Ethnography in the Margins
Japanese collections, 1816-1883
Only in the past decade has interest been growing in the Netherlands in museum-histories and in the history of ethnography ethnology - anthropology. Three collectors who stayed in Japan in the early decades of the nineteenth century played an important role in the creation of the first Dutch ethnographic museum.
By FIFI EFFERT
Ethnology as a science and the ethnographic museum both developed without influencing each other very much during the greater part of the nineteenth century. Courses were given for colonial civil servants as early as 1835, although it appears that the uses of ethnographic collections for teaching purposes were marginal. The interest in collecting ethnographic objects from the former Dutch colonies in Indonesia started only after 1860. The first chair in Volkenkunde was established at Leiden University in 1877.The first part of this study is concerned with the history of the Royal Cabinet of Rarities in The Hague and the National Museum of Ethnography in Leiden. The second part analyses the roles played by three private collectors of Japanese objects, whose collections and notes were acquired by the Royal Cabinet and later became part of the Ethnographic Museum. The third part of the thesis considers these developments in light of different methods of classifying objects, ethnographic discourse, and government policy with regard to museums in the nineteenth century. The Dutch case seems to have many parallels with the history of other ethnographic collections in different parts of Europe.
The foundation of the Royal Cabinet of Rarities in 1816 marked a transformation from royal and/or private collections to national state-owned collections. It was the first attempt to create something like a National Museum, and it consisted mainly of a bequest of objects from China, the Royal House, and items concerning the national history of the Netherlands. King William I enriched the Cabinet within 16 years of its creation with three large collections of Japanese artifacts. From that moment forward, the nature of the Cabinet was predominantly ethnographic.
The three collectors were Jan Cock Blomhoff (1779-1853), Johannes van Overmeer Fisscher (1800-1848), and Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), who worked at the Dutch factory at Deshima (Nagasaki) between 1817-1830. Von Siebold's collection remained in Leiden, and he managed it himself until his second voyage to Japan in 1859. Under the directorship of his successor, Conrad Leemans, the nature of the collection had become a general ethnographic one and, subsequently, the name was changed to the National Museum of Ethnography in 1864. In 1880, Lindor Serrurier took over and became the first director with an ethnological background. In the meantime, the Royal Cabinet in The Hague was as popular as ever until its closure in 1883, at which time the ethnographic collections were finally united in Leiden, where they still constitute the basic core for the National Museum of Ethnology.
In the series of activities involving exhibitions, lectures, publications, and so forth organised to celebrate the 400 years of Dutch-Japanese relations, the subject of von Siebold always attracts a lot of attention. He has even become a sort of cult-figure. There is no doubt that he was a colourful person, and during his lifetime he took care to leave a huge archival collection of notes and letters.
However, the fact that history has almost totally neglected the excellent collections and annotated catalogues of Cock Blomhoff and Overmeer Fisscher is undeserved. In their efforts to represent the material culture of Japan, they collected daily utensils, tools, models of immovable or otherwise unobtainable goods like houses, as well as maps, prints, and paintings to illustrate the use and setting of the collected items. Although each of them was motivated by a strong ethnographic interest, their respective legacies differed. Von Siebold merely left us with a plain inventory of his collection, while Cock Blomhoff and, especially, Overmeer Fisscher carried their ethnographic endeavors further by organising their materials into annotated catalogues, thus creating an invaluable source of background information on these objects. They presented the world with the first ethnographic exhibitions that tried to cover the complete culture of Japan in the form of objects, illustrations, models, and written sources. *
Fifi Effert is a PhD candidate at the Research School CNWS, the School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies, Leiden. E-mail: freffert@let.leidenuniv.nl