Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 16
October 28, 2008 (Tue) - December 7, 2008 (Sun)
You may be surprised to know that the Tokyo National Museum has a collection of old European books. When the new government created the museum in 1872, one of its main purposes was to use the museum as a repository of intellectual resources from Western civilization, contributing to the construction of a modern society in Japan.
The museum worked to acquire such books through various routes. As a result, the books grew into a large collection which included Dutch books that the Tokugawa government acquired through Nagasaki, natural history books brought by Philipp Franz von Siebold on his second visit to Japan in 1859, and European and American books which the new government purchased in the Meiji period (1868-1912).
Because these books were regarded as research materials, they were not esteemed as cultural heritage. However, in recent years, the museum has been researching these books as cultural properties in collaboration with outside scholars. This exhibition, which features Dutch language books, serves as an interim report on that research. While enjoying the curious information on Japan as seen by Europeans and the beautifully hand-painted illustrations of the natural history books, we hope you can gain an understanding of the efforts of the people who collected these books.
Major works in this exhibition
