Reinier Herman Hesselink

From 1641 to 1853 the small trading post of Dejima in the harbour of Nagasaki was Japan's window on the West and the West's window on Japan. During this period the Japanese government monopolised trade by only allowing it to the Dutch and the Chinese. The Dutchmen who stayed in Dejima were practically prisoners, interned as they were on a .75 hectare artificial island with even their Bibles were taken away. Usually they were about 8 people. They mainly dealt with generation after generation of the same families of compradors or translators, as well as with a few women that served as prostitutes and concubines.

The Japanese only sold the Dutch camphor and copper, the latter in ever diminishing numbers as the mines were nearly worked out. Consequently, the trade with Japan became less and less interesting. Beyond setting prices, the shogunate also expected a yearly report on global political developments. This also included scientific innovations and led to Rangraku, or Dutch science. Samurai learned Dutch to understand Western medical text books, as well as books about physics, the construction of military complexes, etc. From 1785 to 1860 the Japanese ordered about 10,000 books from the Netherlands. They went to libraries across the country, and were the basis of Japan's modernisation in the late 1800's.

For the Dutch it was of the a place to spend the last period before retirement, with smuggling and cooking the books generating a generous income. The Dutch "usually offered to Mercury but by no means to Pallas", and descriptions of Japan by Dutchmen only appeared after 1781. However, after the fall of the Dutch East India Company, a different type of merchant was sent to Japan. Globalisation in the form of Russians, Brits and Americans, started to make inroads, and lots of studies about Japan were published, all originating from people in Dejima. Dutch doctors were highly rated and it were mainly doctors who collected knowledge about Japan as they were allowed to leave the trading post. They were not allowed to accept money, but gifts were allowed, which led among others to the ethnographic Von Siebold Collection in Leiden. This book gives excerpts of some of these descriptions published in Holland and the Dutch East Indies.

The editor of this book sees lots of similarities in the perception of the Japanese by the Dutch then and in the late 1970's when he lived in Japan. He claims this is mainly caused by the proverbial lack of politeness of his compatriots. Beyond an excellent introduction, the book contains fragments of publications about Dutch life on Dejima, the unsuccessful British attempt at intervention from 1808 to 1814, daily life on the island, and the usual expat blur about the difficult relationship with the local retainers, and the relationship with local women (e.g. A.J. de Wolff found learning Japanese difficult and got himself a 19-year-old "two-lipped dictionary"; although not cheap, it worked miracles, as all servants understood him after a month: "honni soit qui mal y pense")

Given that only excerpts are included in the book, we not just see Japan through the eyes of 19th century Dutchmen, but also through the eyes of a 1980's Dutchman.

Those 19th century Dutchmen thought the Japanese were extremely practical and devoid of contemplation. It was imprinted on children from a very early age,. This practical character also applied to religion (neither Shinto nor Buddhism were really appreciated), friendships and the relation between the sexes. J.L.C. Pompe van Meerdervoort, the founder of the first modern hospital in Japan, showed his surprise about the practical and relatively loveless character of Japanese marriages (the editor noted that not much had changed; given that the Japanese are taught to perform a role in society, rather than discovering who they are themselves). The Dutch held Japanese women in much higher esteem than the men. Wives were tender in character and economic masters of the house who supervised the concubines, and generally showed a strong sense of duty. Men gave little back in return, cared more about their children than their wives and were otherwise considered debauched. Concubines destroyed marriages, and if that was not enough there were venereal diseases and even brothels with imperial privileges.

The Dutch were definitely intrigued by the act of seppuku among the samurai class. The Japanese defined sincerity differently than the Dutch. Whereas in Europe sincerity consists of coinciding action and words, the Japanese only judged people's actions. Seppuku is the ultimate act of sincerity, and the art of seppuku was taught as part of samurai education. It also had an economic side however: seppuku ensured that the samurai's children could continue any hereditary privileges of the family.… (plus d'informations)