Shades of the Past Page 3

  The difficulties that the Dutch experienced in gaining any information about the country can well be imagined considering that about 165 years later and in a more enlightened era, Townsend Harris, the first U.S. envoy to Japan, wrote in his diary in May 1857:

  I am collecting specimens of natural history, but they are meagre, as the Japanese will not bring me one, on the national principle of concealing everything.

  In Kaempfer's time Nagasaki was the Paris of the East. Consequently residents in those days did not hanker to travel to Yedo to taste the pleasures of a capital. The pleasures of the East were right there in their own city, and, according to Kaempfer, numerous young and wealthy Chinese were attracted to Nagasaki "purely for pleasure and to spend some part of their money with Japanese wenches which proved beneficial to the town" The Dutch did not at first see much of that life. They were confined under distressingly severe conditions on the tiny island of Deshima, about three acres in area, and enclosed behind a high wooden palisade to cut the view. Kaempfer described Deshima as follows:

  The place where the Dutch live is called Deshima....It has been raised from the bottom, which is rocky and sandy, lying bare at low water. The foundation is of free-stone, and it rises about half a fathom above high water mark. In shape it resembles a fan without a handle.... It is joined to the town by a small stone bridge, a few paces long, at the end of which is a guard house, where there are soldiers constantly on duty. On the north, or seaward side, are two strong gates, never opened but for lading and unlading the Dutch ships. The island is enclosed with pretty high deal boards, covered with a small roof on the top of which is planted a double row of pikes.... Some few paces off in the water are thirteen posts standing at proper distances, with small wooden tablets at the top, upon which is written in large Japanese characters an order from the governors, strictly forbidding all boats or vessels under severe penalties to come within these posts or to approach the island.

  The Director of the Dutch factory was required to journey to Yedo, at first yearly and later every two or four years, to give presents to the Shogun; generally he was accompanied by one or two Dutch secretaries and a physician. How complicated was this matter of presents may be gauged from Kaempfer's comments:

  It is the business of the Japanese governors of Nagasaki to determine what might prove acceptable to the Court. They take out of the goods laid up in our warehouse what they think proper.... Sometimes some of their own goods, they have been presented with by the Chinese, are put in among our presents, because by this means they can dispose of them to the best advantage either by obliging us to buy them at an excessive price or by exchanging them for other goods.

  To attend the three, or sometimes four, Dutchmen, to watch their movements, to carry their baggage, and to organize the journey, there were up to 150 Japanese; the travelling expenses, wages and gratuities of this huge entourage for a period of three months amounted to a considerable sum of money.

  In addition to the multitudinous presents and clothing, the baggage comprised a store of European victuals and a complete assortment of kitchen utensils. The Dutchmen preferred to eat European meals rather than live on the countryside.

  The Dutch director and the Japanese high commissioner who accompanied the party rode in palanquins as befitted their dignity; the senior Japanese interpreter if he was old rode in a kago or sedan chair, the others on horseback, and the servants on foot.

  Any suggestion on the part of the Dutch that they should stay at a different inn from former occasions, or that any deviation should be made from the regular routine, was met by the high commissioner referring to his handbook of previous journeys and thus demonstrating that there was no precedent that would permit of the change being made.

  For the Dutch it was an irksome trip. In Kaempfer's words they were

  treated in a manner like prisoners, deprived of all liberty, except that of looking about the country from our horses. Nay they watch us to that degree that they will not leave us alone, not even for the most necessary reasons....It must be owned, however, that this superabundant care and watchfulness is considerably lessened upon our return, when we have found means to insinuate ourselves into their favour and by presents, and otherwise to procure their connivance.

  The colours and arms of the Dutch East India Company were displayed whilst this cavalcade was on the move, and also outside the inns where the Dutch were accommodated

  so that all may know and suitable precautions be taken.....The garden is the only place in which we Dutchmen, being treated in all respects little better than prisoners, have liberty to walk.

  Beyond stepping out into the gardens at the inns and taking a bath they were strictly confined to their quarters, but seemingly the Dutch discovered what has been found from the beginning of time, namely that where men and wenches are concerned, chaperones are not always effective, because the good doctor noted elsewhere in his diary:

  No other pleasure is allowed us, no manner of conversation with domestics, male or female, excepting what through the connivance of our inspectors, some of us found means to procure at night in private and in their own rooms.

  In the matter of sowing wild oats, the regulations were somewhat more accommodating. For example no women excepting prostitutes were allowed on Deshima, but even "they being none of the best and handsomest" were supplied at three times the usual price.

  The cavalcade set out from Nagasaki overland to the Shimonoseki straits which were reached on the sixth day, thence to Osaka through the Inland Sea, which took another six days. At Osaka, where a stop of four days was made, the Dutch found the water to be "a little brackish, but in lieu thereof they have the best sake in the empire, which is brewed in great quantities in the neighbouring village of Tennoji" From Osaka the journey was overland to Yedo, the entire trip from Nagasaki to Yedo occupying twenty-nine days.

  On arrival at Yedo preparations were made for the audience with the Shogun. Kaempfer wrote:

  When they cried out "Hollanda Capitain," he crawled on his hands and knees to a place between the presents and then kneeling he bowed his forehead quite down to the ground and so crawled backward like a crab without uttering a single word. So mean and short a thing is the audience we have of this mighty monarch....Nor are there any more ceremonies observed in the audience he gives even to the greatest and most powerful princes of the empire.

  In the first trips to Yedo the proceedings terminated immediately the ceremony of kowtow at the Shogun's court was completed, but in later years the Dutchmen were conducted deeper into the palace and required to put on a show for the ladies of the court, where:

  the mutual compliments being over, the succeeding part of this solemnity turned to a perfect farce. We were asked a thousand ridiculous and impertinent questions.

  The doctor was required to give some free medical advice whereupon he advised a shaven priest with an ulcer on his shin not to drink so much sake,—"a piece of professional stratagem which occasioned much laughter at the patient's expense."

  The Shogun then ordered us to take off our cloaks, then to stand upright, that he might have a full view of us, again to walk, to stand still, to compliment each other, to dance, to jump, to play the drunkard, to speak broken Japanese, to read Dutch, to paint, to put our cloaks on and off, I joining to my dance a love-song in High German. In this manner, and with innumerable such other apish tricks, we must suffer ourselves to contribute to the court's diversion.

  Apparently Kaempfer was determined that the laugh should not be all on one side because on being asked to translate his song, wherein he had actually extolled the physical proportions and other excellent qualities of a certain lady-love, he audaciously replied that it expressed the sincere wish that Heaven might bestow health, fortune and prosperity on the Shogun, his family and the Court—a prank that he was able to get away with because there were no Japanese interpreters at the Court who understood German.

  The court ladies were of course hidden from view seated behind b
amboo curtains, but the doctor noted that pieces of paper had been put between the lattices of the bamboo curtains to make the openings wider "in order to a better and easier sight" and counting thirty such pieces of paper the good doctor concluded that at least that number of ladies were eyeing him.

  On another occasion the Dutch were required to kiss one another like man and wife, which the ladies behind the bamboo curtains showed them-selves by their laughter to be particularly well pleased with.

  (Terry in his Guide to Japan in commenting on these happenings remarks that the natives were not as shrewd at barter then as they are now, but what the Dutchmen wrung from them in profits, the Nipponese took out of their pride. However, by the end of the seventeenth century the Court and the officials in Yedo were sufficiently acquainted with the customs and the culture of the Western world for this buffoonery to cease.)

  The Dutch were also received at various high officials' houses where the ladies especially were curious regarding the clothing, rings and tobacco pipes of the Dutchmen, some of which articles were passed behind the bamboo curtains for their inspection. Of this occasion Kaempfer records:

  We could not but take notice that everything was so cordial that we made no manner of scruple of making ourselves merry and diverting the company with a song.

  Prior to leaving Yedo, they were required to attend an audience at the palace to listen to the reading of the usual orders which forbade them among other things, from molesting any Chinese or ships from the Loo Choo Islands trading with Japan or to bring in any Portuguese or priests.

  As a parting gift the Director was presented with "thirty Japanese gowns (kimono) which he crept on all fours to receive" This was followed by tea and cakes which the Dutch found as "tough as glue " and then by a banquet. But the Dutch did not seem to have esteemed that dinner any more than the cakes because Kaempfer records that profiting by prior experience they were not caught napping and had already provided themselves with a "good substantial breakfast" before leaving their quarters. As for the meal itself they considered it "so far from answering to the majestic magnificence of so powerful a monarch that a worse one could not have been had at any private man's house " However according to custom what was left was taken home by the Japanese interpreter and it "proved quite a load, especially as he was old and rheumatic."

  Not only in the matter of food, but also in the matter of dress did the Dutch profit by experience gained during the course of their previous visits to Tokyo. Woodcut prints of the Nagasaki period depict the Dutch wearing long black cloaks, and although such mantles were common enough at that time in Europe, the Dutch found that by extending the length a few inches such garments were exceptionally useful on their visits to Yedo during the interminable delays in the antechambers of the palace. Etiquette demanded that they should sit on the tatami in Japanese style, a situation which proved so painful that they were glad to stretch out their legs on one side under cover of these long cloaks.

  Kaempfer states that on the occasion he visited Yedo, 133 presents in all were received, but two were referred to as "pretty sorry ones," and with the exception of those from the Shogun, which were considered to be the property of the Company, all were reckoned as the Director's perquisites.

  The directors, or Hollanda Capitains, were of ambassadorial rank and were permitted to stay in Japan for such limited periods, at first for only one year, that they usually left Japan knowing little more about the country than when they first arrived. Their time was largely taken up in disposing of those "hard to get" items such as needles, fine files, spectacles and magnifying glasses, brought in among their personal baggage for purposes of private trade, and then in accumulating those goods such as silk kimono that they were permitted by custom to take back to Batavia for private trading and as presents for the

  Directors in Batavia who had appointed them, because he must not presume to return thither without valuable consideration to his benefactors, unless he intends to be excused for the future the honour of any such employment.

  The Japanese inspectors closed their eyes to a recognized amount of private trading on the part of the Directors and the other Dutchmen, but, records Kaempfer:

  One of our Directors in 1686 played his cards so awkwardly that ten Japanese were beheaded for smuggling and he himself banished from the country forever.

  In the matter of the Directors padding their expense accounts, Kaempfer relates that "even those are sometimes run up to an unnecessary height" and that while it is not his intention "to detract from the reputation and character of probity of so many worthy gentlemen" a directorship is worth at least thirty thousand guilders to the incumbent. Certainly it required the prospects of high reward to make the life they had to live on Deshima, behind walls and under guard, worthwhile to any but the more studious types of men.

  It required more than guards and a high fence to prevent European ideas and learning from leaking out of Deshima, even if that culture had to trickle underground. The Dutch certainly helped a great deal in the making of modern Japan, but most of the credit for the influence of the Dutch interlude goes not to the Directors of the Dutch East India Company at Deshima, who were generally too busy looking to their personal gain, but rather to a few men like Kaempfer. There were other physicians also such as Dr. Thunberg, the Swedish physician and naturalist, and much later the brilliant Dr. von Siebold.

  They also made journeyings to the capital and recorded their experiences in diaries. In addition they pursued their studies into the flora and fauna of Japan and other sciences to a degree that their names live on in history as the authors of learned treatises, whilst the names of the Hollanda Capitains have generally been long since forgotten. With one or two exceptions the Directors contributed nothing to the world's knowledge of Japan.

  Although Thunberg and von Siebold had to be represented to the Japanese inspectors as Dutch, their accents were thought by the Japanese interpreters to be so curious as to cause disbelief. However their accents were explained away as being those of yama-Hollanda or Dutch mountaineers. In reality Holland is one of the flattest countries in the world, but after about two hundred years residence in Japan the Dutch apparently had also learned the art of making mountains out of mole-hills!

  Maps, books on mathematics, astronomy and medicine were in great demand and often smuggled in, and in addition of course the beloved schnapps of the Dutch. To cope with this demand the Dutch sea-captains favoured large and very wide silver-laced coats so designed that they could conceal upon their persons the maximum quantity of smuggled goods, and frequently came ashore so bulky and loaded down with contraband that they had to be supported by a sailor on either side. In Dr. Thunberg's time a customs search was instituted and the doctor then recorded in his diary:

  It was droll enough to see the astonishment which the sudden reduction in the size of our bulky captain excited in the major part of the Japanese, who before had always imagined that all our captains were actually as fat and lusty as they appeared to be.

  Isaac Titsingh, who was an outstanding exception among the Directors, did contribute much to our knowledge of that time, but had so little regard for the value of his own manuscripts and collections that he left them together with a large fortune to a worthless son by an Eastern woman, who squandered the fortune and so scattered the manuscripts and collections that many were lost for all time.

  Finally there was another Director, G.F. Meylan, in 1830, who contributed something to our knowledge of the customs and manners of that time. Deshima did not change much during the 200 years or so of its existence, except that in later years glass windows were brought from Batavia to replace the original paper shoji. The number of permanent residents however increased from about seven in Kaempfer's time to around thirteen, excluding the slaves who were brought from Batavia as servants, one to each Dutchman. In addition there were a number of Nagasaki teahouse girls who were such frequent visitors as to be regarded almost as semi-permanents. To Mr. Meylan we are indebted fo
r the following explanation of their presence, and surely as convincing a one as the men could have hoped for:

  Male Japanese servants are not allowed to remain on Deshima over night. How then could the Dutch residents otherwise manage to procure any domestic comfort in the long nights of winter—their tea-water for instance—were it not for these females.

  Let it not be imagined that the worthy Dr. Kaempfer, some of whose candid comments have been reproduced above, was given only to cynical criticism. Of the Japanese, he wrote in another part of his diary:

  From this reasonable behaviour, one may judge of the civility of the whole nation in general, always excepting the officials (at Deshima) and our servants.....The behaviour of the Japanese from the meanest countryman up to the greatest prince or lord is such that the whole empire might be called a school of civility and good manners.

  QUEEN

  VICTORIA'S

  PRESENT

  The presents from the United States government to the Japanese were landed. Among them were.... and several casks of whiskey towards the latter of which they evinced a decided preference.—Journal of W. B. Allen (on one of Perry's Black Ships), 1854

  When the Foreign Powers first sought to conclude treaties of amity and commerce with Japan, one of their greatest difficulties was to make contact with persons in authority. Generally they found themselves side-tracked in an out-port, and indulging in negotiations with minor officials, which in effect became games of patience.

  When the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, to give the noble lord his full title, set out for Japan, somebody conceived the idea of his taking along a steam yacht as a present for the Emperor. This, it was hoped, would give the British Mission a reasonable excuse for proceeding up Tokyo Bay, or Yedo Bay as it was then known, and anchoring as close to the capital as it would be possible for the British war-vessels and the yacht to go. The war-vessels selected for the mission were the "Retribution" and the "Furious," but whether they were selected because of their names or their armaments is not clear. The first port of call was to be Nagasaki, and when steaming towards that port they passed what the sailors came to refer to as the dungaree forts, which comprised long lengths of coarse calico or canvas painted to represent batteries of guns. Whether their purpose was to conceal real guns with the intention of luring ships into close range and so to destruction, or whether they were just crude shams was not discovered, because the British war-ships steamed past them without being molested. It was not until they were close to Nagasaki that they encountered the first indication that they were not welcome: