Click here to go to the YouTube video Throughout the Edo period, Japan was in a state of “sakoku”, or seclusion, with its doors mostly closed to foreign countries. However, Japan had four windows to the outside world. They were Nagasaki, Satsuma, Tsushima, and Ezo, which is present-day Hokkaido. Nagasaki was the most important of these. The Shogunate built an artificial island called “Dejima” in Nagasaki and established a Dutch trading post there. The Netherlands was the only Western country that was allowed to trade with Japan. This was because the Dutch promised not to proselytize Christianity. Access to Dejima was severely restricted, however, many scholars from various parts of…