3-053-606 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches in Japan: the Pappenberg, or Island of Takaboko, 1873. 'Our Special Artist lately in China and Japan contributes a view of the Pappenberg, or Island of Takaboko [sic], near Nagasaki. He observes that in the year 1622 this rock was the scene of a fearful tragedy. The Japanese then began a fearful persecution of the Christians in Decima and Nagasaki and its neighbourhood, and led some thousands of them to one of the perpendicular cliffs of the Pappenberg - men, women, and children. A cross was placed on the ground, and each person had the choice of treading on it or of being hurled from the top of the rock. Many hundreds, it is said, chose the fearful alternative, and by their deaths have given to this small island a celebrity of horror. It is situated at the entrance to the harbour of Nagasaki. At the present day it is well wooded; still, its steep, rocky sides may be seen, telling how well adapted it was for the dreadful purpose of death'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.