1998 年 48 巻 4 号 p. 315-324
During the court journey in 1826, Nagasakiya was the usual inn where the Dutch stayed in Edo. While Siebold was there, a lot of people including the governor of Nagasaki, feudal lords, and imperial doctors visited him alternately. Siebold obtained diverse information from them, and this became the cause of the Siebold Incident later in 1828. In this study, we opened the important materials which could overthrow the established story of the von Siebold Incident. The first one is the letter which Siebold sent to Mamiya on February 25, 1828. So far, the von Siebold Incident has been considered to begin with Mamiya's notice to the government, which stated that Mamiya had received via Takahashi Sakuzaemon a letter from Siebold, a total stranger to him. The second material is the warrant issued by the government against Siebold, who violated the law by writing a letter to Mamiya. Concerning how the government dealt with this case, there still remain many questions. For example, the government did not check the relationship between Siebold and Takahashi at all, even though they knew that it was Takahashi who had given the letter of Siebold to Mamiya. It may be because Mogami had already been under investigation that he could escape the accusation of the government. In any event, the whole story related to the letter and the warrant seems to signal the existence of another intent of the government, something beyond the ban of communication with foreigners.
