Cornelisz van Outhoorn

Cornelis Cornelisz. van Outhoorn (also Cornelis , Cornelius ) (* ? in the Moluccas ; † 1708 in Batavia (now Jakarta)) was a merchant of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and three times head of the Dejima branch in Nagasaki (Japan).

Life

Cornelis van Outhoorn's father, Cornelis Willemsz van Outhoorn (1609-1653), was in the service of the Dutch East India Company through a number of stations in Southeast Asia to the governor of the Banda Islands . His older brother Willem (1635–1720) had assumed the highest office in East Asia in September 1691 and, as governor general, determined the company's fortunes until August 1704.

Audience of Outhoorns (13) with the Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who is hidden behind a blind, in the Edo Palace (from: Engelbert Kaempfer, History of Japan , 1727)

It is not clear in what capacity Cornelis began his career. The older brother had temporarily returned to the Netherlands to study there. Cornelis probably followed this example. In any case, he had served as a merchant and second man in the branch in the Persian Gamron before he became "Cassier", ie head of the cash desk, in the fortress ( Casteel ) of Batavia in 1684 . In a 1683 letter he is referred to as the "Council of India". In the same year he married Susanna Muller, daughter of Nicolaas Muller, who was born in Hirado (Japan). He later headed the Dejima trading post in Nagasaki three times (October 13, 1688– November 1, 1689; November 9, 1691– October 29, 1692, October 27, 1695– October 15, 1696). He then acted as "baljuw", a kind of bailiff, from Batavia, where he died in 1708. His wife and three children Cornelis Willem, Nicolaas and Maria then moved to Utrecht .

The Lemgo doctor and research traveler Engelbert Kaempfer saw him as a superior in his second year on Dejima. He looks back with pleasure on his court trip with Outhorn in the spring of 1692:

"With Mr. Cornelius Outhorn, the brother of the present Mr. General Gouverneur, a linguistic, well-read and experienced man who knew how to please this unreasonable people very well because of his pricked people and thus the things of his master principals to the great benefit."

Kaemmer's drawing of the “audience hall” in the Edo Palace depicts the encounter with the Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi , who, after Outhoorn's official reverence, plagued the Europeans with all sorts of questions and requests.

Like many other managers of the Dejima factory, Outhoorn took a liking to Japan and brought all kinds of objects to Batavia. There was even a Japanese camphor tree in the garden of his house in Batavia.

further reading

• Engelbert Kaempfer : Works . Edited by Detlef Haberland , Wolfgang Michel , Elisabeth Gössmann . Critical edition in individual volumes. Volume 1, part 1–2: Wolfgang Michel, Barend J. Terwiel (ed.): Today's Japan . Iudicium, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-89129-931-1 .
• Willem Wijnaendts van Resandt: De Gezaghebbers of the East Indian Compagnie op hare Buiten-Comptoiren in Azië . Uitgevereij Liebaert, Amsterdam 1944 ( Genealogische Bibliotheek 2).
• Michael Bernhard Valentini : East Indian send letters, of all kinds of rare plants, trees, jubilation, also other rarities belonging to the termination of nature and Artzney art . 2nd edition. Zunners Erben et al., Frankfurt am Main 1714, online .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ More in Wijnaendts van Resandt (1944), p. 151. NNBW, Deel 6, 1087f.
2. ^ Letter from Herbert de Jager to Georg Eberhard Rumpf dated June 6, 1683, printed in Valentini (1614), p. 14.
3. ↑ Manuscript Today's Japan, British Library, Sloane Coll. No 3060, fol. 269v, edited in Michel / Terwiel (2001)
4. ^ Letter from Herbert de Jager to Georg Eberhard Rumpf dated June 6, 1683, printed in Valentini (1614), p. 14.