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Found after more than 130 Years:
The Dutch and Japanese Dictionary
of Dr Jan Karel van den Broek
From 1853 till
1857, Jan Karel van den Broek (1814-1865) stayed on Dejima as station
physician. During his stay, many Japanese visited him to ask questions
about western science and technology. According to his official report
of 1855, eighty people came to visit from outside Dejima. Under his guidance,
people from Satsuma built their first steamship and a blast furnace. His
teaching ranged from the making of mortar to gun factories, from blasting
under water to steam engines. In 1856, the number of visitors approached
5,000.
* By HERMAN MOESHART
From his early youth, Van den Broek
had had a great interest in natural science and physics, and had been
experimenting with home-built instruments. During his medical education
at the Clinische School
(Clinical School) in Rotterdam, he enjoyed the lessons in physics and
chemistry. In 1836 Van den Broek established himself as a physician in
Arnhem where he became a member of the physics society Tot
Nut en Vergenoegen ('For Benefit and Pleasure'). He gave many
lectures and demonstrations about various subjects, such as electricity,
the telegraph, hearing, and vision, and he was a member of the board of
editors of the society's magazine Natuurkunde
(Physics).
Quite unexpectedly to his friends, Van den Broek resolved to go to
the Dutch Indies in 1852. Before his departure, the University of Groningen
granted him a honourary doctorate for his work on the human ear. He
was appointed physician in Cheribon on Java, but soon after his arrival
a conflict between him and the Resident Tj. Ament developed over the
treatment of the indigenous population. The unworkable situation had
Van den Broek apply for a post on Dejima in Japan, where he arrived
on 2 August 1853.
Van den
Broek's manuscripts and books in the Arnhem Library.
It was there that Van den Broek's popularity with the Japanese brought
him into conflict with the director of the island, Jan Hendrik Donker
Curtius. Wanting to be the most important Dutch official in Japan, Donker
Curtius could not bear it when the station doctor proved to be more
popular. For his part, Van den Broek did not think much of the scraping
and bowing director who did little to improve the position of the inmates
of the island. During the years 1855 to 1857, the relationship between
the director and the physician of the factory gradually worsened. In
1857, Van den Broek was recalled to Batavia. From there, he went back
to the Netherlands and, in 1859, to try to obtain rehabilitation from
the Minister of the Colonies; in which he succeeded only partially.
He returned to the Indies in 1861 and became involved in building an
ice factory, resulting in ammonia poisoning and his return to the Netherlands
in 1863. He went on to live in Apeldoorn, where he died in 1865.
Van den
Broek's dictionaries
I first found out about the dictionary of Van den Broek
when, during the research for a book on him, I came across the text of
a speech in his memory by J.P.C. van Tricht, a schoolmate from the Clinical
School. In this speech, held during a special meeting of
Tot Nut en Vergenoegen on 1 August 1865, Van Tricht said: 'With
untiring zeal he worked, as long as his forces allowed, on his dictionary
of the Japanese language, which he imagined to be of great importance
to many after its completion'.
Where, I wondered, had this dictionary gone? Van den Broek's
only living daughter, Jacoba, had refused the inheritance from her father,
which mainly consisted of debts. The Arnhem courts appointed a lawyer,
J.M. de Kempenaer, to settle the affairs of Van den Broek. According to
the speech by Van Tricht, the books were in Apeldoorn, as Van den Broek
had worked on them up until his last moments.
A search in the vaults of the Arnhem Library unveiled the
manuscripts and books. A catalogue of library's manuscripts contains a
note explaining that De Kempenaer tried to sell the manuscripts and books
at an auction in 1867 and had given the books and papers to the library
for safekeeping. As no buyers were found, the books remained in the library.
Among various papers and books there are three volumes made
of Japanese paper. As it turns out, Van den Broek resolved to make his
own dictionary after a conflict with a Japanese interpreter who refused
to translate his words.
The Japanese words in the books are put in order of the
iroha and are entered
in katakana with
kanji added here
and there, with the Dutch translations following. Seemingly dissatisfied
with this way of working, he started to put words already finished into
three new folios. These books did not allow for all the words he wanted
to add and for his final selection he had to use seven thick folio volumes,
running from A to Z. In these books, he wrote the Dutch words first, followed
by the Japanese translation in katakana
and, here and there, adding kanji
and an English translation, indicating that he probably planned to publish
an English version too.
The labour involved must have been tremendous. As Van den
Broek continued his work in Batavia and in the Netherlands, he must have
learnt a lot of Japanese, obviously being unable to consult the Japanese
interpreters on Dejima. Yet his knowledge will not possibly have been
sufficient to complete the work on his own, hence his contacts with a
professor at Leiden University, J.J. Hoffman. Unfortunately, no correspondence
with Van den Broek has been found in the documents of Hoffman preserved
at Leiden University.
Among the Japanese books are a charming little volume on
Rangaku, containing a map of the Netherlands, pictures of flags and planets,
a plan of Edo published by Murataya in 1865, a Japanese-Dutch vocabulary
received from a Japanese interpreter, two volumes of sketches by Hokusai,
a book on supernatural things published in 1829, a book on flower arrangement
published in 1809, two volumes of a dictionary published in Japan, and
a Chinese-English vocabulary published at Canton by Robert Thom in 1843.
The vocabulary of the Japanese interpreter bears the name of Van den Broek
on the cover.
All of these manuscripts and books have, for the past 135
years, been lying undisturbed in the vaults of the Arnhem Library (Bibliotheek
Arnhem). As I am not a linguist but a historian, it is not
possible for me to judge the importance of these books and manuscripts
but, hopefully, someone's interest in the endeavours of Van den Broek
to create a Dutch-Japanese dictionary has been sufficiently aroused to
evaluate his work. *
Herman
J. Moeshart, MA is an independent historian, specialized in the history
of Japan in the nineteenth century. He is currently writing a book on
Dr J.K. van den Broek.
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