18th and 19th Century European Researchers’ Contribution to the Study of Japan

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to evaluate the activity of a number of European scholars who made it possible for the Western world to get fundamental knowledge about one of the most enigmatic countries of the time. Owing to a variety of materials gathered between the 18th and the 19th centuries by researchers of Japan, brought to Europe and demonstrated to the European public, we have a unique knowledge of the life of the Japanese during the Edo period. It is unique for several reasons: this is the first impression of Europeans about Japan, some sort of a view from the outside; and an attempt to ward off all the prejudice about the country and accept different civilizations as equal. This article is devoted to such researchers of Japan of the 18th and the 19th centuries as Elgelbert Kaempher, Carl Thunberg, Jan Cock Blomhoff, J. F. van Overmeer Fisscher, Philipp Franz von Siebold. The article contains a description of the academics’ stay in Japan and information about their scholarly work back in Europe. The author focuses her attention on the history of the collections of Japanese articles which were brought to Europe by these first researchers of Japan. Another important issue is the value of their research to the development of museology and its influence on the minds of their contemporaries.

Keywords

• Япония
• Кемпфер
• Тунберг
• Бломгофф
• Овермеер Фишер
• Зибольд
• коллекционирование
• музееведение
• этнология.