Page 8 - EXPOTIME!Sept2017

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Kaempfer's work of a lifetime remained a fragment on
his death. His manuscripts and collected objects was
bought by Sir Hans Sloane, a collector and author. Today,
Kaempfer's collection and manuscripts is preserved in
London at the British Museum. 3

130 years before the famous Japan researcher Philipp
Franz von Siebold Engelbert, Kaempfer lived on Deji-
ma but was allowed some travelling in Japan. This was
major exception, because In 1639, the Japanese govern-
ment had started the period of national isolation called
Sakoku policy, which prohibited foreigners from enter-
ing Japanese territory. The only exceptions were Dutch
traders and associated workers permitted to live on De-
jima Island. This policy lasted until 1854. Kempfer was
one of the 7 historically known westerners staying in Ja-
pan during the 17th cent. Besides Kaempfer, three were
sailors, two were missionaries and one was a trader.

In May 1690 he set out for Japan from Batavia as physi-
cian to the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie trading Kaempfer's drawing of himself and his Japanese attendants
post in Nagasaki. In September 1690 Kaempfer arrived in as part of the retinue of the Dutch Envoy on a tribute mis-
Nagasaki, the only Japanese port open to foreign ships. sion to the Shogun at Edo. Sloane MS. 3060, f. 501

Kaempfer stayed two years in Japan, during which he
was allowed to visit twice Edo and the Shogun Tokugawa
Tsunayoshi.

He conducted extensive studies on local plants, many
of which were published in his "Flora Japonica"(part of
"Amoenitatum Exoticarum", illustrated next column).
When he visited a Buddhist monastery in Nagasaki in
February 1691, he was the first western scholar to de-
scribe the tree Ginkgo biloba. He brought some Ginkgo
seeds back that were planted in the botanical garden in
Utrecht. Kaempfer also collected information on Japa-
nese acupuncture and moxibustion.

City and bay of von Nagasaki. Woodcut on the basis of a Japanese woodcut. In: Kaempfer, The History of Japan (1727)

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EXPOTIME!, issue August/September 2017