抄録
Manners and Customs of the Japanese in the Nineteenth Century was published first in London in 1841, then in New York in 1845 and 1867 and again in London in 1852. This shows that this book gained many readers not only in Europe but in the United States in those days, for it would have been well adapted for those who were anxious to know Japan. It is clear that it had some influence on their view on Japan.
This book has long been supposed to be the English translation of NIPPON written by Philipp Franz von Siebold. Leon Pages, in Bibliographie Japonaise, and Henri Cordie, in Bibliotheca Japonica describe this book as the English translation of NIPPON. So did Shuzo Kure, in the preface of Siebold: Edo Sanpu Kiko, Kiroku Fujita, in “Bibliographical Study of NIPPON. ” Close study of each sentence revealed that this book was not the English translation of NIPPON, as it used to be supposed, but the tapestry woven of various quotations adopted mainly from the works of many famous Dutch authors from the 17th through the 19th century.
In this thesis three chapters from Chapter IV to VI were examined thoroughly, which were written about periodical journey to Edo, stay at Edo and return to Dezima. In Chapter IV the quotation from NIPPON is no more than 10 percent of the contents, in Chapter V only a few sentences are considered to be taken from NIPPON, and there is no influence of NIPPON to be seen in Chapter VI. Four most influential authors are Overmeer Fisscher, secretary at Dutch factory coming to Japan in 1820, Hendrik Doeff, president of Dutch factory staying in Japan for nearly twenty years, Engelbert Kaempfer, German doctor at Dutch factory who came to Japan in 1690 and Arnoldus Montanus, Dutch priest who had never been to Japan but wrote early introductory account on Japan in 1669.
This study is to be continued for years. Full particulars of this book will be given after all the chapters are analyzed.
