List of Westerners who visited Japan before 1868

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This list contains notable Europeans and Americans who visited Japan before the Meiji Restoration. The name of each individual is followed by the year of the first visit, the country of origin, and a brief explanation.

16th century

17th century

  • William Adams (sailor) (1600, England) - The first Englishman ever to reach Japan. The first Westerner who became Samurai by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.[8][9]
  • Jan Joosten van Lodensteyn (1600, Dutch Republic) - Adams' shipmate who also became a Samurai and an advisor for the Shogun. He is remembered in Japan (based on their variation of his name) in the Yaesu area of Tokyo and as Yaesu on one exit of the Tokyo Station.[8][9]
  • Cristóvão Ferreira (1609, Portugal) - A Jesuit missionary who committed apostasy after being tortured in the anti-Christian purges of Japan. His apostasy is the main theme of the novel Silence by Shusaku Endo.[10]
  • Luis Sotelo (1609, Spain) - A Franciscan friar who proselytized in the Tohoku region of Japan with the help of Daimyo Date Masamune. He was executed after re-entering Japan illegally in 1624.
  • John Saris (1613, England) - Captain of the English ship Clove, who met with Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to establish a trading post in Japan.
  • Nicolaes Couckebacker (1633, Dutch Republic) - VOC Opperhoofd (chief Dutch trader/agent) in Hirado, who assisted the government in 1638 to suppress Japanese Christian rebels led by Amakusa Shiro.[11]
  • Engelbert Kaempfer (1690, Dutch Republic) - A German naturalist and physician. His descriptions in History of Japan (posthumously published in English in 1727) became the chief source of Western knowledge about the country for nearly two centuries.[12]

(Note: In 1639, the Japanese government promulgated the Sakoku policy, which prohibited foreigners from entering Japanese territory. The only exceptions were Dutch traders and associated workers permitted to live on Dejima Island. This policy lasted until 1854.)

18th century

  • Giovanni Battista Sidotti (1700, Italy) An Italian Jesuit priest who entered Japan illegally and was arrested. His communication with the scholar Arai Hakuseki resulted in the book Seiyō Kibun.[13]
  • Isaac Titsingh (1779-1784) A Dutch East india Company ("VOC") Opperhoofd at Dejima in Nagasaki Bay.[14]
  • Adam Laxman (1792, Russia) A Russian navigator who stayed in Hokkaido briefly. He was sent by Catherine the Great to return Daikokuya Kōdayū to Japan.[15]
  • Carl Peter Thunberg (1775, Sweden) A Swedish naturalist who came as a surgeon on a Dutch East India Company ("VOC") ship. He was a follower of Carl Linnaeus whose scientific activities resulted in the first detailed description of the flora and fauna of Japan.[16]
  • Hendrik Doeff (1799, Dutch Republic) former Dutch East India Company ("VOC") Opperhoofd (Chief Officer) who maintained the Dutch nationality of Dejima even after Napoleon conquered the Netherlands. He presided over the Dutch East India Company ("VOC") during the Phaeton incident.[17]

19th century

  • Nikolai Rezanov (1804, Russia) A Russian diplomat who stayed in Nagasaki for 6 months. He was commissioned by Alexander I as Russian ambassador to Japan to conclude a commercial treaty, but his efforts were thwarted by the Japanese government.
  • Vasily Golovnin (1811, Russia) A Russian navigator who was held captive for two years on the island of Hokkaido. His book, Captivity in Japan During the Years 1811, 1812, 1813, was widely read by Europeans.[18]
  • Philipp Franz von Siebold (1823, Netherlands/Germany) A German physician, botanist in Dutch service at Dejima who brought Western medicine to Japan. He was expelled from Japan after being accused as a spy (Siebold Incident).[19]
  • Heinrich Bürger (1825..1835, Netherlands/Germany), A German scientist in Dutch service who became a pharmacist and botanist on Dejima.
  • Ranald MacDonald (1848, United States), The first native English-speaker to teach English in Japan, who taught Einosuke Moriyama, one of the chief interpreters to handle the negotiations between Commodore Perry and the Tokugawa Shogunate.
  • Matthew C. Perry (1853, United States) A Commodore of the U.S. Navy who opened Japan to the West in 1854.[20]
  • Townsend Harris (1855, United States) The first United States Consul-General to Japan.[21]
  • Henry Heusken (1855, United States) A Dutch-American interpreter for the American consulate in Japan who was assassinated by anti-foreigner rōnin. His diary was published as "Japan journal, 1855-1861".[22]
  • Rutherford Alcock (1859, United Kingdom) The first British diplomatic representative to live in Japan. His book, The Capital of the Tycoon, became one of the first books to describe Edo-period Japan systematically.[23]
  • James Curtis Hepburn (1859, United States) An American physician, educator and Christian missionary who is known for the Hepburn romanization system, enabling westerners to read and write Japanese in Roman script.[24]
  • Thomas Blake Glover (1859, United Kingdom) A Scottish merchant who supported the anti-Edo government militant Satchō Alliance. His residence in Nagasaki still remains as a museum Glover Garden.[25]
  • Margaret Tate Kinnear Ballagh (1861, United States) An American missionary who lived in Yokohama. Her account "Glimpses Of Old Japan, 1861-1866" is the only book written by a Western woman staying in Edo period Japan.[26]
  • Nicholas of Japan (1861, Russia) A Russian Orthodox priest, monk, archbishop and saint who introduced the Eastern Orthodox Church to Japan.[27]
  • Charles Wirgman (1861, United Kingdom) An English artist and cartoonist, the creator of "Japan Punch" which was the first magazine in Japan.[28]
  • Charles Lennox Richardson (1862, United Kingdom) A British merchant who was murdered by Samurai in the Namamugi Incident which later led to the Bombardment of Kagoshima.[29]
  • Ernest Mason Satow (1862, United Kingdom) A British diplomat who assisted the negotiations during the Bombardment of Kagoshima, and kept a diary of his career in Japan.[30]
  • Aimé Humbert (1863, Switzerland) A Swiss politician who established a treaty with Japan and later published the "Japan and the Japanese Illustrated" which captured many detailed scenes of the Edo-period Japan.[31]
  • Felice Beato (1865, United Kingdom) A photographer who recorded many rare views of Edo Period Japan.[32]
  • Heinrich Schliemann (1865, Germany) An archaeologist who stayed in Japan for two months.[33]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tanegashima: the arrival of Europe in Japan, Olof G. Lidin, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, NIAS Press, 2002
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Diego Pacheco, S. J., El hombre que forjó a Nagasaki. Vida del P. Cosme de Torres, S. J. Madrid, 1973.
  4. ↑ The First European Description of Japan, 1585: A Critical English-Language Edition of Striking Contrasts in the... by Luis Frois SJ, Daniel T. Reff and Richard Danford (Mar 7, 2014)
  5. ↑ Biography of Luis Frois http://kotobank.jp/word/ルイス・フロイス
  6. ↑ 大濱徹也 (2009年7月). “ルイス・フロイスが見た日本”. 日本文教出版.
  7. ↑ Cooper, Michael. Rodrigues the Interpreter: An Early Jesuit in Japan and China. New York: Weatherhill, 1973
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan. By Giles Milton
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Pars Japonica: The First Dutch Expedition to Reach the Shores of Japan. Brought by the English Pilot Will Adams, Hero of Shogun, (2006) by William de Lange.
  10. ↑ The making of an enterprise: the Society of Jesus in Portugal, its empire, and beyond, 1540-1750, Dauril Alden, Stanford University Press, 1996
  11. ↑ Yasuko Suzuki, Japan-Netherlands Trade 1600-1800: The Dutch East India Company and Beyond
  12. ↑ Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed by Engelbert Kaempfer, Beatrice Bodart-Bailey and Beatrice M. Bodart-Bailey (1998)
  13. ↑ Mikkou Saigo no Bateren Sidotti. By Furui Tomoko. 2010. ISBN 978-4404038562.
  14. ↑ Boxer, C.R. (1950) Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1600-1850. Martinus Nijhoff: The Hague, p. 135.
  15. ↑ Kodayu to Rakusuman: Bakumatsu Nichi-Ro koshoshi no ichi sokumen (Tosui rekishi zensho) (Japanese Edition) by Ryohei Kisaki (1992)
  16. ↑ Flora Japonica (1784)
  17. ↑ "Phaeton Incident and Saga-han." by Saga Castle History Museum http://sagajou.jp/tenji/ishin.html
  18. ↑ Narrative of my Captivity in Japan, etc. To which is added, an account of voyages to the coasts of Japan, and for the release of the author. by Capt. Rikord by Vasily Mikhailovich. Golovnin (Mar 18, 2010)
  19. ↑ Siebold and Japan. His Life and Work. by Arlette Kouwenhoven, Matthi Forrer, M. Forrer and A. Kouwenhoven (2000)
  20. ↑ The Perry mission to Japan, 1853 - 1854 by William Gerald Beasley, Aaron Haight Palmer, Henry F. Graff, Yashi Shōzan, Ernest Mason Satow, Shuziro Watanabe
  21. ↑ Townsend Harris, First American Envoy in Japan by William Elliot Griffis.
  22. ↑ Japan journal, 1855-1861 by Henry Heusken
  23. ↑ The Capital of the Tycoon: A Narrative of a Three Years' Residence in Japan. By Rutherford Alcock.
  24. ↑ A Japanese and English Dictionary with an English and Japanese Index by James Curtis Hepburn
  25. ↑ トーマス・グラバー伝 アレキサンダー マッケイ (著), Alexander McKay (原著), 平岡 緑 (翻訳) ISBN 978-4120026522
  26. ↑ Glimpses Of Old Japan, 1861-1866. By Margaret Tate Kinnear Ballagh
  27. ↑ 宣教師ニコライと明治日本 中村 健之介 (Senkyoushi Nikorai to Meiji Nihon, by Nakamura Kennosuke)　
  28. ↑ Wirgman Drawings collection under (2002) ISBN 4000257528 [Japanese Import] by Haga Toru
  29. ↑ "The Anglo-Japanese War." November 15, 1863, New York Times.
  30. ↑ A Diplomat in Japan by Ernest Mason Satow
  31. ↑ Japan and the Japanese Illustrated (Google eBook)by Aimé Humbert, Frances Cashel Hoey. R. Bentley & son, 1874 - Japan - 378 pages
  32. ↑ Felice Beato: A Photographer on the Eastern Road. By Anne Lacoste.
  33. ↑ a Chine et le Japon au temps présent' (1867)
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