Court trips of the Dutch to Edo

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Court journeys of the Dutch to Edo ( Japanese 江 戸 参 府 , Edo sampu ) were journeys that the representatives of the Dutch East India Company had to undertake from the 17th to the 19th century. They played an important role in the self-image of the Japanese rulers as well as in the preparation for the rapid modernization of Japan after the opening of the country.

Train of the factory manager and his entourage on the way to Edo. Engraving from Engelbert Kaempfer's “The History of Japan” (1727).
The Dutch in their Nagasaki-ya hostel in Edo (woodcut by Hokusai from the picture book Ehonazuma-asobi , 1802, vol. 2).

Since the approval of their trading activities in Japan by the first shogun of the Japanese Tokugawa dynasty, Tokugawa Ieyasu , in 1609, the representatives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) have been obliged to move to Edo every year to attend a ceremony in the Great Hall ( ōhiroma ) of the castle to show their gratitude by showing reverence. To establish the authority of the Shogun, the Sinocentric world and self-image of the Chinese court was transferred to Japan in Edo . The country was now at the center of the world and was surrounded by less civilized peoples. The Dutch court trip and the gifts presented were interpreted based on the Chinese tribute system and rewarded with appropriate counter gifts, mostly in the form of precious kimonos ( jifuku 時 服 ).

For the factory manager and his two or three companions, this was the only opportunity after 1641 to observe the interior of the country. Otherwise, the Europeans were confined to their small island Dejima in Nagasaki Bay . Although it was not about diplomatic missions, but with the large crowd of Japanese servants and officials of the Nagasaki governorate, the effort of the Japanese feudal lords ( daimyō ), who followed the system of "alternating waiting" ( sankin kōtai ) imposed on them, was the same commuted at regular intervals between their respective fiefs and their second residence in Edo.

Initially, people sailed from Nagasaki to Osaka , but later it was customary to cross Kyushu by land in order to sail from Shimonoseki through the inland seas to Osaka. The last stretch was made on the famous "Eastern Sea Route" ( Tōkaidō ). The date was set by the Japanese in such a way that Edo was reached for the Japanese New Year celebrations. A hostel called Nagasaki House ( Nagasaki-ya ) in the Hongoku ( 本 石 町 ) district served as accommodation .

The gifts for the shogun were selected in advance of the reverence. Even the Imperial Councils ( rōjū ) did not go away empty-handed. They placed personal orders on this occasion. The "rarities" presented as gifts or delivered on order for payment included exotic animals, paintings and jewelry as well as telescopes, microscopes, zograscopes , expensive glasses, medicines, clocks, measuring instruments, weapons, books, maps, globes and the like. v. a. m. At the same time, the Dutch had to submit written reports ( fūsetsu-gaki ) about events in the world. In addition, there were many meetings before and after the reference, so that the Japanese elite knew quite well about the international situation and the technical and scientific achievements of the Europeans.

Those who had good connections among the Japanese doctors and scholars had the opportunity during the tour group's stay in Edo to meet the Europeans, who were closely monitored throughout the trip. An intensive exchange developed especially with the representatives of the "Hollandkunde" ( Rangaku ). Some sovereigns with a strong interest in Western things also visited the Dutch hostel more or less unofficially.

In the 17th century the Europeans got to know some of these “court trips” through the work of Arnoldus Montanus . In 1727, Engelbert Kaemmer's influential “History of Japan” published a detailed description, backed by maps, which later Japan authors such as Carl Peter Thunberg and Philipp Franz von Siebold served as a model for their reports.

After the collapse of the East India Company and its takeover by the state in 1797, court trips were only carried out every four years.

literature

  • Blussé, L. / Remmelink, W. / Smits, I .: Bridging the Divide - 400 years The Netherlands – Japan. Hotei, Leiden 2000, pp. 37-42. .
  • Forrer, M. / Effert, FR: The Court Journey To The Shogun Of Japan: From A Private Account By Jan Cock Blomhoff . Hotei, Leiden 2000.
  • Kaempfer, Engelbert: The History of Japan . London, 1727.
  • Michel, W .: Travels of the Dutch East India Company in the Japanese archipelago . In: Lutz Walter (Ed.): Japan. Seen through the eyes of the west. Printed maps of Europe from the early 16th to the 19th centuries. Prestel, Munich et al. 1994, pp. 31-39. ( ISBN 3-7913-1291-X )
  • Michel, W .: From Leipzig to Japan - The surgeon and trader Caspar Schamberger (1623–1706) . Iudicium Verlag , Munich 1999, pp. 56-137
  • Montanus, Arnoldus: Memorable envoys of the East Indian Society in the United Netherlands / to different Keysers of Japan ... drawn from the writings and Reyse lists of envoys . Jacob Meurs, Meurs 1670. (German version of the Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen published in 1669 )
  • Siebold, Philipp Franz von: Nippon. Archive describing Japan . 2nd, modified and supplemented edition, ed. of his sons. Leo Woerl, Würzburg and Leipzig 1897.
  • Thunberg, Karl Peter: Journey through a part of Europe, Africa and Asia, mainly in Japan, in the years 1770-1779 . Berlin: Haude and Spener, 1794. (Reprint, edited and introduced by Eberhard Friese. Heidelberg: Manutius Verlag, 1990 ISBN 3-925678-15-8 )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Also "Court trip of the head of the trading post " ( kapitan no Edo-sampu カ ピ タ ン の 江 戸 参 府 )
  2. ↑ About as much as "seasonal clothes". These "Japonse rocken" were negotiated by the Dutch partly in Asia, partly also brought to Europe, where they u. a. were used as a kind of overgarment.
  3. ↑ Only Korea sent formal diplomatic missions when a new Shogun took office. The occasional delegations arriving from Ryūkyū (now Okinawa ) were not overly respected and dispatched in the corridor ( engawa ) in front of the Great Hall. Representatives of the Ainu from Ezo in the far north even had to stay in the garden. Although the VOC was only a large joint-stock company until 1799, the Dutch factory managers were given treatment that went far beyond their actual status.
  4. ↑ Siebold gives a detailed report on this in Nippon. Archive describing Japan .