Handscroll depicting the Dutch factory at Dejima Pap, Japan, paintings and drawings After 1639 the Dutch were the only Europeans allowed to trade in Japan. They were confined to Dejima, a small artificial island in Nagasaki Harbour, where their activities were closely regulated. This handscroll, read from right to left, shows the Dutch on Dejima and was painted by a Japanese artist to entertain and inform a senior shogunal official. Dutch ships came to Dejima only once a year. At other times life there was quiet for the Dutch. Waited on by their Javanese servants, they amused themselves by listening to music, tending the garden and playing billiards.