Nagasaki Shinchi Chinatown

Nagasaki Shinchi Chinatown is a Chinatown in central Nagasaki, counted alongside those of Yokohama and Kobe. About 40 Chinese restaurants, Chinese sweet shops and Chinese goods shops line its two crossing streets. The stone paving of the cross, about 250 meters east to west and north to south together, was laid with the help of Fujian Province in China.

History

In the Edo period, Chinese residents of Nagasaki lived in the Tojin Yashiki (唐人屋敷), a walled quarter of about 9,360 tsubo. After a fire in 1698 destroyed the warehouses that held the cargo of Chinese ships, about 3,500 tsubo of sea in front of the quarter was filled in and a separate storehouse for that cargo was built on the new ground. It became known as Shinchi (新地), new land, or Shinchi Kurasho (新地蔵所). Both the quarter and the storehouse were abolished after the Meiji Restoration. Overseas Chinese then settled around the former storehouse site, and the Chinatown grew up there.

The gates

Four Chinese-style gates stand at the east, west, north and south ends of the streets. They were built with materials from Fuzhou and completed in April 1986. The east, north and south gates are 9 meters high and 9 meters wide; the west gate is 9 meters high and 4 meters wide.

Inside each gate is a carving of one of the Four Symbols of Chinese feng shui, the guardian animals of the four directions: the Azure Dragon (Seiryu, 青龍) on the east, the White Tiger (Byakko, 白虎) on the west, the Black Tortoise (Genbu, 玄武) on the north and the Vermilion Bird (Suzaku, 朱雀) on the south. According to the Chinatown, the north gate is said to bring water and the south gate fire. Sofuku-ji (崇福寺), the family temple of the city's overseas Chinese, lies to the northeast, the kimon (鬼門) or demon gate direction, where it is held to keep evil spirits out.

The Lantern Festival

The Nagasaki Lantern Festival began as the Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year celebration, held by the overseas Chinese of Shinchi. It now takes place every year in winter, with Minato Park (湊公園) as its main venue.