Alexander von Siebold

Alexander von Siebold

By Yuka Shiratori

Introduction

Do you know about foreigners who worked for Japanese government in Meiji Japan? They are called foreign specialists in government employ (in Japanese, Oyatoi-gaikokujin). Alexander von Siebold is one of them and he worked as an interpreter. He studied Japanese so hard after he came to Japan, and he succeeded as a Japanese-English interpreter even though his mother language was German.

His life

Siebold was born in Leyden, Netherlands in 1846. He came to Japan for the first time when he was 12 years old. This opportunity was created by his father.

His father, Philip Franz von Siebold is famous for the “Narutaki-juku” [a medical school - Ed] and the Siebold incident, in which he tried to bring the map of Japan overseas, although it was illegal at that time. He was deported from Japan and he couldn't come to Japan for about 30 years.

When Alexander’s father became able to come to Japan, because the deportation was lifted, Alexander came to Japan with his father.

He studied Japanese so hard for about a year, and then he started to work as an interpreter when he was 15 years old. At that time, he was a student-interpreter and assisted British consul. He was not familiar with the job at first, but he kept making efforts to learn Japanese.

From 1870, he was sent to Europe and accomplished many achievements. The arrangement for Japan’s participation in the Vienna World Expo of 1873 was one of his great achievements. He had already been and experienced the 1867 World Fair in Paris. To add to this result, he also worked for Japanese students in London, and negotiated about the bill print.

He became official interpreter for the Ministry of Finance in 1875. From that time he translated the official documents and the laws which related to the Ministry of Finance. His job of supporting the Japanese politics had continued. For example, in 1881, to assist Inoue Kaoru, he went to Germany and negotiated with the German government over treaty revisions.

He contributed to Japanese politics and society for over 40 years, his work was recognized and he was awarded the order of the Sacred Treasure in 1910. There are six grades and he was awarded the 2nd class.

Discussion

I asked two questions at the discussion.

What do you think about his father’s decision (decided his son would be an interpreter)?

Most of members said that it was not bad for him because he finally succeeded as an interpreter. To think of the difficulty of getting good job, it was a valuable opportunity that should not be missed for him. One more reason is that he could chose his work or future, because his father passed away after leaving Alexander in Japan and went back to the country.

What do you think about foreigners who work for Japan (or Japanese people)?

Considering the reason to come Japan, we felt that most foreigners love Japan and had hoped to visit Japan.

Another viewpoint is that of Japanese people. Before Meiji era, Japan had no chance to learn from other countries, so foreigners who visited Japan were like teachers for Japanese at that time. They taught the foreign culture or customs, and these experiences were important and necessary for Japan.

Reflection

Alexander’s experiences of Japan were not intended but I think that working in Japan for Japanese government was good for him. As I mentioned in the discussion part, working for Japanese government was precious chance for him to learn about Japan, including the language.

I recognized that Japan learned many things from foreign countries and tried to adopt them into Japanese society. It is said that there is a less Japanese atmosphere these days rather than past Japanese society, but my opinion became slightly different from this. I think that Japan always tries to get new and useful information and tries to adjust it to Japan, and this also should be seen as one of Japanese merits.

After all, I noticed that I could ask the discussion questions that were related to his effort to learn foreign languages. Actually, he studied so hard to master the foreign language. I think Japanese is difficult but he roughly mastered it for only a year. It was such a surprising fact for me.


References

Kreiner, J. (1998) Tokugawa Japan at dusk Japan which was seen by Siebold and his sons


"Alexander von Siebold", (n.d.). In Wikipedia, retrieved on January 26th 2015 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_von_Siebold


"Alexander von Siebold" (Japanese page), (n.d.). In Wikipedia Japan, retrieved on January 26th 2015 from
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AC%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B5%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9C%E3%83%AB%E3%83%88

Philipp Franz von Siebold

Philipp Franz von Siebold

By Itsuo Kobayashi

Life of Siebold

Many Japanese may think Siebold was Dutch, but actually he was German. He was a physician, botanist and traveler. He was born into a family of doctors and professors of medicine in Wurzburg, Germany. He studied at Wurzburn University and became a medical doctor in 1820. He initially practiced medicine in Heidingsfeld, Germany. He was invited to the Netherlands by an acquaintance of the family and entered the Dutch military service in 1822. He was appointed ship’s physician on a frigate and traveled from Rotterdam to Batavia (present-day Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). He stayed in Batavia for approximately two weeks and then was sent to Dejima, Japan. He arrived at Dejima in 1823. Siebold was pretending to be Dutch as he worked at The Hirado Dutch Trading Post.

Dejima is an artificial island next to Nagasaki. Foreign trade with the Netherlands was done through this small island. Siebold worked in Dejima as physician and scientist of The Hirado Dutch Trading Post. He gained permission to leave Dejima and treated Japanese patients in Nagasaki as well.

In 1824, Siebold started a medical school, Narutaki-jyuku, in Nagasaki. Around fifty students studied there. Among them were Takano Chouei, Ninomiya Keisaku and Ishii Souken. They were doctors and studied Western medical sciences from Siebold at this school. The Dutch language was a commonly spoken language for academic study there. Siebold was strongly interested in Japan, especially in Japanese plants and animals. His students helped him collect samples of the local flora and fauna. Siebold sent samples of these plants and animals to the Netherlands.

The Siebold Incident happened in 1828. Siebold obtained detailed Japanese maps through his acquaintance, Takahashi Kageyasu, who was an astronomer. Siebold tried to bring these maps to the Netherlands, which was strictly prohibited by the Japanese government in those days. Instead, Takahashi Kageyasu obtained the latest world maps and valuable foreign books from Siebold. However, Siebold’s attempt to bring the maps to the Netherlands was not successful. The ship that the Japanese maps were loaded onto was stranded on the Nagasaki coast due to a typhoon and the maps were found by Japanese government officials. As a result, Siebold was arrested and exiled from Japan in 1829. The other Japanese who were involved were also arrested and some of them were punished severely. Siebold was exiled from Japan and returned to the Netherlands in 1830.

In 1858, Japan signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce（日蘭通商条約）with the Netherlands and Siebold’s banishment was rescinded. In 1859, almost 30 years after he left Japan, Siebold revisited Japan and became an advisor of the Tokugawa Shogunate for foreign policy. In 1862, he left Japan for the Netherlands and died in 1866 at the age of 70.

Discussion

Q1. Why was Siebold arrested and exiled from Japan?

One of the members in our group knew the reason. It was because Siebold tried to bring detailed Japanese maps to the Netherlands, which was strictly prohibited by the Japanese government in those days.

Q2. How do you think Siebold contributed to Japan and the Netherlands?

Our group members answered Siebold had taught medical sciences to the Japanese students at Narutaki-jyuku. I added the facts that Siebold introduced Japanese things and Japan to foreign countries by writing books such as Nippon, Flora Japonica and Fauna Japonica and by bringing samples of Japanese plants and animals.

Reflection

Through this project, I learned that Siebold had had a family in Nakasaki. Siebold didn’t get married, but he had a Japanese lover whose name was Kusumoto Taki. She was called Otaki-san. They had a daughter whose name was Kusumoto Ine. She was called “Oranda Oine オランダおいね”. Born in 1827 during the Edo era, of mixed heritage between the German Siebold and the Japanese Kusumoto Taki, Ine was discriminated against and struggled to become a doctor. She learned medical sciences from Ninomiya Keisaku and obstetrics from Ishii Souken. Both of them were Siebold’s students at Narutaki-jyuku. Kusumoto Ine became the first female doctor in Japan and worked as an obstetrician for decades in the Meiji era.

Siebold imparted European medical and surgical knowledge to Japan as well as exposing the world to Japan’s unique flora and fauna. Beukers (1997) stated that

“Von Siebold is well known in Japan: his teachings mobilized a small group of Japanese intellectuals to learn Dutch, to translate Western books on medical subjects, to establish schools and teach what they had learned, and to experiment with Western medical and surgical techniques. He is best known in the West for the information he brought back to Europe about Japanese flora and fauna.”

His museums such as the Siebold Memorial Museum in Nagasaki, Japan, and SieboldHuis in Leiden, the Netherlands, illustrate his achievements.


References

Beukers, H. (1997). The Mission of Hippocrates in Japan: The Contribution of Philipp Franz von Siebold. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Four Centuries of Netherlands-Japan Relations. Retrieved 25 Dec. 2014, from project muse website: https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/bulletin_of_the_history_of_medicine/v073/73.4jannetta.html

Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) collector in Japan. (n.d.). Retrieved 23 Dec. 2014, from Sieboldhuis website: http://www.sieboldhuis.org/en/hetsieboldhuis/siebold

The Life of Ph. Fr. von Siebold. (2013). Retrieved 23 Dec. 2014, from Nagasaki Web City Siebold Memorial Museum: http://www.city.nagasaki.lg.jp/kanko/820000/828000/p009222.html

Yoshimura, A. (1993). The daughter of von Siebold, Tokyo : Kodansha