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Panel 1: The “Japan” Depicted by Siebold: History and Culture


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Hitoshi YAMADA
(Translated by Drake L ANGFORD)

Introduction
This paper uses the ethnology of religion to examine the following five points:
1. Who were the pioneering individuals that introduced the Western world to Japanese myth prior
to Siebold?
2. How was Japanese myth recorded by Siebold and Klaproth (a contemporary of Siebold) in the
1830s?
3. What was the impact of the accounts by Siebold and Klaproth?
4. How did a more accurate translation of Japanese myth emerge in the late 19th century? And
lastly,
5. I will provide a tentative report on the miniature books in the Siebold collection in Munich.
First, however, I will provide a brief overview of Japanese myth. “Japanese myth” refers
mainly to myths preserved in two works that were edited in the early 8th century, Kojiki (712) and
Nihon shoki (720). These two works differ in some respects. Specifically,
・ Kojiki is more story-like and includes episodes that are absent from Nihon Shoki, for instance,
The White Hare of Inaba.
・ Nihon shoki is more historiographical in orientation and presents various alternative accounts
using expressions like “According to one text....”
That said, much of the material in the two works overlaps, which is why we also often use the
expression Kiki myth.

1. Pioneering Individuals
1-1) Gaspar Vilela (1524 –72)
Certainly one of the earliest pioneers of this field was the Portuguese Jesuit Gaspar Vilela,
who resided in Japan from 1556 to 1571. On April 27, 1563, while in Sakai (present-day Osaka
Prefecture), he wrote a letter to colleagues in Europe describing three Japanese creation myths. The
following is an English translation of his account made by the Jesuit George Schurhammer.

Opinions which those of Miaco have concerning the Beginning of this World.
The first is: They say that this world was, at first, a round egg. A strong and stormy wind
which struck the egg, broke it. The white of the egg became the sky, whilst the yolk with the
shell became the sea and the land. Then the creatures came and multiplied as they are now.
The second is: In the beginning was a void and, simply by the agency of the force of Nature all
we now see came forth.
The third view is peculiar to the Japanese. It is as follows: The world was originally a great

Siebold and Studies of Japanese Mythology in the 19th Century 215


lake filled with water. As there was as yet no land nor inhabitants a man named Yanamim
[Izanaki] threw a stick with a trident from the sky, and said: “Perhaps there is a river under
the sky.” Whilst stirring the water he lifted up a little piece of clay which was under the water.
That small piece of clay stuck to the trident, and as it came out of the water, became an island.
From it the Empire of Japan gradually took its origin. Therefore they are of the opinion that
the man called Yanamim and his wife Yanangui [Izanami] are the first founders of Japan and
that from these all the Japanese are descended (Schurhammer 1923: 27-28).

While this account about Japan’s creation is based entirely on Nihon shoki, some of the names
(e.g. the kami Yanamim [Izanaki] and Yanangui [Izanami]) and expressions (e.g. trident) it uses are
different. Vilela’s letter, however, was apparently read by no more than a small circle of Jesuits.

1-2) Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716)


The next pioneer was Engelbert Kaempfer. A well-known German physician and naturalist,
Kaempfer resided in Japan from 1690-92. His History of Japan was first published in English in 1727
and then eventually in German a half-century later. Kaempfer comments on Japanese creation myths
and kami in three places. Specifically,
・Book I, Chapter VII, “Of the Origine of the Japanese, according to their own fabulous Opinion”
・Book II, Chapter I, “Names of the Gods, Demi-Gods, and Emperors, who are mentioned in the
Japanese Histories, as the first Monarchs and Governors of that Empire”
・Book III, Chapter I, “Of the Religions of the Empire in general, and of the Sintos Religion in
particular” (Kaempfer [1777–79] I: 111-117, 163-172, 251-257).
Unsurprisingly, Kaempfer’s accounts also rely primarily on Nihon shoki. Unfortunately, I do
not know what response these Japanese myths received in Europe at the time.

2. Siebold and Klaproth


2-1) Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (1796 –1866)
Next came Siebold. In Part I (published 1832) of his comprehensive monograph Nippon, Siebold
summarizes Japanese myth in a section titled “Mythen von der Schöpfung der Welt Urgeschichte
von Japan.” Among Siebold’s most important sources was a Dutch-language dissertation, Oudste
geschiedenis, mythologie, van het Japansche rijk en levensbeschrijving van den eersten Mikado, based
primarily on Nihon shoki that was submitted by his pupil Mima Junzo (Mima [n.d.]).
The process by which Mima’s dissertation manuscript was edited by Siebold and his assistants
has already been illuminated through the research of several Siebold scholars. Their findings can be
summarized as follows.
・Stage one: Mima’s above-mentioned manuscript was likely written between February
1824 and June 1825.
・Stage two: The manuscript was translated into German in 1826 by Siebold’s assistant,
Heinrich Bürger.
・Stage three: Three German manuscripts (each begun in 1832). These manuscripts,
which revised and supplemented Bürger’s text, were produced by Siebold’s
collaborator, Johann Joseph Hoffmann (1805–1878).
・Stage four: Part I of Nippon (1832).
(Yanai 1936 and 1938; and Kanamoto 1977)

216 International Symposium Proceedings ̶ Siebold’s Vision of Japan


2-2) Julius Heinrich Klaproth (1783 –1835)
Two years after publication of Siebold’s above-mentioned summary of Japanese myth, another
important source of related information appeared.
The circumstances behind it, however, are somewhat complicated. Isaac Titsingh (1745–1812),
who served three times as Opperhoofd (chief factor) of the Dutch East India Company factory in
Nagasaki (1779–80, 1781–83, and 1784), had translated Nippon odai ichiran into Dutch. This work,
written in 1652 by Confucian scholar Hayashi Gaho (1618–80), was a history of Japan from time of
its first emperor, Jinmu, through the 16th century.
The manuscript of Titsingh’s translation survived his death and was eventually edited and
published in 1834 by German linguist and orientalist, Julius Heinrich Klaproth under the lengthy
title Nipon o daï itsi ran, ou annales des empereurs du Japon. Accompagné de notes, et précédé d’un
aperçu de l’histoire mythologique du Japon, par Julius Klaproth.
This book, however, was not a straight translation of Titsingh’s work; rather, it was a complete
re-translation of the text. As he explains in the introduction to the book, Klaproth was critical of the
poor quality of Titsingh’s translation and admits that he had to re-translate it himself using Hayashi’s
text (Screech 2006: 71-72).
As the subtitle also makes clear, the book includes a synopsis of Japanese myth. This was
written by Klaproth based on Nihon shoki and portions of Tokugawa Mitsukuni’s Dai Nihonshi
(Titsingh 1834: i-xxxvi).
As for the personal relationship between Siebold and Klaproth, we know the following.
Initially the two scholars exchanged heated arguments in correspondence, but then eventually
reconciled in September 1832 (Walravens 2002: 93-110, 2006: 190-191). In the introduction to his
above-mentioned work, Klaproth praises Siebold’s Nippon Archiv (i.e. Nippon) (Titsingh 1834: vii)
Following Klaproth’s death on August 28, 1835, however, Siebold’s attitude toward Klaproth
apparently worsened again. When Part 9 of Nippon was released in September 1841 (Ishiyama and
Miyazaki 2012: 291), Siebold once again criticized the work of his deceased fellow researcher as
follows.

Das Werk, zu dessen Bearbeitung ausser der Titsing’schen Handschrift auch der japanische
Originaltext und viele andere Materialien J. Klaproth zu Gebote standen, erschien auch bald
darauf unter dem Titel Nippon o daï itsi ran [...]; ein stattlich ausgerüstetes Buch, das viel
Verdienst, aber auch mit andern Arbeiten des sel. Klaproth den Fehler gemein hat, dass
es oberflächlich bearbeitet ist, und die dazu anderwärts entlehnten Materialien so fein mit
eingewebt sind, dass man es ihnen nicht ansieht, ob und woher sie entlehnt sind. Klaproth
verstand so recht den Kunstgriff, auch die reinsten Quellen, woraus er schöpfte, im Auge
seiner Leser als trübe erscheinen zu lassen. So säuberte Klaproth denn auch Titsingh’s
Handschrift und benutzte den Satz zu seinem Commentar darüber (Siebold [1832–51]:
537-538).

Be this as it may, these works by Siebold and Klaproth were used almost exclusively as
sources of Japanese myth.

3. Siebold’s and Klaproth’s Influence


On March 28, 1876, U.K. anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917) read a revolutionary
paper in London titled “Remarks on Japanese Mythology” (Tylor 1877). It is considered to be the

Siebold and Studies of Japanese Mythology in the 19th Century 217


first academic treatment of Japanese myth (Obayashi 1972: 249-250; Yamada 2012: 8-9). In his paper,
Tyler divided Japanese myth into indigenous elements, Buddhist elements, and Chinese elements.
He relied on three sources:
1. The opening section of Kojiki, translated for Tyler by Freedom and People’s Rights Movement
activist Baba Tatsui (1850–1888) who was in London at the time
2. Siebold’s Nippon
3. Klaproth’s introduction
Another example is found in the work of German ethnologist Adolf Bastian (1826–1905). In
his work Die heilige Sage der Polynesier (Bastian 1881), he compares Japanese and Polynesian myth.
In doing so, he too uses Klaproth’s accounts to compare the creation story in the Hawaiian chant
Kumulipo with Japanese creation myths.
Even after more accurate translations of Japanese myth were produced in the early 20th
century, German ethnologist Leo Frobenius (1873–1938) continued to cite Siebold as a source in
his Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes, a classic of comparative mythology (Frobenius 1904: 417, 418).
Incidentally, Brauns’s book was also an important source of Japanese folklore for Frobenius, as I
touch on below.

4. More Accurate Translations


4-1) Ernest Mason Satow (1843 –1929)
In the late 19th century, three U.K. Japanologists made important contributions to research on
Japanese myth. The first of these was diplomat Ernest Satow, an associate of Alexander von Siebold
during the early years of Satow’s residency in Japan. A quick study when it came to Japanese, Satow
criticized Klaproth’s writings for the following reason, namely, that his interpretation of personal
names was inaccurate and his work ignored the importance of Kojiki.

Klaproth, indeed, has summarised in his introduction to “Les Annales des Dairi [Nipon o
daï itsi ran],” the first three books of the Nihongi [Nihonshoki], but the value of his work is
considerably diminished by the absence of a correct interpretation of the names of gods and
heroes, without which the real import of the stories in which they figure cannot be properly
appreciated. But he was apparently altogether ignorant of the “Notices of Ancient Things
[Kojiki],” which is of peculiar interest both to the student of mythology and to the philologist,
[...] (Satow 1878: 31).

4-2) Basil Hall Chamberlain (1827–1893)


Similarly negative views were cast upon Siebold and other pioneering Japanologists as well. One
figure who shared such views was Basil Hall Chamberlain, a U.K. scholar of language who was
professor of Japanese at Tokyo Imperial University from 1886–1890. As he wrote,

If small people may be allowed to criticise giants, we would here note that the only weakness
discoverable in the German school of investigators, as represented by Kaempfer, Siebold,
und Rein, is a certain insufficiency of the critical faculty in questions of history and language.
Surely it is not enough to get at the Japanese sources. The Japanese sources must themselves
be subjected to rigorous scrutiny. It was reserved for the English school, represented by
Satow and Aston, to do this ̶ to explore the language with scientific exactness, and to prove,
step by step, that the so-called history, which Kaempfer and his followers had taken on trust,

218 International Symposium Proceedings ̶ Siebold’s Vision of Japan


was a mass of old wives’ fables (Chamberlain [1882]).

4-3) William George Aston (1841–1911)


Next, in 1896, diplomat and Japanologist William George Aston translated Nihon shoki into English
as well (Aston [1896]), including with it numerous interesting footnotes of a comparative nature. His
introduction mentions Chamberlain, Satow, and Florenz, but not Siebold or Klaproth. By this time,
the linguistic facets of Japanese myth had already outgrown the older summaries.

4-4) Karl Florenz (1865 –1939)


German scholars also contributed to such growth. Karl Florenz, who was professor at Tokyo
Imperial University and then The University of Hamburg, translated the entire Nihon shoki, as
well as sections of Kojiki and other classical sources, into German in 1901. In 1919, he published
complete German translations of the two most important sources of Japanese myth (Florenz 1901,
1919).

4-5) David August Brauns (1827–1893)


No less important is German geologist David August Brauns. He taught at Tokyo Imperial
University from 1879 to 1881. He had some fluency in spoken Japanese, which enabled him to
collect Japanese folk tales in his spare time. He was interested in Japanese ethnic identity and
sought to understand it through folk tales. He also had an interest in comparative mythology, a field
of study still in its early stages at the time. In 1885 he published Japanische Märchen und Sagen,
a German-language introduction to 168 examples of Japanese folklore. He divided the stories into
eight categories, as follows.

1. Märchen: Momotaro, Saru-kani gassen, Kachikachi yama, etc.


2. Fabeln: Nihiki no kaeru, etc.
3. Göttersagen: myths of Izanagi and Izanami, Ukemochi, Amaterasu and Susano’o, Susano’o and
Inadahime, Okuninushi, etc. Includes myths of the Ryukyuans and Ainu.
4. Heldensagen: Emperor Jinmu, etc.
5. Geschichtliche Sagen: Crossings to Japan by Chinese emigrants, etc.
6. Legenden: Shotoku Taishi, Nichiren, etc.
7. Lokalsagen: Mt. Fuji, Lake Biwa, etc.
8. Gespenstersagen und Verwandtes

Numerous European scholars have in fact referred to Brauns’s book when comparing the myths and
folktales of Japan and with those of other places. Frobenius was mentioned above, so a few other
examples should suffice.
Friedrich W. K. Müller (1863–1930), a German orientalist, was the first to compare folkloric
myths of Umisachi, Yamasachi, and lost fishhook with similar stories from Sulawesi (Celebes),
Indonesia (Müller 1893). In addition to Chamberlain’s Kojiki, he also relied on Brauns’s book.
Between 1896–1907, the little-known independent/unofficial German scholar Eduard
Stucken (1865–1936) published his five-volume Astralmythen (Stucken 1896–1907). His research
on comparative mythology examined the motif of magische Flucht (magical escape). He, too, relied
mainly on Chamberlain and Brauns as sources for kindred Japanese stories that he included in his
comparisons and distribution maps.

Siebold and Studies of Japanese Mythology in the 19th Century 219


Brauns’s work was used outside the German-speaking world as well. In his still popular
12-volume Coloured Fairy Books (1889–1910), U.K. anthropologist Andrew Lang (1844–1912) took
several Japanese folk tales from Brauns’s collection.
As this makes clear, the older works by Siebold and Klaproth were increasingly replaced
during the late 19th century by newer, more accurate translations of Japanese myth. Moreover, there
was also a growing interest in Japanese folk tales.

5. Miniature Books in the Siebold Collection in Munich


In this context it is interesting that Japanese folk tales are recorded in four miniature books in the
Siebold collection of the State Museum for Ethnology in Munich (S2029a-d). As is well known, there
were many miniature books produced during the Bakumatsu and early Meiji periods.
A number of illustrations show striking resemblances. One illustration in the Munich
collection shows a scene from Sarukani gassen (The Monkey and the Crab). The mean-spirited
monkey is saying to the gentle crab, “Trade me for this seed.”
This illustration bears a very strong resemblance to another miniature book in the Shirayuri
College Library in Tokyo (Kato 2004: 41), though the animals’ dialog is slightly longer. Monkey: “Say,
Crab, trade me your grilled rice-ball for this persimmon seed.” Crab: “Okay, fine with me. Let’s
trade.” The Munich and Tokyo books also have very similar illustrations at the end of their stories;
both show the monkey with the mortar on top of his head.
The following points need further research.
・Dating these miniature books is difficult. It is unknown when either book, even the Shirayuri
book, was printed.
・The miniature books in Prof. Yasuko Kato’s collection (Baika Women’s University) are
bigger than the Munich ones. The former are approximately 10cm, what the latter are 3cm
long by 2.4cm wide. Were there different formats? This question is still unresolved.
・Another interesting question is whether Siebold had an interest in the contents of these
miniature books, or if it was also the object itself (quality, materials) that interested him.

Conclusion
Siebold’s accounts of Japanese myth published in his Nippon come from his pupil Mima’s
dissertation. Although his accounts remained far from accurate, they lacked that kind of information
at the time and, at the very least, were an improvement over earlier works such as Kaempfer’s.
Thus, Siebold’s writings were often used along with Klaproth’s contributions.
By the late 19th century, however, more accurate translations of Japanese myth were made
by Chamberlain, Aston, and Florenz, a development that contributed to the growth of comparative
mythology in the 20th century.
Research remains to be done on miniature books in Munich and other places, and on their
significance within the Siebold collection as a whole.
If I may, I will close this paper with a brief personal reminiscence. I began living in Munich
in 1998 to begin writing my doctoral thesis. One day I happened to visit Siebold’s grave at the
Southern Cemetery. At the time, I had no idea I would ever be involved in research on Siebold. I am
very grateful to have had this opportunity and would like to express my appreciation to everyone
involved. I look forward to continuing this research in the future.

220 International Symposium Proceedings ̶ Siebold’s Vision of Japan


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(Tohoku University)

222 International Symposium Proceedings ̶ Siebold’s Vision of Japan

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