In this article, I will discuss one important aspect of historical encounters between Western colonial scientists and Japanese nature. In order to do so, I will shed new light on how geo-sciences became an object of scientific research of Japan, in the framework of Dutch colonial sciences. I will also show that Western interests in Japanese geo-sciences were primarily stimulated by economic motivations, and that, at the same time, it accompanied the process of the introduction of modern Western sciences into Japan.
It is well-known that Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) studied Japanese natural history widely, and wrote two standard works, Flora Japonica and Fauna Japonica. This paper examines a newly found unpublished manuscript Geologica Japonica by von Siebold, which discusses Japanese geology and mineralogy, and reports on copper mining and smelting. Mineralogical and geological collections have also been discovered in museums at Leiden, the Netherlands. These collections are now identified as the research materials used in the preparation of this manuscript, and found to be the first systematic European geo-scientific collections from Japan.
The collection of rocks and minerals from Japan has been proved as mostly collected and identified by Heinrich Burger (1806-1858), a pharmacist and assistant to von Siebold. Burger classified the collection using two nomenclature systems, those of A. G. Werner and R. Hauy.
We further point out that the Dutch were interested in the useful natural resources of their trading partner, carrying out a survey of coal mines in Japan, and the trial of tea transplantation from Japan to Java. In my research on the newly found manuscripts and collections of geology and mineralogy, I clarify that von Siebold and Burger intensively investigated Japanese copper mining and smelting. They reported their visit to the Sumitomo copper refinery at Osaka, and Burger wrote an article on Japanese copper in the journal of the Batavian Society for Arts and Sciences.
In conclusion, based on close study of newly examined manuscripts and detailed identification of geological collections, a network of interest in Japan’s geology and mineralogy by Dutch colonial scientist is illustrated, and its hybrid character is demonstrated against the background of Dutch- Japan cultural exchange.
An Unpublished Manuscript Geologica Japonica by Von Siebold: Geology, Mineralogy, and Copper in the Context of Dutch Colonial Science and the Introduction of Western Geo-sciences to Japan
