The Frigate Ertuğrul-An Ottoman Shipwreck in Japan Memorial Exhibition

The Exhibition illustrates the findings of the underwater excavation of an Ottoman Frigate that sunk in 1890 in the south of the Wakayama region of Japan, while coming back from a diplomatic mission, making the ties between Japan and Turkey grow stronger. The Ertuğrul has been a symbol of the diplomatic relations between the two nations ever since.  Since 2007, Dr. Berta Lledo and Tufan Turanli, are responsible of the ongoing research and exhibitions of this project. The work continues as a collaboration between the Institute of Nautical archaeology (College Station, Texas), BOSAV foundation (Bodrum, Turkey) and Kushimoto Municipality (Wakayama, Japan).

In this exhibition, the history of the Frigate Ertuğrul’s voyage to Japan, the process of the underwater archaeological excavation and conservation of the artifacts recovered is explained and illustrated in 25 panels with original and historical pictures. The panels include detailed explanations and interpretation of different types of objects recovered during the underwater expeditions, of Turkish and Japanese origin, for example the importance of the Yokohama Yaki porcelains, only produced in Yokohama at that time for export purposes, or some of the Imari productions.

We hope to exhibit a set of objects from the shipwreck including some ship items, as a small cooking pot, some personal items of the ottoman officers, like a glass paperweight, a replica of a perfume bottle, permanently exhibited in Kashino Turkish museum, some fragments of Japanese 19th century porcelains from the shipwreck, among others.

An important part of the research about this shipwreck and its diplomatic consequences was based in the documentation available from that time. In the exhibition we like to illustrate the importance of this documents by showing some reproductions of archival documents from the time, as for example the letter of one of the officers explaining the accident, or a sailor’s medical report from the local doctor in the island of Oshima.

The exhibition also includes a small section of 6 panels with the story of the wreck represented in Manga style, especially for the smallest audiences, extracted from the children book written by Tufan Turanli. A short video of the underwater excavation, conservation and specially the Ertuğrul Research Center in Japan will be shown in the gallery’s audiovisual area.

Period: November 27 – 29, 2018
Hours: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Venue:  The Nippon Gallery
145 West 57th Street, 7^th Floor, New York, NY 10019
Contact: Tel 212-581-2223
E-mail: info@nipponclub.org
Admission Free

Supported by the BOSAV foundation (Bodrum, Turkey), Institute of Nautical Archaeology (College Station, Texas) and Kushimoto Municipality (Wakayama, Japan)