154 Dutchmen in Japan
Not all long-distance trade was colonialism. Unlike Spain in its American territories, the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) initially set up trading posts along the sea routes to and in Asia. One was at Decima in Nagasaki and from 1641 became Japan’s only link with the West for over two centuries. In the nineteenth century Japanese tourists could purchase woodcarvings with generally unflattering depictions of Dutch people. This caption reads: ‘A Dutchman and his Javanese servant playing with dogs.’
Date:
1800 - 1865
Number:
154 Location
Dejima
Nagasaki
Japan
Comments
'Red-Haired Barbarians'
A presentation of 40 Japanese prints from the NEHA collection can be found at http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/japaneseprints/
The prints show Dutch and other foreigners in Nagasaki and Yokohama, 1800 - 1865.