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A site of a Japanese village dating back to
the 17th century has been found in the
outskirts of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh,
a Japanese archaeologist said Wednesday.
Hiroshi Sugiyama, chief research fellow at
Japan’s National Research Institute for
Cultural Properties, said that based on
research since 2004 and analyses of
excavations and documents, the site in
Ponhea Lueu Commune, about 25 kilometers
north of Phnom Penh, is a Japanese village
dating back to the 17th century.
Based on on-site research, excavations and
historical documents, Japanese people came
to Cambodia aboard ships between 1601 and
1635, he said.
''There were about 100 Japanese living in
the village during that period of time, and
most of them were engaged in religious
affairs and trading,'' Sugiyama said in a
lecture on his findings to about 100
Cambodians, many of them university
students, at the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation
Center in the Royal University of Phnom
Penh.
Sugiyama showed objects such as ceramics and
kilns which were excavated from the claimed
site, as well as sketches of a Shuin-sen
(Japanese ship with Shogunate license) that
is 45 meters in length and 8.1 meters in
width with capacity of boarding about 300
people.
He said that in the 17th century, some
Japanese people cruised to Southeast Asia to
engage in trading of wax, sugar, carpets,
peacock feathers and jaguar skins.
A Japanese Embassy official said the embassy
plans to install a pole or mark for Japanese
tourists to stop at during visits to the
site.
Sathol Miura, head of the Cambodian branch
of the Japanese travel agency APEX,
predicted that once the Japanese village
becomes known in Japan, more Japanese
tourists will travel to Cambodia and visit
the site.
Last year, 161,973 Japanese tourists visited
the country, according to official
statistics. |
