Bottom-up study into the personal contributions of Dutch colonial agent François Caron (1600-1673) and local patrons to the formation of favourable diplomatic relations between the Dutch East India...Show moreBottom-up study into the personal contributions of Dutch colonial agent François Caron (1600-1673) and local patrons to the formation of favourable diplomatic relations between the Dutch East India Company and the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan in the period precluding Dutch confinement on the island of Deshima, Nagasaki. This contribution demonstrates that when the Tokugawa Shogunate began to redefine the conditions of foreign trade and diplomatic relations with Japan during the early seventeenth century, it was only one of several actors involved in this process. The local Dutch factory, led by the charismatic cultural broker Caron, also had a voice in this process through its powerful allies at court which Caron accumulated over the course of a single decade, allowing them to secure a position for the Dutch East India Company in Japan after 1641. It challenges the predominant theory that the Dutch owed their success in Japan to a pragmatic approach to trade which eschewed proselytization of the Christian faith by raising attention to the importance of systems of patronage and the efficiency of local agency in Japan and the broader early-modern colonial context.Show less
In this thesis, I will emphasize the relationship between the visual depiction of Japanese historical warriors in Tokugawa period (1603–1868 AD) woodblock prints produced in nineteenth century...Show moreIn this thesis, I will emphasize the relationship between the visual depiction of Japanese historical warriors in Tokugawa period (1603–1868 AD) woodblock prints produced in nineteenth century Tokugawa Japan on the one hand and the historical imagination among the commoners or chōnin (“townspeople”) who inhabited the city of Edo (present-day Tokyo) and who were mainly responsible for producing and consuming warrior prints on the other. In order to accomplish this, I will use the warrior Minamoto Raikō (948–1021 AD) as a case study. Furthermore, I will relate this historical imagination, or historical consciousness, among the Edo chōnin with their cultural identity as Edokko (“child of Edo”). That is, I will focus on what cultural meanings ancient and medieval warriors in warrior prints had, i.e. what they signified, for the Edo chōnin regarding their Edokko identity.Show less
This paper discusses the transfer of the Dutch factory from Hirado to Nagasaki in 1641 and the specific circumstances leading up to it. The research question is then: what did the VOC personnel...Show moreThis paper discusses the transfer of the Dutch factory from Hirado to Nagasaki in 1641 and the specific circumstances leading up to it. The research question is then: what did the VOC personnel think about the political circumstances surrounding the relocation of the Dutch Factory from Hirado to Nagasaki; what did they believe was going on and how did these beliefs correspond with what the secondary literature on Japan says happened during this time? To answer this question primary sources written by the Dutch chiefs of the factory (Dagregisters gehouden bij de opperhoofden van de Nederlandse Factorij in Japan) are compared with the general consensus of these events as seen in contemporary secondary literature.Show less
