Hendrik Doeff (2 December 1777 – 19 October 1835) was the Dutch commissioner in the

Dejima , in the 17th century also called Tsukishima ( 築島, "built island"), was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1854). For 220 years, i ...

trading post in

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

, Japan, during the first years of the 19th century.

Biography

Doeff was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. As a young man, he sailed to Japan as a scribe for the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

. He became chief of the Dejima post in 1803, succeeding

Willem Wardenaar Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, Gu ...

, who was Director from 1800 to 1803. Doeff remained in Japan until 1817, when

Jan Cock Blomhoff Jan Cock Blomhoff (Amsterdam, 5 August 1779 – Amersfoort, 15 August 1853) was director ("opperhoofd") of Dejima, the Dutch trading colony in the harbour of Nagasaki, Japan, 1817–1824, succeeding Hendrik Doeff. During his first stay on the ...

succeeded him. After

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

captured the Dutch East Indies in 1811, Dejima became the only place in the world flying the

Dutch flag The national flag of the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlandse vlag) is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue. The current design originates as a variant of the late 16th century orange-white-blue '' Prinsenvlag'' ("Prince's Flag"), evo ...

. The Netherlands was restored in 1814, and Doeff was later decorated for his loyalty and courage. Doeff wrote a Dutch-Japanese dictionary, and a memoir of his experiences in Japan, titled '' Recollections of Japan''. He was notable for his strong activity in maintaining the Dutch trade monopoly in Japan. He is the first westerner known to have written

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or s ...

, two of which have been found in Japanese publications from the period of his stay in Japan.Otterspeer, W. ''Leiden Oriental Connections, 1850-1940'', Volume 5 of ''Studies in the History of Leiden University'', Brill, 1989, . p 360 One of his haiku: :イナヅマ　ノ :Inadsma no :カヒナヲ　カラン :Kaÿna Wo karan :クサマクラ :Koesa Makura. :lend me your arms, :fast as thunderbolts, :for a pillow on my journey

The Phaeton incident

After the French had annexed the Batavian Republic in 1806 and

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

had begun to use its resources against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

ships started to capture Dutch

merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are ...

ping. In 1808, HMS ''Phaeton'', under the command of Captain Fleetwood Pellew, entered

's harbour to ambush some Dutch trading ships that were expected to arrive shortly. The ''Phaeton'' entered the harbour on 14 October surreptitiously under a Dutch flag. As was the custom, Dutch representatives from Dejima rowed out to welcome the visiting ship, but as they approached, ''Phaeton'' lowered a tender to capture the Dutch representatives, while their Japanese escorts jumped into the sea and swam back to land. The ''Phaeton'', holding the Dutch representatives hostage, demanded that supplies (water, food, fuel) be delivered to her in exchange for their return. Because the harbor cannon defenses were both old and poorly maintained, the meager Japanese forces in Nagasaki were seriously outgunned and unable to intervene. At the time, it was the Saga clan's turn to uphold the policy of '' sakoku'' in Nagasaki, but they had economized by stationing only 100 troops there, instead of the 1,000 men officially required for the station. The Nagasaki Magistrate, Matsudaira Genpei, immediately ordered troops from Kyūshū. The Japanese mobilized a force of 8,000

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

and 40 ships to confront the ''Phaeton'', but it would take them a few days to arrive. In the meantime, the Nagasaki Magistrate provided supplies to the British, and the Dutch representatives were released. The ''Phaeton'' left two days later on 17 October, before the arrival of Japanese reinforcements, and after the crew had learned that the Dutch trading ships would not be coming that year. They also left a letter for Doeff. The Nagasaki Magistrate, Matsudaira, took responsibility by committing suicide by seppuku. Following ''Phaeton''s visit, the

Bakufu , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakura ...

reinforced coastal defenses and promulgated a law prohibiting foreigners coming ashore, on pain of death (1825-1842, '' Muninen-uchikowashi-rei''). The Bakufu also requested that official interpreters learn English and Russian, departing from their prior focus on Dutch studies. In 1814, the Dutch interpreter Motoki Shozaemon produced the first English-Japanese dictionary (6,000 words). HendrikDoeffJapan

Works

*''Recollections of Japan'', Hendrik Doeff,

In popular culture

*The

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous character in the novel '' The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet'' is loosely based on Hendrik Doeff.

Notes

External links