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Revision as of 19:10, 27 June 2012
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Reinier van Tzum or Tzom, sometimes Reijnjer van't Zum, (Tzum, ca. 1600 -- IJlst, September 21, 1670) worked for the Dutch East India Company and served in Siam, and as Opperhoofd (Chief factor) at Dejima.
Early career
Van Tzum was born in the Frisian village Tzum or Tzom. He was the son of Marten Jansz, a captain in the Admiralty of Friesland. He started as a merchant in Siam in 1629 and in 1643 he was appointed chief factor. He collaborated with Johan van Twist in Dutch Malacca, François Caron in Formosa, and the factors in Persia and at the Coromandel Coast.[1] Van Tzum arrived in Nagasaki on September 29, 1645 and assumed his position from November 30. Then he prepared his journey to Edo paying the emperor and the shogun his respect.
Visit to the Shogun
Van Tzum departed from Nagasaki on December 31, on a ship with six fellow Dutchmen. They reached Edo on February 7. As presents Van Tzum handed over Spectacles, magnifying glasses, optical lenses, also ones that could be used in a darkroom, and medicines. On February 12 he met with Inoue Masashige, the spin doctor from Nagasaki. Their discussion centered on the Nambu affair of 1643, when the skipper Hendrick Cornelisz Schaep and nine members of the crew of the Breskens were captured in Yamada in Iwate Prefecture.
The Breskens and her sister ship the Castricum (under Maarten Gerritsz Vries) had been sent by order of the Governor General in the Dutch East Indies, Anthonio van Diemen, to search for the Gold and Silver Islands that were said to lie somewhere northeast off the coast of Japan. They were also to investigate a route to northern Asia. In June 1643 the Breskens, which had been separated from the Castricum in a storm, entered the bay of Yamada in Nanbu domain in the northeast of Honshu. While searching for fresh water and food, ten crewmembers under Captain Schaep were apprehended and brought to the domain capital of Morioka. They were later sent to Edo. Unhappily for the Breskens’ crew, a group of four Jesuits intent on infiltrating into Japan had been caught at around the same time in a different part of Japan. As a result, bakufu officials were extremely anxious about the problem of coastal defenses. However after it was understood that the crew were Dutch and not Catholics, bakufu fears were calmed and the problem to be solved became one of deciding by which procedure the Dutch should be released.[2]
Oranda Kapitan Van Tzum was asked if he had come to Edo with gifts to thank the shogun for the release of the Dutch prisoners or if he had come to pay his respects in the usual manner. Van Tzum answered that he had come to do both, but this answer did not satisfy the bakufu. On March 8, Inoue informed van Tzum that the Dutch did not appear to adequately value the release of the Dutch prisoners. The Shogun admonished the Dutch not to have any intercourse with the Spanish or the Portuguese.[3]
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Upon his return to Nagasaki, the chief factor was informed by the interpreters that Nanking had been occupied by the Ching Dynasty and that Ikkan had sent a request for military support to the bakufu. Two junks arrived in Nagasaki from Nanking. The crew members of these junks had been forced to wear pigtails. (p. 141) The bakufu prohibited any dealings with ships from Nanking.
Van Tzum handed over the factory to his successor, Verstegen, on October 7, 1646. Three weeks later he left Japan. In January 1747 he left Batavia on the Haerlem. The ship was lost in storm near Table Bay in March. Sixty men settled for one year on the mainland, but Van Tzum had sailed back earlier on one of the other two ships. Back in Europe he settled in Cornjum where he married in 1648. In 1654 he moved to IJlst and became a member of the vroedschap. He was appointed burgomaster, deputee to the States of Friesland and in a board, checking the provincial finances.
Notes
References
- Cannegieter, D. (1904) Reynier van Tzum, een levensschets. Franeker.
- Hesselink, R.H. (2002) Prisoners from Nambu. Google books
- Roarda, R.S. (1961) De East-Ynjeske Opperkeapman Reijnier van Tzum. In nije samling oer libben en wurk fan in apart man út de 17e ieu