Region:  Japan

Bibliography

Primary sources



Kaempfer, Engelbert, Jolm Gaspar Scheuchzer, Hans Sloane. De Beschryving Van Japan. 1729.

This is a Dutch translation of a book written by Engelbert Kaempfer, who was a German physician for the Dutch East India Company. Kaempfer stayed in Nagasaki from September 1690 to October 1692, and occasionally went to the factory at Deshima, as well the embassy in Edo. He made a study of Japanese traditions, history, geography, and biology during his time in Japan. This book is a full account of his journeys in Asia. [Tami Latta]

Meijlan, G. F. and lsi Saka Sotels. Geschiedkundig 0verzigt Van Den Handel Der Europezen Op Japan. 1628.

This book was written by G. F. Meijlan, a German who served as the Chief of the Dutch factory in Nagasaki. He wrote a detailed history of the trade in Nagasaki. Its use of Japanese documents proves that there is a basis for creating a more in-depth look into the history of trade in Japan. [Tami Latta]

Montanus, Arnolclus and Jacob van Meurs. Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen Der Oost-Indische Maetschappy in 't Vereenigde Nederland, Aen De Kaisaren Van Japan. 1669.

This book is a detailed and illustrated account of Japan, including the first image of the Dutch trading island of Deshima. The book contains chapters and illustrations on the peoples, geography, and politics of Japan. The author also discusses subjects such as Japanese religion and history. [Tami Latta]

Struys, Jan Jansz. Drie Aanmerkelijke En Seer Rampspoedige Reysen, Door It alien, Griekenlandt, Lijlandt, Moscovien, Tartarijen, Meden, Persien, Oost-Indien, Japan, En Verscheyden Andere Gewesten. Amsterdam: 1676.

This book is an account of the travels of the adventurer Jan Jansz Struys. On his first voyage in 1647, Struys travelled as far as Japan. On subsequent voyages, he travelled to places such as Russia, Persia, and Arabia. [Tami Latta]

Valentijn, François. Oud En Nieuw Oost-Indiën : Vervattende Een Naaukeurige En Uitvoerige Verhandelinge Van Nederlands Mogentheyd in Die Gewesten, Benevens Eene Wydluftige Beschryvinge Der Moluccos, Amboina, Banda, Timor En Solor, Java, En Alle De Eylanden Onder Dezelve Landbestieringen Behoorende : Het Nederlands Comptoir Op Suratte, En De Levens Der Groote Mogols : Als Ook Een Keurlyke Verhandeling Van 't Wezentlykste Dat Men Behoort Te Weten Van Choromandel, Pegu, Arracan, Bengale, Mocha, Persien, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Malabar, Celebes of Macassar, China, Japan, Tayouan of Formosa, Tonkin, Cambodia, Siam, Borneo, Bali, Kaap Der Goede Hoop En Van Mauritius : Te Zamen Dus Behelzende Niet Alleen Eene Zeer Nette Beschryving Van Alles, Wat Nederlands Oost-Indien Betreft, Maar Ook 't Voornaamste Dat Eenigzins Tot Eenige Andere Europeërs, in Die Gewesten, Betrekking Heeft. Franeker: Van Wijnen, 2002.

This book, written by François Valentijn, discusses the different countries that the Dutch East India Company traded with in the Far East. Valentijn spent sixteen years in the East Indies as a minister, and he lived in tropical locales such as Java and Ambon. This book contains more than a thousand illustrations, including the most up-to-date maps of the eighteenth century. [Tami Latta]

https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008243392

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Secondary sources



Japanese-Dutch Relations

Goodman, Grant Kohn. Japan and the Dutch 1600-1853. Richmond, England : Curzon Press, 2000.

Grant K. Goodman is a Professor Emeritus in history at the University of Kansas. His book, Japan and the Dutch 1600-1853, is a revision of his two earlier volumes on the same topic. In this most current version, Goodman explores the Dutch-Japanese relationship and its influence on the internal society of Japan during the Edo Period (1600-1853). Goodman primarily consults Japanese sources in order to analyze the “ways in which information coming into Japan from the West through the Dutch was assimilated and utilized by the Japanese” (1). As Goodman explains in the introduction, Dutch studies in Japan (called rangaku) were not specifically about Holland, but rather the study of Western scientific knowledge. After several introductory chapters to explain the Dutch presence at Deshima, Goodman’s text focuses on the post- seventeenth century. It was during this period when Yoshimune, the Japanese shogun, claimed a personal stake in Western learning and relaxed the restriction on the importation and translation of foreign books. However, as Goodman’s study reveals, a lingering suspicion of those engaged in Western learning persisted despite the growing acceptance of Dutch studies in Japan. Related sources: Goodman, Grant K. The Dutch Impact on Japan (1640-1853). E.J. Brill: Leiden, 1967. ------. Japan: The Dutch Experience. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1986.

Reviews available for consultation:

Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice M. “Reviewed work: Grant K. Goodman. Japan and the Dutch 1600-1853.” The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Aug 2001): 868-870.

Moreton, David. “Reviewed work: Grant K. Goodman. Japan and the Dutch 1600-1853.” Pacific Affairs, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Spring, 2002): 124-126.

[Amanda Strasik]

Forrer, Matthi and Arlette Kouwenhoven. Siebold and Japan: His Life and Work. Leiden, Netherlands: Hotei Publishers, 2000.

This semi-biographical book is about the life and teachings of Philipp Franz von Siebold, a Dutch physician and researcher that was appointed to the post of Surgeon-Major of the hospitals and troops in the Dutch East Indies. The book, a collaborative project between a freelance anthropologist (Kouwenhoven) and a professor of Japanese art and material culture from Leiden University (Forrer), was written in 2000 to commemorate not only the anniversary of the exclusive trading relationship between Japan and Holland that lasted from the mid-seventeenth century until 1854, but also to accompany the opening of the Sieboldhuis: a newly established museum that is located in the house where Siebold studied and displayed his collections of natural and ethnographical objects from Japan. Beyond the introduction, the book is divided into four sections that correspond to Siebold’s detailed studies and records of Japanese botany, zoology, and ethnography during the time he spent in service to the Dutch government in Deshima. [Amanda Strasik]

van Gulik, Willem R. In the Wake of Liefde: Cultural Relations between The Netherlands and Japan Since 1600. Amsterdam: De Bataafsche Leeuw, 1986.

This publication, calling attention to the first Dutch ship to arrive in Japan in its title, accompanied a 1986 exhibition of objects from national and private collections in Japan and the Netherlands that exemplified the “historical transition of exchanges between [the Netherlands and Japan] in the fields of culture, art, sociology, economics, and politics” (preface). Through various short essays that preface a selection of objects, the contributing specialists stress the commercial relationship between the Dutch and the Japanese during the period of Japan’s isolation. This relationship not only led to an exchange of material goods, but also promoted a mutual and long-lasting exchange of intellect and cultural innovation, as the exhibition emphasizes. This resource includes an introduction to topics like Japanese cartography, the buildings on Deshima, the influence of Japan on Dutch fashion, and the interchange of ceramics. [Amanda Strasik]

---. The Court Journey: The Dutch en route to the Shogun. Leiden, 2000.

Massarella, Derek. A World Elsewhere: Europe’s Encounter with Japan in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990.

Proust, Jacques. Europe Through the Prism of Japan: Sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Translated by Elizabeth Bell. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002.

French scholar Jacques Proust’s Europe Through the Prism of Japan (translated into English by Elizabeth Bell) analyzes the image that Europe constructed of itself and projected, whether this projection was deliberate or not, to the Japanese during the late-sixteenth through the eighteenth century. Proust is especially interested in the humanistic role of the early Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in Japan. It was this group, Proust argues, that was the primary source and disseminator of Western knowledge and art prior to the arrival of the Dutch merchants in the early seventeenth century. As the scholarly reviews make clear, this volume, while insightful, is largely geared toward audiences that are non-Japanese specialists since Proust does not aim to give a full account of the history of Japan. While he claims to have abandoned the Eurocentric model in his critical analysis of Europe-Japanese relations, one reviewer (Yonemoto) noted that Proust’s argument is regrettably skewed because of his presentation of Europeans as “dynamic individuals with distinct ideas and personal histories while the Japanese are blurry, elusive, and ultimately forgettable” (627).

Reviews available for consultation:

Parry, Graham. “Reviewed work: Jacques Proust and Elizabeth Bell (trans). Europe Through the Prism of Japan: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries.” Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Summer, 2003): 531-533.

Yonemoto, Marcia. “Reviewed work: Jacques Proust and Elizabeth Bell (trans). Europe Through the Prism of Japan: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries.” The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Summer, 2004): 625-627.

[Amanda Strasik]

Rietbergen, P. Between Deshima and Jedo: Dutchmen in Japan, 1600-1853. Nijmegen, 2000.

Museum Exhibition Catalogues

Akveld, Leo and Els M. Jacobs. “Japan.” In The Colourful World of the VOC, 136-147. Bussum: THOTH, 2002.

This book was published in 2002 to commemorate the quadricentennial of the founding of the VOC. Through a limited political and social survey of the period, the chapter on Japan generally discusses the Dutch-Japanese relations during the mid- seventeenth century. In 1640, Japan’s expulsion of all foreigners from the mainland resulted in the containment of the Dutch to the artificial island of Decima in the Bay of Nagasaki. Yet, from afar, the Dutch played an important role in Japan’s perception of Western culture. Annually, the Dutch “Chief” of Decima and his entourage was ceremoniously invited to the court at Edo (modern Tokyo) to thank the Japanese ruler for their presence in Japan. It was here that gifts were exchanged between the two cultures and signifies an interesting aspect of inter-culturation. This source also includes excellent images of not only the objects that were gifted and traded, but representations of the small Dutch village on Decima. [Amanda Strasik]

Ayers, John, Oliver Impey, and JVG Mallet. Porcelain for Palaces: The Fashion for Japan in Europe, 1650-1750. London: Oriental Ceramic Society, 1990.

This catalogue went along with an exhibition that was organized for the British Museum in the opening of the new Japanese Galleries in 1990. As specified in the editorial preface, the catalogue is arranged according to the different classes of exported Japanese objects during the period between 1650-1750. Proceeding the objects’ descriptions, however, is a brief overview that aims to explain the historical circumstances of the porcelain trade. The catalogue also includes a section that features the impact of porcelain on the European scene, especially in the use of these objects in luxury interior decoration in important homes and palaces. A final section traces the impact of the Japanese styles on the development of European ceramics. [Amanda Strasik]

Blussé, Leonard, Willem Remmelink, and Ivo Smits, eds. Bridging the Divide: 400 Years, the Netherlands and Japan. Leiden: Hotei; Hilversum: Teleac, 2000.

Blussé, Leonard, Willem Remmelink, and Ivo Smits, eds. Bridging the Divide: 400 Years, the Netherlands and Japan. Leiden: Hotei; Hilversum: Teleac, 2000. The editors of this book, Professor Leonard Blusse, Professor Emeritus from Leiden University Institute for History, Professor Ivo Smits from Leiden University Institute for History and Doctor Willem Remmelink, Director of the Japan-Netherlands Institute in Tokyo have collected contributions from more than sixty Japanese and Dutch authors well known in their respective fields of scholarship. The content of these discussion ranges from the beginning of Dutch-Japanese relationship in the early years at Hirado (1600-1640) through the period of the Netherlands East Indies and the Dutch-Japanese diplomatic relations after WWII to the present-day communication of the two countries. The purpose of the book which was published in 2000 in celebration of the fourth centennial since the Dutch vessel de Liefde was blown off course and stranded on the Japanese shore, is to view the Dutch-Japan relationship from the perspective of the development of world history because "the essence of the four hundred year relationship between Japan and the Netherlands can only be grasped within the wider context of world history", as was noted in the preface.

Reviews consulted:

Michel, Wolfgang. "Bridging the Divide: 400 Years the Netherlands-Japan."Monumenta Nipponica, Winter, 2001, Vol.56(4), p.545-547.

Books on similar topic:

Van Opstall, Margot E et al. Vier eeuwen Nederland-Japan: kunst, wetenschap, taal, handel (Lochem: Tijdstroom, 1983).

[Sicong Zhu]

de Brujin, Max and Bas Kist, eds. Sawasa: Japanese Export Art in Black and Gold 1650-1800. Amsterdam: Waanders Publishers, 1999.

This publication accompanied a comprehensive exhibition of sawasa wares at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam during the late 1990s. As curators Max de Brujin and Bas Kist explain in their introduction, the provenance of the word sawasa is ambiguous because of its Japanese and Dutch origins, but the categorical term usually refers to a group of black lacquered and gilt objects that originated in Japan (and perhaps later in China and Indonesia). Some of the most common sawasa wares include sword hilts, cutlery, snuffboxes, buttons, and jewelry. These objects are especially representative of Dutch-Japanese inter-culturation because of the contrasting combination of European shapes and “peculiar mixture of Asian and European decorative motifs and techniques” (5). This fusion of Western shape and Asian design demonstrates the mutual cultural influences between the Dutch and the Japanese during the seventeenth century. Chapter Two, entitled “Sawasa,” provides a brief historical survey of the period during which sawasa wares were most frequently produced for and purchased by the Dutch market. In addition to a catalogue of the exhibition, other applicable essay topics include “Scientific analysis of metal alloys and surface layers of Sawasa objects by the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage Amsterdam” (by P. Hallebeek) and “Decoration and Symbolism on Sawasa Export Art” (by R. Krijgsman). [Amanda Strasik]

Fock, C.W., ed. Art and Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt. Zwolle, 2001.

Jackson, Anna and Amin Jaffer, eds. Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe, 1500-1800. London: V&A ; New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2004.

This volume accompanied a major 2004 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Covering a broad range of Asian-European topics not limited to the Dutch-Japanese involvement (the contributors also consider Portugal and Britain), the book is divided thematically into three general sections: “Discoveries,” “Encounters,” and “Exchanges.” Relevant Dutch-Japanese short essays include contextual discussions about the Dutch settlement of Deshima, European diplomatic relations with the Japanese, Japanese depictions of the Europeans (and European depictions of the Japanese), and the implications of the exchange of goods between Asian and Europe. This resource has an extensive bibliography and includes many materials in Dutch and Portuguese.

Available exhibition-book review: Impey, Oliver. “The Meeting of Asian and Europe,” The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 146, No. 1220, Raphael (Nov 2004), 773-774.

[Amanda Strasik]

Kyoto National Museum. Winds from Afar: Europe through the Eyes of Edo-period Kyoto. Kyoto: Museum of Kyoto, 2000.

McGill, Forrest and Kaz Tsuruta. A Curious Affair: The Fascination Between East and West. The Asian Art Museum: San Francisco, 2006.

This self-consciously identified “introductory” publication was produced to accompany a modest (in terms of scale, not importance) 2006 exhibition entitled “A Curious Affair: The Fascination Between East and West” at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, CA. Drawing from objects in regional collections only, this exhibition aimed to showcase the extent to which Asians and Westerners have seen each other over the centuries (5). This exhibition features objects from all media that were typically considered luxury goods during their periods of production. For example, a nineteenth-century Japanese woodblock print depicts an image of a Dutch woman raising her wine glass. The Japanese interpretations of Dutch dress, specifically, most likely derived from European fashion illustrations instead of real-life observations. [Amanda Strasik]

van Rappard-Boon, Ch. and N. Dekking, eds. Imitation and Inspiration: Japanese Influence on Dutch Art. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1992. Annotation

This catalogue accompanied a 1991 exhibition at the Suntory Museum of Art in Tokyo that aimed to trace the history of the relationship between Japan and the Netherlands from the middle of the seventeenth century until present day. While a number of questions exist in terms of the cultural “inspiration and imitation” between the two countries, this text is only concerned with the influence of Japanese visual art on the Dutch. The catalogue surveys objects from all media, including ceramics; lacquerware; textiles; metalwork; paintings, graphic art and calligraphy; and “contemporary” techniques. [Amanda Strasik]

Sargent, William. “First Western Contacts: The Portuguese and the Dutch.” In World’s Revealed: The Dawn of Japanese and American Exchange, 1-29. Tokyo: Edo-Tokyo Museum, 1999.

William Sargent’s introductory essay is the first section in a six-section collection of introductory essays that accompanied a 1999 exhibition that marked the 200th anniversary of Japanese-American relations and cultural contact. Sargent’s essay makes clear that the Japanese had a history with the West prior to their contact with the Americans. Japanese associations with and interest in Western art greatly influenced not only their native art forms, but also initiated European interest and even imitation of Japanese art. Sargent provides a brief, but thorough, historical account of the Portuguese, Dutch, and Chinese presence in Japan during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He asserts that the Dutch village of Deshima became Japan’s only link to the Western world after their 1639 exclusion policy grew more rigorous in order to protect Japanese culture from the “corrupting” spread of Christianity. [Amanda Strasik]

Zandvliet, Kees, ed. The Dutch Encounter with Asia 1600-1950. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Waadners Publishers, Zwolle, 2002. Annotation

This volume, published to accompany an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum that celebrated the quatercentenary of the VOC’s foundation, includes fourteen introductory chapters that trace the Dutch presence in Asia from 1600-1950. Through detailed descriptions of the objects on display, the contributing scholars explore issues of slavery in Asia, the diplomacy of the VOC and the use of force, and the emergence of a hybrid culture and “art that has often been derided as not genuinely Asian and therefore somehow inferior” (9). The aim of the exhibition was to offer a fresh perspective on the long history of the Dutch in the East, with particular attention given to the function of the objects and the people who made them. The authors focused on themes of social, diplomatic, administrative, and military history in their approach to each object. [Amanda Strasik]

Japanese-Dutch Visual Culture

Debergh, Minako, Joan Blaeu, N. Visscher. "A Comparative Study of Two Dutch Maps, Preserved in the Tokyo National Museum. Joan Blaeu's Wall Map of the World in Two Hemispheres, 1648 and it's Revision Ca. 1678 by N. Visscher." Imago Mundi 35, (1983): 20-36.

This article presents a comparison of two Dutch maps that are located in Tokyo: Joan Blaeu’s Map of the World in Two Hemispheres and its revision by N. Visscher. Because of its modern features, this map was very successful, and there were many adaptations, both Dutch and Japanese, in the following years. Only eleven copies of Blaeu’s map exist, but these maps have not always been preserved well. The map at the Tokyo Museum is a first edition, and it is in excellent condition. The other brings up the point that there are problems with comparing these two maps. Most importantly, the composition of Blaeu’s map, its geography, the history of its cartography, and its influence for later Japanese maps. [Amanda Strasik]

Dixon, Laurinda S. "Trade and Tradition: Japan and the Dutch Golden Age." In The Orient Expressed: Japan's influence on Western Art, 1854-1918, edited by Gabriel Weisberg, 77-94. Jackson: Mississippi Museum of Art; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.

This essay, part of a larger volume that focuses on the influence of Japan on nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Western art, seeks to demonstrate that the lasting impact of the cultural interchange between Japan and the Dutch originated during the seventeenth century. Through her analysis of Dutch life on Deshima, the Dutch craze for the Japanese kimonos, and the exchange of porcelain during Japan’s policy of isolation (called sakoku), Dixon’s essay approaches the study of Dutch-Japanese art forms according to the political and social conditions of the period. [Amanda Strasik]

Hendry, Joy. The Orient Strikes Back: A Global View of Cultural Display. Oxford: Berg, 2000.

Hesselink, Reinier H. "A Dutch New Year at the Shirando Academy. 1 January 1975." Monumenta Nipponica 50, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 189-234.

On January 1975, the Shirando Academy celebrated the Western New Year in traditional Dutch style. Two hundred years earlier, a rangakusha, a Japanese scholar of Western learning, named Otsuki Gentaku was the first to celebrate the New Year in the Dutch style, taking on the risk of incurring the wrath of the Bakufu. Gentaku was already a well-known rangakusha, having become a translator and teacher of Dutch in Japan. The event was so memorable that an artist committed it to canvas, in the form of a painting called Shirando Shingenkaizu. From this painting, those holding the New Year's party in 1975, planned to reconstruct the event with precision. [Amanda Strasik]

Hochstrasser, Julie Berger. Still Life and Trade in the Dutch Golden Age. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007.

Impey, Oliver. “Japanese Export Art of the Edo Period and its Influence on European Art.” Mode 18 (1984): 685-697.

Impey looks at the influence of Western art on objects made in Japan and exported to Europe. Styles evolved over the years depending on the trends within the export market. Lacquer and ceramics in particular provide an interesting case study of the European demand for Eastern fashions. European attempts at lacquer making (“Japanning”) were a respectable craft and the manufacturing process was published by Stalker and Parker in their 1688 Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing. “Japanning” artists complained of competition from Asia and protection duties unsuccessfully restricted the lacquer products that could be imported to Europe. Similarly, porcelain manufacturing was attempted in Europe, but necessary raw materials limited the potential of authentically Chinese and Japanese porcelains. Overtime European renditions of soft and hard past porcelains were developed but not of the same caliber as their inspirations. Competition between China and Japan came about as Dutch merchants shifted away from China to Japan. China undercut Japan in a price war in order to win back Dutch favor, but Western tastes preferred the Japanese Imari and Kakiemon style porcelains. European-made pastiches in the Japanese style also had a pronounced effect on the import market. Japanese woodblock prints eventually became influential in European art, but this conversation is beyond the scope of Impey’s paper. [Nathan Popp]

Kaufmann, Thomas DaCosta. “Designed for Desecration: Fumi-e and European Art.” In Toward a Geography of Art, 303-340. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Kaufmann is a professor in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. His studies have primarily focused on early modern European art. In this book, Kaufmann sets out to “investigate how notions of place, of the geographical, have been inflected into writing about change through time as it has been and is still discussed in art history (6).” In his chapter on fumi-e, Kaufmann discusses both the ceremony of e-fumi, in which “those suspected of being Christian in Japan were made to trample on Christian religious images," but also the objects used in this ceremony, fumi-e (305). Focusing on historiography, the history of fumi-e, and possible western sources for the scenes used, Kaufmann provides an solid foundation of this subject. [Ashley Mason]

Related source (added by Amanda Strasik): Mochizuki, Mia. “Deciphering the Dutch in Decima.” In The Boundaries of the Dutch, Real and Imagined, edited by Marybeth Carlson, Laura Cruz, and Benjamin J. Kaplan, 63-94. Boston: Brill, 2009.

Linschoten, Jan Huygen van. Jan Huygen van Linschoten and the moral map of Asia: the plates and text of the Itinerario and icones, habitus gestusque indorum ac lusitanorum per indiam uiuentium / with a study by Ernst van den Boogaart. London : Printed for presentation to the members of the Roxburghe Club, 1999.

Mochizuki, Mia. “Deciphering the Dutch in Decima.” In The Boundaries of the Dutch, Real and Imagined. By Marybeth Carlson, Laura Cruz, and Benjamin J. Kaplan, 63-94. Boston: Brill, 2009.

In her chapter entitled “Deciphering the Dutch in Decima,” Mia Mochizuki, an associate professor of art history and religion at the University of California at Berkeley, questions the stereotype of the commercially opportunistic Dutchman in Japan and explores how the material culture of the Dutch Reformed churches informed the visual vocabulary of exploration (66). Through an analysis of Dutch brass light fixtures that were gifted to the Japanese, the names of Dutch ships, and a series of panels used in local decoration on Decima, Mochizuki challenges the assumption that the Dutch, because of their seemingly staunch “distinterest” in religion, exclusively participated in the Japanese e-fumi ceremonies to win favor over the Portuguese Roman Catholics. However, this is not to say that the Dutch refuted Christianity. Instead, the export of a new Dutch visual culture to Japan was a case where the lack of understanding actually aided in the furthering of cultural interaction since the Japanese did not fully understand the Dutch Reformed associations. While Mochizuki acknowledges that the Dutch recognized that their overt rejection of Roman Catholicism was critical to Japanese acceptance during the period of sakoku, Mochizuki reconsiders the Dutch involvement in the e-fumi ritual. She argues that from the Dutch perspective, the e-fumi ceremony was understood as a kind of stylized iconoclastic behavior that displayed the diplomatic bond with the shogun while reaffirming the Dutch Reformed identity with its ties to nationhood.

Related source: Kaufmann, Thomas DaCosta. “Designed for Desecration: Fumi-e and European Art.” In Toward a Geography of Art, 303-340. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

[Amanda Strasik]

-----. “The Moveable Center: The Netherlandish Map in Japan.” In Artistic and Cultural Exchange Between Europe and Asia 1400-1900, 109-133. Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2010.

Myer, Prudence R. "Images and Influences of Oriental Art: A Study in European Taste." Art Journal 20, no. 4 (Summer, 1961): 203-210.

Prudence Myers examines the history of early European trade with the Far East and the Western interest in imitating the art and decorative objects they procured. She argues that what they imported, imitated and described of these distant countries reveals as much about the East as it does the Western viewer. For example, the establishment of the British East India Company in 1602 and the Netherlands company two years later, opened an era of commercial rivalry which soon filled the markets with oriental imports. With the growing interest in Eastern wares such as lacquered boxes, porcelains, and furniture, Oriental craftsmen soon became so adept at copying European designs in order to make their designs more suitable to western needs. The decoration of these western imitations shows that much of the appeal lay in fresh and brilliant color and minute detail. Moreover western decorators found that the apparent freedom of oriental art from all rules of proportion and structural logic, and its rich variety of new motifs, made it peculiarly adaptable to a purely decorative role. Even royal patrons were often satisfied with mere imitations, which testify well enough to the qualities most admired in the originals. This is particularly evident by the strong popularity of chinoiserie, which reflected eighteenth century interest in freedom and informality of design. [Elizabeth Schmid]

Schweizer, Anton and Avinoam Shalem. "Translating Visions: A Japanese Lacquer Plaque of the Haram of Mecca in the L.A. Mayer Memorial Museum, Jerusalem." Ars Orientalis 39, (2010): 148-173.

The focus of this article is a small Japanese lacquered plaque that shows the Ka’aba in Mecca. This piece was exported from Japan during the late 1700s and is particularly interesting because it represents a change in the style of Japanese arts by the Western world. Rather than having pieces that included both European and Japanese elements, this plaque has only Western design elements. The author presents the theory that this change in taste was initiated by some of the Dutch traders at Deshima. It is most likely that the plaque was modeled after a print by the Dutch artist Jan Goeree. [Amanda Strasik]

Screech, Timon. The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: _The Lens within the Heart. _Cambridge ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Screech prefaces his agreement with a statement that his book is not intended to be a traditional history of art, but rather a look into the core of eighteenth century Japanese thought facilitated by the analysis of “things that were viewed only lightly in their own time.” His analysis of the relationship between the Dutch and the Japanese focuses exclusively on Japanese materials and how they were impacted by the “western scientific gaze.” This organizational framework is structured around a number of continuing themes that serve to unite the seven chapters, for example the Japanese concept of Ran, an abstract conceptualization of Western culture, and the differences between the “traditional” Japanese way of seeing and the western gaze. The first chapter provides the reader with an overview of the Dutch trade presence in Japan. With this basic information intact, Screech moves on to discuss the formation of a Japanese conception of the Dutch national character, especially as it relates to accuracy in fabrication and scientific knowledge. The third chapter tracks the impact of devices including clocks and hydraulics on Japanese visual understanding. Next, Screech moves into a discussion of vision and related goods which spans three chapters. Key topics discussed here include the role of representational precision as it relates to etchings and textual documentation, glass storage bottles and windows, and the lens. Finally, chapter seven comments on the role of height in vision. Although received with mixed critical opinions, this text offers the reader a resource that discusses elements of Japanese culture generally overlooked in other situations.

Reviews available for consultation:

Hesselink, Reinier H. Reviewing The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: The Lens Within the Heart, by Timon Screech. Monumenta Nipponica 52, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 128-131.

Tinios, Ellis. Reviewing The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan: The Lens Within the Heart, by Timon Screech. Burlington Magazine 139, no. 1135 (October 1997): 699-700.

[Lauren M. Freese]

Shimada, Ryūto. The Intra-Asian trade in Japanese copper by the Dutch East India Company during the Eighteenth Century. Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2006.

Siebold, Philipp Franz von. Nippon: Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan. Vollständiger Neudruck der Urausgabe zur Erinnerung an Philipp Franz von Siebolds erstes Wirken in Japan, 1823-1830. In zwei Textund zwei Tafelbänden mit einem Ergänzungsband. Hrsg. von japanisch-holländischen Institut, Tokyo. Tokyo, Kodansha, 1975.

Suzuki, Keiko. "The Making of Tojin Construction of the Other in Early Modern Japan." Asian Folklore Studies 66, no. 112 (2007): 83-105.

This article looks into the representation of foreigners in Japanese art, with particular attention to ukiyo-e, wood block prints, from the Edo period. Because of the self-imposed seclusion of the Japanese, the opinion of foreigners was usually that of non-sensical and super-human figures with strange outfits and stranger behaviors. Even though the Dutch had a small trading port in Japan, they were secluded from the Japanese population. The mystery surrounding the Western foreigners resulted in a piece of art that depicted all Westerners as the same, without individual cultures and countries. Suzuki emphasizes that while elite attitude excluded and minimized non-Japanese elements, the non-elite remained fascinated with non-Japanese elements. This interpretation is counter to scholarly understanding which has assumed a homogenous disinterest in all non-Japanese elements. Suzuki discusses the use of the term tojin in popular art to describe anyone impervious to common sense, including Chinese, Koreans and Europeans. Tojin appear as actors in Kabuiki, acrobats, characters literature, and in ukiyo-e prints. In these images there is a consistent conflation of European “Christian Magic,” other non-Japanese elements, and the traditional Japanese belief that strangers have supernatural power. Suzuki reads this as showing that the popular images of the non-Japanese were constructed to marginalizing and de-humanize foreigners, precisely because they were non-Japanese. [undergrad with additions by Tyler Ostergaard]

Vlam, Grace A. H. "Sixteenth-Century European Tapestries in Tokugawa Japan." The Art Bulletin 63, no. 3 (Sep. 1981): 476-495.

Every year the town of Kyoto celebrates an event with festivities such as floats, banners, decorated textiles, most of which are from Japan. However, there are several textiles that are not of Japanese origin that show up at this festival, such as: Persian rugs, Flemish tapestries, and most interestingly, Greco-Roman tapestries that depict Roman history. These foreign goods have been in Japan since the seventeenth century, having been imported through the Dutch East India Company. This article discusses how the Greco-Roman tapestries came to be in Japan, as well as why they are considered important enough to be presented in a festival nearly four hundred years later. [Amanda Strasik]

Volker, T. The Japanese Porcelain Trade of the Dutch East India Company after 1683. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1959.

This publication is a “sequel” to Volker’s previous study on the Dutch-Japanese porcelain trade during the seventeenth century. Reporting information from contemporary account books and other archival materials alone, this book chronicles the yearly activity of the Dutch engagement with Japanese porcelain market during the eighteenth century. This book does not offer any critical analysis or art historical interpretation; rather, it is a collection of contemporary data findings on the Dutch-Japanese porcelain industry.

Related source: Volker, T. Porcelain and the Dutch East India Company: 1602-1682. Leiden, 1954.

[Amanda Strasik]

Yonemoto, Marcia. Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period, 1603-1868. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003.

Currently an Associate Professor of early modern history at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Marcia Yonemoto’s book examines the elusive idea of geographic consciousness during the early modern period (1603-1868) in Japan. From an interdisciplinary perspective, Yonemoto examines maps, travel narratives, diaries, and other early modern texts to understand the history of mapping as an idea---not the historiography of cartography (2). While there is some mention of the implications of the Dutch presence on the island of Decima (see Chapter Three), this book is especially useful for both Japanese and Western specialists looking to understand mapping as a process of perception and representation in addition to the map as a material product and even an art form.

Reviews available for consultation:

Brown, Philip. “Reviewed work: Marcia Yonemoto. Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868).” The American Historical Review, Vol. 109, No. 2 (April 2004): 495-496

Siebert, Loren. “Reviewed work: Marcia Yonemoto. Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868).” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History , Vol. 35, No. 2 (Autumn, 2004): 341-342.

Vaporis, Constantine N. “Reviewed work: Marcia Yonemoto. Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868).” The Journal of Japanese Studies , Vol. 30, No. 2 (Summer, 2004): 507-511.

[Amanda Strasik]