Rangaku 蘭学
Dutch studies
Rangaku literally means "Dutch studies". It designates the spreading of Western knowledge and technologies by Batavian travelers to Tokugawa Japan, during the closure of the country to foreigners. The "rangaku" allowed Japan to remain informed of the world events during the period.
The Dutch Monopoly
Japan chose, after the Christian revolt of Shimabara (1638-1639) in the south of the country, to close its borders to foreigners. This decision of the third shogun Tokugawa Iemetsu contained an exception for the Dutch, who during the revolt remained loyal allies of the shogunate, unlike the Portuguese. They were thus authorized to reside on the island of Dejima, an artificial island made in the port of Nagasaki and from which they were authorized to trade. It is on this islet that the Compagnie des Indes Orientales will set up a factory.
- Read also : Nagasaki: the megane bridge
Drawing of Dejima Island - 1725
Wikipedia
The transmission of many knowledge
Soon, the island was populated by Japanese interpreters fluent in Dutch. If the primary purpose of this counter was the trade of goods such as silk or deer skins, the transmission of Western knowledge became an important activity of Dejima. Thus Western medicine, which many Japanese interpreters learned to master, became very popular. In addition, the first annual visit to Edo to pay homage to the Shogun was also an opportunity for Japanese scholars to make contact with the Dutch, and to question them on Western advances.
In the 18th century, the shogunal harshness on the foreign presence relaxed, and many foreign books were translated. Inventions such as the microscope, the telescope, the hot air balloon, or the static electricity motor, as well as discoveries in chemistry, biology, and mechanics were presented. In a less scientific aspect, the rangaku was also an opportunity for the power of the shogun to keep abreast of new policies in the outside world.
Description of a hot air balloon in a Japanese book - 1792
Wikipedia
An influence on the spirits
The rangaku was a school of intellectual training for many Japanese who carried out the Meiji Revolution. We can thus name the very famous Ryôma Sakamoto, one of the fathers of the imperial restoration, Katsu Kaishu, the statesman who prevented the civil war at that time, or the scholar Fukuzawa Yukichi, who appears on the 10,000 yen banknotes.
Revolutionary Sakamoto Ryoma
wikipedia
