Japanese products in the National Museum of Ethnology (NL). Collected by Philipp Franz Von Siebold (1796 -1866)

 

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Dutch were the only foreigners with permission to stay in Japan. Commissioned by the Dutch East-Indian government, German scientist Philipp von Siebold collected material for the study of Japanese nature and culture. From 1823 until 1829, he lived in the Dutch settlement of Deshima, a small, artificial island in the Bay of Nagasaki. He was not allowed to leave the island. He could only visit the nearby city of Nagasaki under surveillance by Japanese warders.

 

However, there was this one possibility for seeing more of this unknown country. Every four years the Dutch at Deshima were obliged to visit the Shogun in Edo (Tokyo). Von Siebold made this five-month long journey in 1826 and took advance of the possibility of collecting objects and information as much as possible.

He was interested in all aspects of Japanese flora, fauna and culture, including food. In Kokeno he reported about shobakiri, noodles made of buckwheat, eaten with soya sauce, mustard, onion and red pepper. In Koyanose he sent his assistants to the market for buying as many delicacies as they could get.

When Von Siebold arrived in Edo, he wondered how people fed themselves without having meat, bread and potatoes. He obtained a list of all food products that were available in Edo at that moment (May 1826). The list reports a diversity of products we can only dream of nowadays: 100 varieties of vegetables, 8 kinds of sprouted beans and roots ( mojasi) , 25 kinds of dried and fresh mushrooms, 20 seaweed varieties, a choice of 70 kinds of fish, lobster, crab and shell-fish, 26 varieties of mussels, 30 poultry and game varieties, 28 kinds of fruit and 12 varieties of grains. Rice is the staple. There is a daily supply of 2 million kilograms. A considerable part is destined for the court of the Shogun, where each grain was carefully examined before being considered good enough for his daily meal.

 

On his journey to Edo Von Siebold collected seaweed, beans, rice and other grains. He bought different qualities of sake, soya sauce and mustard, together with shiitake-mushrooms, sansho pepper and dried sepia. He also collected green teas in different qualities. Seeds of tea plants were shipped to Java. By packing them in a special way, he protected the seeds from drying up during the long journey. The Japanese seeds were planted in Javanese soil, they sprouted, rooted and the Dutch East-Indian tea cultivation became a success.

 

In 1829 the Japanese government suspected Von Siebold of spying for the Russians. They found out that he had bought topographic maps from Japanese scientists. Subsequently Von Siebold was urged to leave the country. Just in time he shipped all his collected material to the Netherlands. Back in Leiden, he started to organize his collected objects and to analyze his notes and observations. Between 1832 and 1858, he published Nippon. Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan (Archive of the description of Japan), a Fauna Japonica and a Flora Japonica. Almost his entire collection was bought by the Dutch state. The ethnographic objects became the founding collection of the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden.

Among them were the food samples. Carefully packed in cardboard boxes, glass jars and original Japanese porcelain bottles, or wrapped in paper.

 

References:

P.F.von Siebold: Nippon. Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan. Leiden, 1832 – 1858

L.Roodenburg: Eten op Aarde. Madame Jeanet Publishers, Rotterdam 2007

 

Mustard, coconut oil and Japanese soya sauce

Japan, 1826

 

Three antique porcelain bottles with handwritten texts in Old Dutch.

The bottle with “Mostaard” (mustard) is closed with a paper stopper and a string. There are more bottles with different kinds of mustard in the museum collection. Registration cards mention bottles filled with karashibin and rarasi. The original mustard seeds (Sinapis simensis) are about three hundred years old and still in the bottle.

The porcelain bottles were meant for export to Europe. They were produced in Arita ,containing soya, mustard, saké or other exclusive Japanese products.

The bottle with “Clapus Olij” (coconut oil) is probably manifactured in the Hizen province. It dates from about 1660, the period in which the Japanese started to make their own porcelain. This specific bottle was ordered by the Dutch United East Indies Trade Company (VOC) for the medical office in the Dutch East Indies.

Normally this kind of porcelain is white, but it became brownish because of the oil inside.

 

Jar with fruits and plants

Japan, 1826

 

We don't know exactly what kind of Japanese plants and fruits are in this jar.

Jar with dried seaweed

Japan, 1826

 

Japanese seaweed

In Japanese cookery over 30 kinds of seaweed are used. They are for sale as dried products. Best-known are:

- Konbu (sea kelp) used for making dashi, i.e. fish stock. Small pieces of konbu may also be added to boiling rice or stews. It has quite a strong flavour. There may be some white powder on the dried leaves, which can be removed with a damp piece of kitchen paper.

- Nori, paper-thin, squarish leaves of seaweed, used for rolling rice for sushi. Besides, the leaves may be cut in small stripes for garnishing sushi and soba (buckwheat noodles). Before use, nori is put over a fire for a few seconds to develop the taste and make it crunchy. If stored dry, the leaves can be kept for a long time.

- Wakame is used in soups and salads, or as garnishing for rice and noodles. Like konbu, wakame has to be soaked in tepid water before use.