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Suspecting Siebold of political or even military motives in possessing those maps, however, which were seen as tantamount to state secrets, the shogunal authorities raided Siebold's home several times in [[1828]], imprisoned many of his Japanese friends and students, and confiscated numerous objects they suspected he was planning on smuggling out of the country. Siebold managed, however, to hide many of his notebooks, maps, and other documents and items in a lead-lined chest, which escaped the authorities. Siebold was, for a time, forbidden from leaving the country, and then, on [[1829]]/9/25, he was sentenced to be banished from Japan. He departed the following week, on 1829/10/3, on board the ''Cornelius Houtman'', leaving behind a two-year old daughter, [[Oine]], who would later go on to become the first female physician in Japan. Little is known about Oine's mother, [[Kusumoto Otaki]], who may have been a [[courtesan]] of the [[Maruyama]] district, or who may have simply posed as one in order to gain access to Dejima.
Suspecting Siebold of political or even military motives in possessing those maps, however, which were seen as tantamount to state secrets, the shogunal authorities raided Siebold's home several times in [[1828]], imprisoned many of his Japanese friends and students, and confiscated numerous objects they suspected he was planning on smuggling out of the country. Siebold managed, however, to hide many of his notebooks, maps, and other documents and items in a lead-lined chest, which escaped the authorities. Siebold was, for a time, forbidden from leaving the country, and then, on [[1829]]/9/25, he was sentenced to be banished from Japan. He departed the following week, on 1829/10/3, on board the ''Cornelius Houtman'', leaving behind a two-year old daughter, [[Oine]], who would later go on to become the first female physician in Japan. Little is known about Oine's mother, [[Kusumoto Otaki]], who may have been a [[courtesan]] of the [[Maruyama]] district, or who may have simply posed as one in order to gain access to Dejima.
Siebold continued to communicate with Dejima, and with his daughter, during his lengthy absence from Japan. He attempted to join [[Commodore Matthew Perry]] on his journey to Japan in [[1853]]-[[1854]], but was denied permission to do so, for fear that having been formally banned from the country, his presence might endanger the mission.<ref>Mitani, 97.</ref> Siebold was successful in returning to Japan, however, on [[1859]]/7/6, being invited along with his son to serve as a diplomatic advisor,<ref>Mitani, 285.</ref> and left again for the final time in [[1862]]/3.
Siebold continued to communicate with Dejima, and with his daughter, during his lengthy absence from Japan. He attempted to join [[Commodore Matthew Perry]] on his journey to Japan in [[1853]]-[[1854]], but was denied permission to do so, for fear that having been formally banned from the country, his presence might endanger the mission.<ref>Mitani, 97.</ref> Siebold was successful in returning to Japan, however, on [[1859]]/7/6, being invited along with his son Alexander to serve as a diplomatic advisor,<ref>Mitani, 285.</ref> and left again for the final time in [[1862]]/3. Alexander remained at the British Legation in Edo at least through [[1868]], where he worked as an interpreter.
==Writings==
==Writings==
''Manners and Customs of the Japanese in the Nineteenth Century'' was published in [[1841]].
''Manners and Customs of the Japanese in the Nineteenth Century'' was published in [[1841]].
==Collection==
Siebold amassed a considerable collection of Japanese books, prints, paintings, and artifacts during his two lengthy stays in Japan. Much of the objects from his earlier stay are today in the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, in the Netherlands. However, some 1,088 titles (comprising 3,441 volumes), representing the entirety of what he obtained on his latter stay in Japan (plus some 43 titles in 199 volumes collected during the earlier sojourn), were acquired by the British Library from Siebold's son Alexander; on 22 July 1868, the Library paid £1100 for this collection, and most of the objects thus acquired have been identified as coming from Siebold's collection only by the "22 JY 68" stamp placed upon them. While the Siebold collection of prints and books has been described as "not rich in early or rare editions," it became at that time the largest collection of Japanese works in Europe. And, as late as 1998, the 125 or so one-of-a-kind manuscripts from Siebold's collection continued to represent roughly half of all such Japanese manuscripts owned by the Library.<ref>Yu-Ying Brown, "[https://www.bl.uk/eblj/1975articles/article16.html The Von Siebold Collections in Tokugawa Japan: 1]", ''British Library Electronic Journal'' (British Library, 1975), 163.; Brown, "[https://www.bl.uk/eblj/1998articles/article10.html Origins and Characteristics of the Japanese Collection in the British Library]", ''British Library Electronic Journal'' (British Library, 1998), 148.</ref>
Though Siebold's collection originally entered the British Library along with two catalogs listing their contents in English and in Japanese, these catalogs appear to have been lost. A later copy of the Japanese-language version of the catalog surfaced, however, in the Swedish Royal Library in Stockholm in the early 1970s.<ref>Brown, "[https://www.bl.uk/eblj/1976articles/article5.html The Von Siebold Collections in Tokugawa Japan: 2]", ''British Library Electronic Journal'' (British Library, 1976), 39.</ref>
==References==
==References==