The area of Marunouchi may be known for its shopping complexes and big luxury brand name stores, but one will be surprised while walking around the area and discover numerous statues.
In fact, the Marunouchi area has numerous statues to showcase their dedication to art and sculpture. The Mitsubishi Estate and Chokoku-no-Mori Art Foundation have collaborated since 1972 to create an urban art development overflowing with art.
Marunouchi-nakadori Avenue features numerous public art.
In front of the Marunouchi entrance is a tiger statue by Misawa Atsuhiko titled “Animal 2012-01B” created in 2015 and was organized by Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd.
But as Marunouchi has a pamphlet and PDF of where statues are located, you’ll notice that other buildings in the area had conformed to incorporating artwork on their premise.
And while there are really cool statues and artistic structures around the area. Not far from Marunouchi is a monument for the De Liefde, a Dutch galleon and the first Dutch ship that reached Japan on April 19, 1600.
As part of the fleet of the Magellanic Company, the ship arrived on the island of Kuroshima in the bay of Usuki. The crew of 109 nearly all succumbed due to the rough conditions with only 24 surviving.
Helmsman William Adams (who would be called Miura Anjin) was the first Englishman to reach Japan and he lived there for the rest of his life. Many of the crew died and the inventory was seized by the Japanese.
But the merchant Jan Joosten van Lodensteyn (who would be later known as Yaesu-san) would also settle permanently in Japan and played an important role in the trade relations between Japan and Holland.
The two were brought to Osaka and then to Edo (which would be known as Tokyo) and would be interrogated through a Portuguese interpreter. And because military ruler of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu, shown great interest in the Dutch ship, these two men would provided valuable information about maps, navigation, shipbuilding and warfare.
And from 1600-1641, the Dutch could move around Japan freely and have unrestricted contact with Japanese.
But Tokugawa was concerned with the increase of Christianity but also the appearance of Southern Barbarians (the Portuguese) and the Red-Haired Barbarians (Dutch). Christianity was banned, missionaries and Japanese Christians had to flee and hide.
And foreign men with Japanese wives with children had to lave and some would move to Batavia (now known as Jakarta in Indonesia). Children had to be separated from their mothers as Japanese were forbidden to leave the country.
But it was tough years for foreigners living in Japan and Holland would be the only western company permitted to have contact with Japan and Japanese for 200 years.
