Philipp Franz von Siebold was the chief medical officer for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) on Dejima from 1823-1829, during which time he introduced much knowledge about the West into Japan, and vice versa.
During his time on Dejima, Siebold interacted closely with numerous Japanese translators and students, and engaged in much cultural and informational (scientific & medical) exchange. He brought more than 500 Japanese books back to Europe, and through various publications introduced Europeans to a variety of aspects of Japanese culture and knowledge, in many cases for the first time.
Not only a physician, but also a botanist, Siebold took a particular interest in bonsai, and along with Isaac Titsingh contributed to early European knowledge of the subject. He built a greenhouse on Dejima, where he raised hydrangeas, hostas, and other Japanese plants, adapting them to European soil and conditions; Siebold also smuggled tea plants out of Japan, introducing them to the Dutch East Indies.
Suspecting Siebold of political or even military motives in copying maps from the shogunate archives, 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, returning on 1859/7/6, and leaving again for the final time in 1862/3.
Writings
Nippon was published in Leiden in multiple volumes between 1832 and 1858. It was among the first books introducing knowledge about Japan into Europe, including being one of the first to discuss Japanese Buddhism, and Japanese medicine.
Manners and Customs of the Japanese in the Nineteenth Century was published in 1841.
References
- Marc Jason Gilbert. "Paper Trails: Deshima Island: A Stepping Stone between Civilizations." World History Connected 3.3 (2006). Accessed 4 Jan. 2013.