Philipp Franz von Siebold: Dejima, Nagasaki and the Road to Edo

Siebold reached Dejima, the Dutch trading post at Nagasaki, on 11 August 1823, posted as resident physician and scientist. Only a very small number of Dutch personnel were allowed on the island, so the two jobs had to be combined in one man. Dejima was tiny: an artificial island of 120 by 75 metres, linked to the mainland by a small bridge.

Visitor guidance: Dejima is in central Nagasaki.

In 1824 Siebold opened a medical school in the Narutaki district, the Narutaki-juku, which became a meeting place for around fifty students. Today only two wells and a tree planted by Siebold remain of the building. Next to the site, the Siebold Memorial Museum opened on 1 October 1989 and shows items about his life, including his partner Kusumoto Taki and their daughter Kusumoto Ine.

Visitor guidance: The Siebold Memorial Museum stands next to the school site in Narutaki, Nagasaki.

In 1826 Siebold made the court journey to Edo with the Dutch chief, Colonel De Stürler, collecting plants and animals on the way. Dutch visitors waited in a mandatory residence, the Nagasakiya, until summoned to court. In Edo he obtained detailed maps of Japan and Korea from the court astronomer Takahashi Kageyasu, which was strictly forbidden. When a map of northern Japan came to light, he was accused of high treason and of spying for Russia, and was expelled on 22 October 1829.

Location precision: The pin marks central Tokyo, the modern city on the site of Edo; no single building is identified.

Siebold reached the Netherlands on 7 July 1830. In 1837 he founded a museum in his home in Leiden. Today Japan Museum SieboldHuis displays items he collected between 1823 and 1829, with a permanent exhibition of maps, rocks, animals, plants, utensils and art. The collection began in Nagasaki, where his patients paid him in kind with a variety of objects and artifacts.

Visitor guidance: Japan Museum SieboldHuis is a museum in Leiden that displays his Japan collection.

He died in Munich on 18 October 1866. His grave, in the shape of a Buddhist pagoda, lies in the Alter Münchner Südfriedhof, the former Southern Cemetery. Munich also holds the collection from his second voyage to Japan (1859–1862).

Location precision: The pin marks the cemetery in Munich, not the exact position of the grave.