Changes

Nagasaki was also of great significance to the Company. In [[1649]], profits from business in Japan reached almost 710,000 guilders, one-and-a-half times as much as the VOC factory in Taiwan, and more than double the profits in Persia that year. Fully one third of these Nagasaki profits were from the sale of silks purchased in [[Tonkin]].<ref>William Wray, “The Seventeenth-century Japanese Diaspora: Questions of Boundary and Policy,” in Ina Baghdiantz McCabe et al (eds.), ''Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks'', Oxford: Berg (2005), 84. </ref>

Nagasaki was also of great significance to the Company. In [[1649]], profits from business in Japan reached almost 710,000 guilders, one-and-a-half times as much as the VOC factory in Taiwan, and more than double the profits in Persia that year. Fully one third of these Nagasaki profits were from the sale of silks purchased in [[Tonkin]].<ref>William Wray, “The Seventeenth-century Japanese Diaspora: Questions of Boundary and Policy,” in Ina Baghdiantz McCabe et al (eds.), ''Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks'', Oxford: Berg (2005), 84. </ref>

Representatives of the Company journeyed to [[Edo]] to pay their respects to the [[Shogun]] once every few years. Originally, from [[1633]] until [[1789]], they made this journey every year; from [[1790]] onwards, the journey was made only once every five years. This change in the frequency of the missions coincided with similar efforts to reduce the costs of receiving [[Korean embassies to Edo]]; from 1790 onwards, the VOC was to send three men, not four, and to bring only half as much gifts for the shogun and for other officials.<ref>Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 106.</ref> According to the [[1826]] diary of [[Philipp Franz von Siebold]], they first traveled overland from Nagasaki to [[Kokura]], where they stayed at a specially designated lodging known as the Nagasaki-ya. They then spent a week at the home of the local elder (''[[toshiyori]]'') at [[Shimonoseki]], before traveling through the [[Inland Sea]] by ship, to the port of [[Murotsu]]. From Murotsu, they journeyed overland, passing through [[Himeji]] and [[Hyogo-no-tsu|Hyôgo-no-tsu]] on the way to [[Osaka]]. After three days at the Osaka Nagasaki-ya, they then spent six days at a lodging known as the Ebi-ya in Kyoto, before setting out on the [[Tokaido|Tôkaidô]] highway for Edo. Once they arrived in the shogunal capital, they remained in Edo for two to three weeks, at a lodging specifically set aside for them, again known as the [[Nagasaki-ya]].<ref>Miyamoto Tsuneichi, ''Daimyô no tabi'', Tokyo: Shakai shisôsha (1968), 54-55.; Timon Screech. "An Iconography of Nihon-bashi." in ''Theories and Methods in Japanese Studies: Current State and Future Developments''. Bonn University Press, 2008. pp331-333.</ref> On the return journey, they set sail from Hyôgo, rather than Murotsu.<ref>Miyamoto, ''Daimyô no tabi'', 55.</ref>

Representatives of the Company journeyed to [[Edo]] to pay their respects to the [[Shogun]] once every few years, in a journey known in Dutch as ''hofreis''. Originally, from [[1633]] until [[1789]], they made this journey every year; from [[1790]] onwards, the journey was made only once every five years. This change in the frequency of the missions coincided with similar efforts to reduce the costs of receiving [[Korean embassies to Edo]]; from 1790 onwards, the VOC was to send three men, not four, and to bring only half as much gifts for the shogun and for other officials.<ref>Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 106.</ref> According to the [[1826]] diary of [[Philipp Franz von Siebold]], they first traveled overland from Nagasaki to [[Kokura]], where they stayed at a specially designated lodging known as the Nagasaki-ya. They then spent a week at the home of the local elder (''[[toshiyori]]'') at [[Shimonoseki]], before traveling through the [[Inland Sea]] by ship, to the port of [[Murotsu]]. From Murotsu, they journeyed overland, passing through [[Himeji]] and [[Hyogo-no-tsu|Hyôgo-no-tsu]] on the way to [[Osaka]]. After three days at the Osaka Nagasaki-ya, they then spent six days at a lodging known as the Ebi-ya in Kyoto, before setting out on the [[Tokaido|Tôkaidô]] highway for Edo. Once they arrived in the shogunal capital, they remained in Edo for two to three weeks, at a lodging specifically set aside for them, again known as the [[Nagasaki-ya]].<ref>Miyamoto Tsuneichi, ''Daimyô no tabi'', Tokyo: Shakai shisôsha (1968), 54-55.; Timon Screech. "An Iconography of Nihon-bashi." in ''Theories and Methods in Japanese Studies: Current State and Future Developments''. Bonn University Press, 2008. pp331-333.</ref> On the return journey, they set sail from Hyôgo, rather than Murotsu.<ref>Miyamoto, ''Daimyô no tabi'', 55.</ref>

As their visit was considered one strongly associated with trade purposes, and indeed as the shogunate extending the courtesy or privilege of allowing them to visit Edo, the VOC representatives were not received as "guests" in the same sort of formal ceremonial receptions (''chisô''<!--馳走-->) that Korean and [[Ryukyuan embassies to Edo|Ryukyuan]] envoys were.<ref>[[Kurushima Hiroshi]], presentation at "[http://www.hawaii.edu/asiaref/japan/event2013/Index.htm#symposium Interpreting Parades and Processions of Edo Japan]" symposium, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 11 Feb 2013.</ref>; the Dutch, for their part, are said to have seen the affair as simply a matter of protocol which they needed to perform in order to be permitted to maintain their special relationship and trade access.<ref>Hellyer, 45.</ref> When they did receive an audience with the shogun, they were permitted to approach no further than the outer veranda outside the ''Ôhiroma'', rather than being formally received within the audience hall. On at least one occasion, [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]] arranged a series of informal audiences with the VOC representatives, assigning officials to lead the Dutch deeper into the palace, where their exotic appearances could be witnessed by the women of the palace, and others (all hidden behind blinds or screens), as a source of humor. The Dutch were also recieved in an unofficial audience at that time at the mansion of the [[Yanagisawa clan]], where Tsunayoshi himself observed from behind a blind, completely unseen himself.<ref>Anne Walthall, "Hiding the shoguns: Secrecy and the nature of political authority in Tokugawa Japan," in Bernard Scheid and Mark Teeuwen (eds.) ''The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion'', Routledge (2006), 341-342. </ref> [[Englebert Kaempfer]] recorded that when he served as a member of this VOC delegation in the 1690s, the Dutch were treated less like respected envoys, and more like bizarre aliens, as a spectacle and a source of amusement. The Dutchmen were made to stand, walk, talk, and even kiss one another, simply for the entertainment of the samurai onlookers, who found everything the Dutchmen did fascinating or absurd. By the 1790s, however, C.R. Boxer writes there had been a shift, and the ''opperhoofd'' began to be treated more akin to ''daimyô'', or foreign envoys.<ref>Gary Leupp, ''Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900'', A&C Black (2003), 88-89.</ref> On occasion, the VOC representatives presented the Shogun with exotic animals, such as [[elephants]] or [[camels]], which stirred up great popular interest, but these animals rarely lasted very long.

As their visit was considered one strongly associated with trade purposes, and indeed as the shogunate extending the courtesy or privilege of allowing them to visit Edo, the VOC representatives were not received as "guests" in the same sort of formal ceremonial receptions (''chisô''<!--馳走-->) that Korean and [[Ryukyuan embassies to Edo|Ryukyuan]] envoys were.<ref>[[Kurushima Hiroshi]], presentation at "[http://www.hawaii.edu/asiaref/japan/event2013/Index.htm#symposium Interpreting Parades and Processions of Edo Japan]" symposium, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 11 Feb 2013.</ref>; the Dutch, for their part, are said to have seen the affair as simply a matter of protocol which they needed to perform in order to be permitted to maintain their special relationship and trade access.<ref>Hellyer, 45.</ref> When they did receive an audience with the shogun, they were permitted to approach no further than the outer veranda outside the ''Ôhiroma'', rather than being formally received within the audience hall. On at least one occasion, [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]] arranged a series of informal audiences with the VOC representatives, assigning officials to lead the Dutch deeper into the palace, where their exotic appearances could be witnessed by the women of the palace, and others (all hidden behind blinds or screens), as a source of humor. The Dutch were also recieved in an unofficial audience at that time at the mansion of the [[Yanagisawa clan]], where Tsunayoshi himself observed from behind a blind, completely unseen himself.<ref>Anne Walthall, "Hiding the shoguns: Secrecy and the nature of political authority in Tokugawa Japan," in Bernard Scheid and Mark Teeuwen (eds.) ''The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion'', Routledge (2006), 341-342. </ref> [[Englebert Kaempfer]] recorded that when he served as a member of this VOC delegation in the 1690s, the Dutch were treated less like respected envoys, and more like bizarre aliens, as a spectacle and a source of amusement. The Dutchmen were made to stand, walk, talk, and even kiss one another, simply for the entertainment of the samurai onlookers, who found everything the Dutchmen did fascinating or absurd. By the 1790s, however, C.R. Boxer writes there had been a shift, and the ''opperhoofd'' began to be treated more akin to ''daimyô'', or foreign envoys.<ref>Gary Leupp, ''Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900'', A&C Black (2003), 88-89.</ref> On occasion, the VOC representatives presented the Shogun with exotic animals, such as [[elephants]] or [[camels]], which stirred up great popular interest, but these animals rarely lasted very long.