JAPAN THROUGH WESTERN EYES:

Manuscript Records of Traders, Travellers, Missionaries and Diplomats, 1853-1941

Part 9: Siebold Manuscripts from the Oriental Manuscripts Collection at the British Librar

Editorial Introduction by Hamish Todd, Head of Japanese Section, Asia, Pacific

& Africa Collections, British Library

Of the major historical collections of Japanese books and manuscripts in the British Library, the largest and most wide-ranging is that of Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866).  It consists of 1,088 works in 3,441 volumes and was purchased in 1868 by the British Museum from Siebold’s son Alexander for £1,100 (approximately £65,000 in current terms).  Although there had been a small number of Japanese books in the Museum prior to this, with the arrival of the Siebold collection the Museum’s holdings became a substantial resource for academic research rather than a small group of curiosities.  Together with the other holdings of the British Museum Library the Siebold collection passed to the British Library on its establishment in 1973.

Siebold’s Career

Born in Würzburg in Germany in 1796 Philipp Franz von Siebold followed a well-established family tradition by training as a physician.  He was also a keen student of botany, zoology, anthropology, geography and languages.  After reading medicine at the University of Würzburg he moved to the Hague and in 1822 was appointed medical officer to the Dutch East India Company’s trading post in Nagasaki.  In addition to his medical duties Siebold was also charged with carrying out a scientific study of Japan, a task for which his wide-ranging interests made him eminently qualified.

Following the expulsion of foreigners in 1639 the Tokugawa Shogunate had permitted only a small number of Dutch and Chinese merchants to continue trading under strictly regulated conditions.  The Dutch trading post was located on the small, fan-shaped man-made island of Deshima (or Dejima) linked to the mainland by a stone bridge.  Entry and exit was carefully controlled by the Japanese authorities and the Dutch were all but imprisoned.  Yet despite its insistence on this official policy of seclusion the Shogunate maintained an interest in the wider world and in particular medicine, astronomy and military science.  For over two centuries, until the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1853, contacts with the Dutch of Deshima provided the only link for Japanese scholars with intellectual developments in the West and the knowledge acquired in this way came to be termed Rangaku or “Dutch learning”.

This was the situation which met Siebold on his arrival in Japan in 1823.  Thanks to his highly valued medical skills, however, Siebold was given greater freedom than his colleagues.  He was able to visit patients in Nagasaki and to travel beyond the city limits in search of samples of flora and fauna for his studies and, most remarkably, in 1824 he was granted permission by the authorities to establish a school outside the city at Narutaki, primarily to provide instruction in medicine and surgery.  Scholars of Rangaku came from all over the country to learn not just  the latest medical developments but also to study a range of other subjects under Siebold’s guidance.

Such extensive contact with Japanese intellectuals was of huge help to Siebold in his Japanese studies as was his inclusion in the official delegation from Dejima to the Shogun’s Court in Edo in 1826.  The journey lasted several months and afforded Siebold the opportunity to complete the first large-scale scientific study of Japan carried out by a Westerner and to acquire more items for his collection.  During their stay in Edo the Dutch delegates were able to interact more freely with the Japanese than they could in Nagasaki and received large numbers of visitors.  Among them were official astronomers, court physicians and other Rangaku scholars who had been eagerly awaiting this chance to question Siebold and his colleagues.  They also presented him with books, manuscripts and maps which he would otherwise have been unable to obtain.  It was this generosity which led to Siebold’s eventual banishment from Japan in the so-called “Siebold Affair” of September 1828.  The discovery of prohibited items, including a number of recent maps, in Siebold’s luggage led to an official investigation and the arrest of a number of his friends and students.  There was a delay of some months before Siebold himself was arrested and his papers seized which gave him time to get his most prized possessions to safety and even to make copies of some of the maps before they were confiscated.  It seems that the authorities were fairly lenient with Siebold, perhaps mindful of the assistance he had provided, and his punishment was expulsion from Japan.  His Japanese associates were treated far more harshly.

Siebold was able to bring the majority of the items he had collected safely back to Europe where he eventually sold them to the Dutch Government.  The bulk of this collection is now to be found in Leiden University and the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden.

Three decades later Siebold returned to Japan.  His second stay from 1859-62 was less successful than the first.  His somewhat difficult personality to clashes with other foreign residents and his vaunted expert knowledge of trade and other aspects of Japan proved out of date in the politically and socially turbulent years at the close of the Tokugawa Period.  His appointment as a foreign affairs adviser to the Shogunate was terminated after a few months and he returned to Europe a disappointed man.  Nevertheless during this second period in Japan Siebold built another collection even larger than his first and it is this material which was subsequently bought by the British Museum.  Siebold died in Munich in1866 at the age of 70.

Siebold’s Collection

The collection now in the British Library comprises 1,045 titles in 3,242 volumes from Siebold’s second trip to Japan as well as 43 titles in 199 volumes from his first.  It is truly encyclopaedic in scope and includes works on philosophy, religion, divination, history, almanacs, military science, medicine, mathematics, botany, agriculture, Japanese and Chinese literature, geography, topography and maps as well as manners and customs, the arts and pastimes such as music, flower arranging and  tea ceremony.  In his collecting Siebold clearly valued textual importance over aesthetic merit or bibliographical significance and focussed on contemporary Japan so that there are relatively few “fine printings” or very early works.  His aim was to create a large, wide-ranging research library and in this he succeeded as the collection acquired by the British Museum was, at the time, the largest assemblage of Japanese books and manuscripts in the West.

One of the great strengths of the collection lies in its 123 manuscripts which account for almost half of all the pre-modern Japanese manuscripts acquired by the British Library.  Although it has not been possible to include all of them in this microfilm set it is hoped that the selection serves to show the breadth and depth of the manuscript collection as a whole.  Space does not permit a detailed description here of each of the manuscript reproduced but some brief notes on a few of them should serve as an introduction to the rest.

As mentioned above, Siebold’s second visit to Japan coincided with a period of great political change which led eventually to the fall of the feudal system of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Meiji Restoration of 1868.  It is not surprising, therefore, that the collection includes a large number of documents dealing with politics.  For example, Or.857-Or.859 relate to the political principles established by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa Shogun.

An otherwise unrecorded manuscript in this category is Tenpo go-kaikaku nikki (Or.861), an anonymous diary of events in the tumultuous years between 1841 and 1843 which saw far-reaching social and political changes.

Ranjin sanpu o-itoma no setsu kenshi kokoroegata (Or.872) is a detailed account of the Dutch delegation to the Shogunal court in 1850 compiled by Arai Taemon, a servant of the Governor of Nagasaki.  The document provides a fascinating insight into how these visits were managed and is particularly noteworthy as the 1850 delegation was the last before the arrival of Commodore Perry and the opening of the country.

Works on military theory, tactics and practice are well represented, (Or.922-Or.933), and there are a number of works on swords and swordsmanship including Or.936 Tokenmei-zukushi and Or. 937 Tsuba menuki oshigata, mosha hikae which contain drawings of swordsmiths’ marks and designs for sword fitments respectively.  Kogai zuroku (Or.992) is an illustrated work on armour.

Among the literary manuscripts in this selection perhaps the most important is Ise monogatari ezu (Or.904) which contains a series of engaging illustrations of various episodes in the Japanese classic “Tales of Ise”.  This is an early example of the genre known as Nara Ehon (literally Nara Picture Books), lavishly illustrated manuscripts of popular stories (otogizoshi) produced from the mid 16th to the late 17th century.

Siebold’s botanical interests are reflected in several illustrated works - Gunbozu (Or.909), Juhotaizu sahen (Or.914) and Hachijoshima somoku chugyo (Or.912) which is devoted to the flora of the island of Hachijoshima.  Taisei honzo meiso (Or. 910) by the botanist Ito Keisuke (1803-1901) was the first work to introduce the Linnaean taxonomy to Japan.

Turning to leisure activities we find four manuscripts (Or.945-Or.948) devoted to the Way of Tea and the Tea Ceremony.  Meibutsu enpo no chiri (Or.945), Rikyu-gata dogu sunpo ezu (Or.946) and Chaki no zu (Or.947) contain illustrations of the bowls, caddies and host of other utensils used either in the ceremony itself or to decorate the tea house while Senke tenchaki (Or.948) provides detailed descriptions and diagrams for conducting the tea ceremony in accordance with the principles laid down by the tea master Sen Rikyu (1522-91).  Or. 936 and Or.937 are devoted to the art of flower-arranging.

Siebold also seems to have possessed an interest in music.  Of the six works on the subject included here those relating to the musical traditions of “Lew-Chew” or Ryukyu Or.960 Ryukyu gakkizu and Or.961 Ryukyu sogakuzu are especially interesting with detailed drawings of Okinawan musicians and musical instruments.

And finally one bizarre manuscript Nihon itai jinbutsu zu (Or.982) is a collection of drawings of curiosities of nature including a woman with hands and feet like chicken claws, another with no eyes or nose and a rather frightening representation of a Kappa, one of the water sprites of Japanese folklore.

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In the listing of the manuscripts the English titles are those which were ascribed to them when they were first entered in the British Museum’s Register of Manuscripts and are often descriptions of the contents rather than precise translations of the Japanese titles.  The latter have been included in transliteration to aid identification.

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