EAST MEETS WEST

Original Records of Traders, Travellers, Missionaries and Diplomats to 1852

Part 1: The Log Book of William Adams (1564-1620) and other Manuscript and Rare Printed Material from the Bodleian Library, Oxford

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Here in Part 1 of East Meets West : Original Records of Western Travellers, Missionaries and Diplomats to 1852 we offer a selection of sources from the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the Bodleian Japanese Library at the Nissan Institute and related libraries in Oxford. Many of these were shown in the Japan Encountered exhibition at the Bodleian Library in 1991, which made many scholars aware for the first time of the richness of manuscript and rare printed sources in Oxford libraries. All items included have been selected by Izumi K Tytler who is the Bodleian Japanese Librarian at the Nissan Institute on the basis of their rarity and intrinsic value for scholars.

They are arranged under six principal themes : The Christian Century in Japan, Jesuit Editions, Early Travels to Japan, The English and Dutch East India Companies, Images of Japan and Expeditions to Japan in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.

The log book of William Adams (1564-1620) describing four voyages made to Cochin-China and Siam is of particular interest. Adams, alias Miura Anjin, is the first Englishman known to have visited Japan. His ship, the Liefde was wrecked off Kyushu in 1600 and, after an audience wth Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, he was given the shogun’s patronage and remained in Japan until his death. The association between Ieyasu and Adams proved to be of profit to both. The shogun learned a great deal about conditions in Northern Europe and of mathematics, navigation and ship-building. Adams, despite being unable to return home, lived in some comfort.

Will Adams also played the part of mediator in opening trade between Britain and Japan. One of only two originals of the shuinjo, issued by Ieyasu Tokugawa, granting trading privileges to the English East India Company, is also in this collection. This document was originally presented to Captain John Saris of the Clove, who arrived in Hirado in 1613.

An even earlier manuscript is a magnificent illuminated copy of The Travels of Marco Polo, produced in England in c 1400 by the artist Johannes. The Venetian travelled widely in East Asia and was responsible for many tales of “the fabulous wealth of the Orient”, including stories of Chipangu - the legendary land laden with gold.

There are also many rare printed sources describing the so-called Christian century in Japan including numerous accounts of the work of missions from Francis Xavier’s arrival in 1549 onwards, Records of Early Voyages to Japan, Records of the English and Dutch East India Companies and Records of later travellers such as La Perouse and Kruzenshtern.

The emphasis has been on materials that are unlikely to be possessed even by major libraries - and much of the manuscript and rare printed material is unique. Future parts of this series will be based on other library collections in Britain, Europe and America.

We would like to express our very grateful thanks to Izumi Tytler for her invaluable help in compiling this remarkable historical resource - both visual and textual - enabling readers to study the interactions between East and West over six centuries from Marco Polo to Commodore Perry.

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