1809

Bunka 6 (文化六年)

Timeline of 1809

• 1809/2/21 The house arrest of Saga han daimyô Nabeshima Narinao, which began several months earlier, is ended.
• 1809/5/20 A system of communicating alarm, and rallying troops, using temple bells, is tested in Nagasaki. It proves ineffective, and is abandoned soon afterwards.

Other Events of 1809

• Jan Cock Blomhof becomes opperhoofd in Dejima.
• Fukuoka han constructs five new gun batteries for the defense of Nagasaki harbor.
• A live gibbon is brought to Japan for the first time.
• An envoy from Korea is instructed, in Tsushima, that the next formal Korean embassy should be received in Tsushima, rather than traveling to Edo.
• Publication of "Shank's Mare" (Tôkaidô hizakurige) by Jippensha Ikku, is completed (begun 1802).
• The shogunate establishes a network of fire signals located atop mountains, which could be lit to signal Edo in the event of the incursion of a foreign ship into Nagasaki harbor. The system is never used.

Births and Deaths

• Rutherford Alcock is born (d. 1897).
• Charles Darwin is born (d. 1882).
• Rangaku scholar Katsuragawa Hôshû dies (b. 1756).
• Negishi Yûzan of the Shinsengumi is born (d. 1890).
• Shimazu Nariakira, daimyô of Satsuma han, is born (d. 1858).
• Ueda Akinari, poet, scholar, and writer, dies (b. 1734).
• Yoda Manzai Yorikatsu of Shin-musô Hayashi-zaki-ryû dies.

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