NAGASAKI - JAPAN
KOBE, KYOTO, OTSU, KIGA
1892-1895 WORLD TOUR OF GEORGE BULLOUGH
1892-1895 WORLD TOUR OF GEORGE BULLOUGH
Descriptive text
relates to period of visit, i.e. early 1890’s unless otherwise stated.
BLOG 86 - ALBUM
XVII * Photographs 20 - 30
Photographs collected by
George Bullough, (later Sir George, Baronet)
and his travelling companion, Robert
Mitchell during their 1892-1895 World Tour
and mounted
in twenty albums in the library
at Kinloch Castle.
Regrettably
Kinloch Castle Library, on the south-west (ground floor) corner has
two external walls and suffers from high humidity and constant ingress of damp.
two external walls and suffers from high humidity and constant ingress of damp.
The room has also
suffered at least one inundation of water through the ceiling
from an
overflowing sink in the bathroom two floors above.
“It is crucial
to store books and photographs correctly, to respect their age and
vulnerability to thoughtless
handling. This is especially true for hand-coloured prints as the colours were only
applied to the surface of the photograph, never becoming an actual part of the resulting
image. Therefore the delicate surface is prone to scratching, blurring, loss of colour
and crinkling due to high humidity.”
Sadly this is
all too apparent in several of the photographs, particularly Images 20,
21
depicting Takaboko... and Pappenberg Rock ... ... ...
G40 TAKABOKO (PAPPENBERG) NAGASAKI
Original photograph
by Tamamura Kôzaburô
Album XVII * Image 20 * Size original photograph 11 x 8¼ inches |
| The island of Takaboko at the inlet entrance to Nagasaki harbour. (From Image 23) |
Four hundred years ago the heavily wooded picturesque island of Takaboko-shima was the scene of a “fearful tragedy.”
Renamed Pappenberg - Dutch for Catholic Mountain - by
Western tour guides in the 1860’s it lies at the very seaway entrance to the harbour of Nagasaki on the southern
Japanese island of Kyushu.
Western tour guides in the 1860’s it lies at the very seaway entrance to the harbour of Nagasaki on the southern
Japanese island of Kyushu.
In 1620 the Tokugawa Shogunate (Japanese rulers) having become alarmed at the rapid spread of Catholicism following the arrival of a mission of Jesuits led by forty-three year old Francis Xavier in July 1549 banned Christianity.
  O’HATO, NAGASAKI  |
G54 O’HATO, NAGASAKI
 |
G54 O’HATO, NAGASAKI
Album XVII * Image 22 * Detail from full size 10¾ x 8½ inches.
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M2 PAPENBERG ROCK
Album XVII * Image 23 * Size 9½
x 7½ inches
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A184 NAVAL ARSENAL AT NAGASAKI
Album XVII * Image 24 * Size 10½ x 8½ inchesNote the dry dock facility.
Nagasaki is the
oldest port in Japan, its history dating back to 1609 when formal
agreements were established with Dutch
traders.
The Nagasaki
Yotetsusho Foundry was established in 1857 as Japan's first shipyard and
machinery works, the country's first warship repair facility. Commissioned by
the Tokugawa Shogunate Government it was constructed by a group of Dutch
engineers.
Following
the overthrow of the Tokugawa in 1868 it was taken over by the new
Imperial
Government who, in 1884 sold it to the Mitsubishi Company who,
in
1889 began construction of two granite dry docks:
Tategami - 530 feet long (keel
length 510 feet), breadth 99 feet with a depth of 27½ feet.
The
smaller second dry dock was called Mukajima and had an extreme
length of 371 feet, a breadth of 53 feet and a maximum depth of 24½ feet.
In
addition there was a 750 foot long railed patent slipway with a breadth of
thirty feet
and
lifting capacity of 1,200 tons.
Ship building
commenced immediately, the first being a tug of 206 tons gross. 
A184 NAVAL ARSENAL AT NAGASAKI
Album XVII
* Image 24 * Detail from full size 10½
x 8½ inches |
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KOBE
Album XVII *
Image 25 * Size 11½ x 8½ inches.  |
 |
| KOBE Album XVII * Image 25 * Detail from full size 11½ x 8½ inches  |
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| KOBE Album XVII * Image 25 * Detail from full size 11½ x 8½ inches Kobe is a city on Osaka Bay in central Japan, it gained city status on 1 April 1889. The population in 2016 exceeded 1.6 million.   |
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THE BUND (KOBE)
 |
| F63 THE BUND
(KOBE) Album XVII * Image 26 * Size 9½ x 7½ inches  Effective from 1 January 1868 the Port Port of Hyōgo, as Kobe was known at the time, was one of the first opened to foreign trade by the Tokugawa Shogunate, the last feudal Japanese military government which ruled between 1600 and 1868. (Succeeded by the Meiji Period 1868-1912.)
In this photograph
a British flag blows in the breeze in Kobe’s main street, a European style settlement
designed by British architect, John William Hart, M.Inst.C.E.. Hart was also
responsible for the Shanghai water tower featured in Blog 84, and after working in China moved to Japan taking up residence in Kobe from where he continued working.
Kobe is the capital of Japan's Hyōgo Prefecture. Following the catastrophic Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, in which over 6,000 lost their lives and 415,000 were seriously injured, was completely rebuilt. Overlooking Osaka Bay with its backdrop of the Rokko Mountains, Kobe is today considered one of the most attractive cities in Japan. *** +++ +++ *** *** +++ +++ *** THE YAAMI 
Album XVII *
Image 27 * Size original 9½ x 7½ inches   
In 1879
businessman Mankichi Inoue acquired some of the the temple buildings located
on the pine-clad
hillside east of the town and converted them into a Western-style hotel,
the
YAAMI, its balconies overlooking the city and misty fields to the Rokko
mountain range with its highest peak, Mount Rokko at 3,055 feet,
beyond.
A stepped
pathway led through the well-tended gardens; landscaped with trees, lanterns,
decorative stones and water features to the hotel entrance.
Cool and
pleasant in summer, the hotel soon became “the premier destination
for foreigners
and well-to-do Japanese”.
In 1889 it
counted poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling amongst its guests.
|
 |
| F72 THE YAAMI Album XVII * Image 27 * Detail from full size 9½ x 7½ inches |
An anecdote connected to Kipling's visit recalls “he was woken on his first morning by the booming of a great bell* … twenty feet of green bronze hung inside a fantastically roofed shed of wooden beams.”
The bell, which is still rung, requires seventeen monks each holding a rope connected to a sixteen foot long pole which is swung too and fro until with a final leap the monk in the white habit directs the swinging beam into the bell - BOOM!
* The 74 ton Chionin Bell was cast in 1633.
Regrettably the Yaami Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1906.
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WATERFALL KINGIYO TEA HOUSE AT KIGA
WATERFALL KINGIYO TEA HOUSE AT KIGA
Album XVII * Image 28 * Size 11 x 8½ inches
Reference; “Japan: Travels and Research”
by Professor Johann J. Rein – Published 1884. (Page 48)
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F41 RAPIDS NEAR KYOTO (Hozugawa River)
Album XVII * Image 29 * Size of original 9½ x 7½ inches.
Hozugawa River, today a popular tourist destination where
professional boatmen
take those daring enough to “run the rapids”.
F41 RAPIDS NEAR KYOTO (Hozugawa River)
Album XVII * Image 29 * Detail from full size of original 9½ x 7½ inches.
Album XVII * Image 30 * Size 11 x 8½ inches
Today Otsu, meaning “big port”, with a population
approaching 350,000, is capital city of Shiga Prefecture. It is a port on Japan’s largest freshwater lake, 260 square mile Lake Biwa, which for centuries has been a centre for water borne commerce.
In the 1890’s a 5½ mile long canal was constructed
between Otsu and Kyoto to more speedily facilitate shipments of freight and increasing passenger traffic,
it also supplied water to Japan’s first public hydroelectric power generator
which powered Kyoto’s trams.
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END OF ALBUM XVII
Text personally researched and written by George W. Randall
Photographs from my archived copies of the originals in the library at Kinloch Castle.
REVIEWED AND UPDATED BY THE AUTHOR 18 JUNE 2025
George W. Randall Research Archive
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