and
from there going down through uh bamboo
Groves and very pristine sort of fields
and everything and much of that uh
natural environment remains to this day
and so we were able to
enjoy uh the scenes that foreigners
would have seen with their own eyes as
they traveled down to to Moi it was a
trip of about 1 hour or one or two hours
and then we arrived in the little Port
of Mogi and Mogi the town of Moi also
has a fascinating history dating back to
the Portuguese period when it was a
Christian enclave and there was a church
there and most of the population were
Christian and it has a beautiful uh
location on tachibana Bay looking across
t t Bay to
amaka and so we were able to to stop
there and to enjoy uh scenes uh in the
port and also to visit the uh Canon
Shrine which is uh a shrine on the edge
of of the uh historic uh town which is
slight of an elevation there’s a Old
Stone Beacon there that uh we were able
to compare with old picture postcards
and it’s to this day and to enjoy um an
explanation from a local expert about
about the history uh of the shrine and
of the port of Mogi in general then
after that uh we got on a bus and uh
went down the uh the coastline enjoying
views of the of tachibana bay and
arrived in uh Obama and uh we had lunch
in Obama a beautiful uh uh lunch uh that
in a way was was sort of recreated by a
local restaurer but it was was really
wonderful and it really sort of harked
back to the late 19th century uh 20th
century and
foreigners would travel uh from Moi to
uh to Obama in small ships and then H
enjoy a relaxing stay in obaba after
that go up to unen and also one of the
features this time was the What’s called
the chair kago uh which is the
traditional Japanese Peloquin was used
by Japanese people at the time but
foreigners of course especially women
found that very uncomfortable and so
from uh during a certain period uh
foreign women were uh allowed to uh were
arranged so that they could sit on a
chair and were carried physically up the
hillside to Obama and uh that Cher kaga
was recreated and uh we were able
to experience that and see what it was
like and so after enjoying Moi and then
Obama we continued uh up the hillside to
unzen stopping at a place called KAG
kagota which means the place where the
Peloquin stopped it was literally a
stopover for the the chair kagle and for
the carrier of course and also men would
be riding on horses and there would be a
whole Caravan a caravan of luggage uh
being carried because the foreigners
would be staying in unen for sometimes
for five or six weeks at a time so they
brought huge amounts of luggage with
them and finally we arrived in unen and
then stayed overnight and the following
day uh again uh with the expert uh
guidance of
local authorities we were able to enjoy
uh a place called The Shir kumono which
is a a small Lake in in mun and again is
featured in in many picture postcards at
the at the time and we just relaxed
there and and enjoyed the atmosphere
that the Foreigner Travelers would have
enjoyed at that time and it was really a
wonderful relaxing stay and was and it
gave us an
opportunity not just to enjoy the hot
springs and the hot springs bath of unen
but to also to uh see that uh this
unique history of of unen and the the
fact that it was loved by by uh
euroamerican Travelers in this in this
period and that uh the European American
Travelers uh were welcomed there and
also they forgot differences among
themselves for example uh during World
War I there were German and British and
American Travelers there and they were
able to to stay there and just forget
All the Troubles of the world and and
the war going on in Europe
so and this is one of in my research one
very strong impression that I have ofon
is that it was an enclave of peace and
uh cultural
coexistence and that foreigners and
Japanese forgot all of the the fences
that would separate them in uh in the
cities and
Etc and so Nagasaki and then the road
from Nagasaki was like almost like a
road from from reality to a kind of
shangra La in the mountains uh uh very
approachable and easily accessible from
Nagasaki
明治から大正、昭和の初期にかけ、雲仙は海外の方から非常に人気の避暑地でした。日華連絡船「上海丸」で長崎に入港した外国の方は一路、雲の上の避暑地雲仙を目指します。昭和の初期の陸の道を、今と昔を重ね合わせ、昔の旅人に思いを馳せ、なぞるように旅をします。外国客が多く訪れるにつれ、長崎の交通インフラは整備されていったと言われています。外国人がどのような道をたどり、どのような日々を雲仙で過ごしたのか。
外国人居留地研究の第１人者である、バークガフニ先生と一緒に、雲仙を目指します。旅路の中で、今と昔が混在する路地裏や、月見台など、昔の絵葉書や手紙、資料に残る景色と重なる場所を見つけると、ほら、すぐそばに、あの頃の旅人の気配がしませんか。
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In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Unzen was heralded as a premier summer escape for foreign visitors to Japan. It was the go-to destination for those arriving at the port of Nagasaki via the Shanghai-maru ferry. Upon arrival, they used the most comfortable transportation of the time to travel from the port, through the mountains, and across the bay to where a pleasurable summer awaited.
This insightful tour from Nagasaki City to Mt. Unzen, led by professor and local history expert Brian Burke-Gaffney, takes you on an idyllic adventure retracing the same winding roads of Unzen that vacationers of old would have traveled.
Throughout the journey, Professor Burke-Gaffney takes participants to various spots along the route to show how the area has evolved over time, such as how modern infrastructure developed to accommodate the foreign visitors. He illustrates this by bringing along postcards and other materials from the era, which offer a glimpse into Unzen’s past, the evolution of its tourism, and how traces of that legacy are still felt in the modern day. It truly feels like a journey taken alongside the travelers of the past.