Jagatara Oharu - Jagatara Oharu

Japanese: ジャガタラお春 - じゃがたら・おはる

Year of death: 1697 (Genroku 10)
Year of birth: 1625
A mixed race woman born in Nagasaki who was exiled to Jagatara (Jakarta) during the early Edo period due to national isolation. O-Haru was the daughter of Italian navigator Nicholas Marin and Japanese mother Maria, and her baptismal name was Geronima. In 1636, the Edo Shogunate exiled 287 Portuguese people and their wives and children to Macau in order to strengthen its crackdown on Christianity. In 1641, after the Shimabara Rebellion, 32 Japanese people and their mixed race children who had married British or Dutch people were exiled. Among them were 15-year-old O-Haru, her mother, and her sister. Six years later, at the age of 21, O-Haru married a Dutchman born in Hirado, Simon Simonsen. Simonsen was an assistant clerk for the East India Company, and later rose to become the head of customs, playing an active role in the company's diplomatic negotiations. After retiring from public office, he ran a large trading business and lived a wealthy life using many slaves. He had four sons and three daughters with O-Haru, three of whom died young. Although the family was once summoned to return to their home country, the Netherlands, they were allowed to continue living there because of their Japanese ancestry. After her husband's death in May 1672 (Kanbun 12), Oharu inherited a large fortune and lived a life of financial comfort with her remaining family. On May 17, 1692 (Genroku 5), Oharu wrote her will, distributing her fortune to her daughter Maria, who had become a widow at a young age, and to her grandchildren, and signed it with her own hand in Japanese kana, "Zeraunima Shirushi." Oharu has been known as a tragic heroine from the Edo period to the present day, and is the subject of tanka and popular songs, for her Jagatara-bun (letters written by people exiled to Jagatara during the isolationist period to their home country) that begins with "Sen hayaburu Kannazuki toyo" and ends with "Oh, Japan, I miss you, I see you." However, Oharu's Jagatara text is said to have been created by the Nagasaki writer Nishikawa Nyoken, and there is a large gap between this and the historical facts of Oharu. <References> Nishikawa Nyoken, Nagasaki Yawasou, Nagasaki City History - Trade and Exchange, Western Countries Section, Iwao Iwao, Shuinsen to Nihonmachi, and Nihon no Rekishi, vol. 14

(Kishino Hisashi)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：元禄10(1697)
生年：寛永2(1625)
江戸前期,鎖国によってジャガタラ(ジャカルタ)へ追放された,長崎生まれの混血女性。お春は父イタリア人航海士ニコラス・マリンと日本人の母マリアとの娘で,洗礼名はジェロニマ。寛永13(1636)年に江戸幕府はキリシタン取り締まり強化のため,ポルトガル人およびその妻子287人をマカオへ追放した。さらに島原の乱後の同16年イギリス人,オランダ人などと結婚した日本人およびその混血児ら32人を追放した。その中に15歳のお春や母,姉もいた。6年後,21歳のお春は平戸生まれのオランダ人シモン・シモンセンと結婚。東インド会社の事務員補であったシモンセンは,のちに税関長へと昇進し,同社の外交折衝においても活躍した。公職引退後は手広く貿易業を営み,奴隷を多数使って裕福な生活を送った。お春との間に4男3女をもうけ,そのうち3人は早世した。一家は本国オランダへの召還命令を受けたこともあったが,日本人の血統であることから引き続き居住することを許された。1672(寛文12)年5月夫の死後,お春は高額な遺産を相続し,残された家族と共に,経済的には何不自由のない生活を送った。1692(元禄5)年5月17日にお春は遺言状を書き,若くして未亡人になった娘マリアや孫達に遺産を分配し,自らの手で「ぜらうにましるし」と日本の仮名で署名した。お春は「千はやぶる神無月とよ」で始まり「あら日本恋しや,ゆかしや,見たや」というジャガタラ文(鎖国下,ジャガタラへ追放された人々が母国へ宛てた手紙)によって,江戸時代から今日に至るまで,悲劇のヒロインとして知られ,短歌や流行歌にも歌われている。しかしお春のジャガタラ文は,長崎の文人西川如見による創作といわれ,史実のお春との間には大きな落差がある。<参考文献>西川如見『長崎夜話草』,『長崎市史―通交貿易篇西洋諸国部』,岩生成一『朱印船と日本町』,同『日本の歴史』14

(岸野久)

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