Reports on Conferences and Publications by Year

March 30, 2016

Japan through the Eyes of Blomhoff:
The Blomhoff Collection at the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden

Date of Publication: 30 March 2016

Edited by: MATSUI Yoko, Matthi FORRER

Under the auspices of: National Institutes for the Humanities, National Museum of Japanese History, National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden

This book is a text edition and translation of Jan COCK BLOMHOFF’s (1779-1853) catalogue of the items he collected in Japan. Blomhoff came to the country in the latter half of the Edo period (1603-1867), and served initially as the warehouse foreman, and later as the chief trader of the Dutch Trading Post on Deshima in Nagasaki.

While the Deshima doctor Philipp Franz Balthasar von SIEBOLD (1796-1866) is wellknown as a Westerner who collected Japanese-related materials, Blomhoff actually began his collection earlier. The materials Blomhoff brought back from Japan are held at the National Museum of Ethnology (Leiden, Netherlands) along with the collection of Johan Frederik van Overmeer FISSCHER (1800-1848), who worked alongside Blomhoff on Deshima, and the items Siebold collected on his first trip to Japan. They keep occupying their position as the core of the museum’s Japan collection.

The value of Blomhoff’s collection is further increased by the fact that he left us with a catalogue describing it. This catalogue, which this book introduces to the general public for the first time, is a primary source for grasping how Blomhoff understood and organized the items he collected. The diverse physical objects included therein serve as a window that presents a vivid and concrete glimpse into cross-cultural understanding during his time, including misconceptions and false assumptions. In this way, Blomhoff’s collection and the pioneering role it played in introducing Japan overseas surely deserve more attention.

As part of the National Institutes for the Humanities’ (NIHU) “International Collaborative Research on Japan-related Documents and Artifacts Overseas” project, the National Museum of Japanese History has been leading a sub-project titled “Study of the Siebold Family Collection and Other Materials Collected in Japan and Taken Overseas in the Nineteenth Century” in the period from the 2010 to 2015 academic year. Of the many Japan-related collections in Europe and the United States, this sub-project focused on those collected during
the nineteenth century. Its goal was to engage in detailed surveys of groups of materials for which there is relatively clear information regarding collection dates and provenance, as well as find effective methods for sharing the data acquired through these surveys.

The Blomhoff collection is valuable as a model set of materials of its era that offers one view of Japanese culture and history in the former half of the nineteenth century. Moreover, comparing it to the collections of Fisscher and Siebold, it can also help us trace the circumstances in Europe and the United States around the ensuing formation of other variousJapan collections and the increasing of interest in Japan.

The publication of this book is the result of the cooperative academic agreement between the Leiden National Museum of Ethnology and the National Institutes for the Humanities (Japan), and is the fruit of collaborative work between scholars in Japan and the Netherlands. As only very few of Chief Trader Jan COCK BLOMHOFF’s writings on Japan have been published and his name is consequently almost unknown, it is my pleasure to say that with this catalogue’s publication, it is now possible to re-consider the role Blomhoff played as the first systematic collector of things Japanese in the history of cultural exchange between Japan and Europe.

In closing, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the National Museum of Ethnology and affiliated individuals for their unstinting cooperation in this research and granting us permission to publish the Blomhoff catalogue.

 

March 2016
Kaori HIDAKA , Principal Investigator
National Institutes for the Humanities / National Museum of Japanese History

Research Topic A: Study of the Siebold Family Collection and Other Materials
Collected in Japan and Taken Overseas in the Nineteenth Century

International Collaborative Research on Japan-related Documents and Artifacts Overseas
National Institutes for the Humanities

(Translated by Dylan LUERS TODA)


Click Here for the Table of Contents (PDF)