DESHIMA

   Artificial island in the bay of Nagasaki, Japan, where a Dutch commercial factory was established in 1641 (having previ ously been founded in the city of Hirado). After the Tokugawa shogu nate cut off Japan from contacts with the outside world, Dutch mer chants and scientists acted as the only link with Western culture and science. Until Japan was forced to “open” in the 1850s, several fa mous men such as Engelbert Kaempfer, Isaac Titsingh, and Philipp Franz von Siebold visited Deshima; some even traveled to the imperial court in Edo (now Tokyo) and published about various aspects of Japanese society.