The record
Elements 166 and 167, bought for six million yen by a fishing village that built a German theme village to remember a shipwreck rescue of 1873.
On 2 July 1873 a typhoon drove the German merchant ship R. J. Robertson onto the coast of the Japanese island of Miyako-jima. The people of the small coastal village of Ueno put out into a heavy sea and saved all eight crew, took them in, and a month later saw them onto a ship for the mainland and home. Kaiser Wilhelm I was so struck by the rescue that he had a memorial stone made for it, which still stands in the harbour at Hirara.
More than 120 years later the village turned that episode into a German culture village. The idea was raised in the local administration in 1987; descendants of the fishermen travelled to Germany for ideas, came back impressed by Schloss Mainau on Lake Constance, and built a hotel whose sea-facing windows look out at the reef that wrecked the ship. Inland there is a children's house built in the shape of a church, and two original elements of the Berlin Wall were set up in its courtyard. There is also a row of half-timbered houses copied from Stade in Lower Saxony, and a replica of the Marksburg on the Rhine — considerably cheaper, the Foundation notes drily, than the purchase of the original castle that was first considered.
The municipality went after the segments as soon as the border opened. Representatives travelled to East Berlin and bought elements 166 and 167 from Limex for six million yen, then about 60,000 marks, and shipped them home. Sun and heavy rain took their toll and the pieces were later moved into the local museum, where they stand with their certificates and two Limex seals.
This record has no pin: no coordinates came with the listing, and the Foundation's entry gives the site rather than a position.
How did it get here?
Elements 166 and 167, bought from Limex in East Berlin by the municipality of Ueno for six million yen, about 60,000 marks, shortly after the border opened.
Sources & verification
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The 1873 wreck of the R. J. Robertson and the rescue by the villagers of Ueno, Wilhelm I's memorial stone at Hirara, the founding of the German culture village from 1987 and its buildings, the purchase of elements 166 and 167 from Limex for six million yen, their siting in the courtyard of the children's house and later move into the local museum with the certificates and Limex seals.
Source accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
Source accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 252
Last verified: Not yet verified
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