From 1641 to 1854 the Dutch were the only European people who were allowed to enter the harbour of Nagasaki and trade with the Japanese. Via contacts with Dutch inhabitants of Deshima and imported books (Maclean, 1973, 1974) the Japanese were informed about scientific developments in the western world.1 Especially the physicians (e.g. Kaempfer, Thunberg, von Siebold) and the “Opperhoofden” or chiefs of the Dutch factory were responsible for this transfer of knowledge. Although there were severe restrictions on contacts with the Japanese and to what Japanese persons were allowed to tell the Dutch, the Opperhoofden and especially the physicians managed to obtain knowledge about Japan.
Officially only Dutch persons, i.e. inhabitants of respectively the Republic of the Seven Provinces, the Batavian Republic, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, were allowed to enter Japan. However, the United East-India Company (V.O.C.) (till 1797), the Dutch State, and the Dutch Trade Company (from 1827) employed many foreigners. For the Japanese, the Dutch language was the only way to recognize a Dutchman as such. Japanese interpreters at Deshima, who mastered the Dutch language, on this basis could identify a Dutchman. The physicians Kaempfer and Thunberg who had been in Dutch service for some years before they sailed to Deshima, easily passed the test. However, von Siebold, who had had little time to learn the Dutch language, was only allowed to enter the island because his fellow passengers explained his ‘dialect’ by stating he came from the Dutch mountains (!).
As they had been trained in the use of plants for medicines, all physicians were more interested in botany than in zoology. Plants were also much easier to preserve than animals. It was easy to obtain fish in the harbour of Nagasaki, but for the preservation of fishes, one needed arak (rice wine) that had to be shipped from Batavia. It was only when von Siebold was sent to Japan with a special instruction to gather information on natural products of Japan that fishes were collected in large quantities.
The present chapter provides an overview of collectors, researchers, authors, and artists, either Dutch or employed by the Dutch administration, who contributed to Japanese ichthyology between 1690 (Engelbert Kaempfer) and 1879 (Pieter Bleeker).
1 Pre-Linnean Authors
In the earliest Dutch books on Japan, fishes are hardly mentioned. In the Beschryvinge van het Machtig Koningrijck Japan (Description of the Mighty Kingdom of Japan) François Caron (many editions from 1645–1663) pays no attention at all to fishes. This is the more surprising when one realizes that Caron (1600–1673) lived for twenty years in Japan, a country where fish and fishery always have been essential.
Arnoldus Montanus (1625–1683) spent his whole life in the Netherlands. His large work on Japan (1669) was solely based on travel accounts. The only information on fishes in Montanus is ‘The inhabitants have plenty of fish, especially roach and shad, and these they like the most.’2 In a summary of differences between the Dutch and the Japanese, Montanus states: ‘we feed on chicks and fattened fowl, they feed on fish and scalloped sea creatures.’3 The book contains two plates with fishermen performing various fishing techniques, but these are not explained.
The German Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716) was the first scientist to write about fishes occurring in Japan. Kaempfer had wide-ranging interests and studied at various universities in Germany and Poland, but he was foremost a physician with a great interest in botany.4
Before he arrived as a physician at Deshima in September 1690, Kaempfer had travelled to Sweden, Russia, Persia, India, Ceylon, and Java, and had been in the service of the Dutch East India Company for six years. Kaempfer stayed in Japan for two years, and two times joined the journey to the court of the Shogun in Edo (Tokyo).
Most of the information on Japan that Kaempfer collected during his stay, was only published posthumously in The History of Japan.5 In this book, Kaempfer listed 45 fish species, for which both the Japanese and the Dutch names were given. Morphological characters of the fishes were not included. For a number of species, some information was provided about their taste, toxicity, or medical use. For 12 species of fish, illustrations were added [Fig. 23.1] which were copied from a Japanese book that Kaempfer had brought from Japan. Some of these illustrations and names do not match. Kaempfer cannot be blamed for these mistakes: The History of Japan was published long after his death, and the translator of his original German text, J.G. Scheuchtzer, was responsible for the selection and the copying of the figures.
Kaempfer Engelbert, De beschryving van Japan […] (The Hague – Amsterdam, P. Gosse and J. Neaulme, Balthasar Lakeman: 1729), Plate 9. Copper engravings of Japanese woodblock prints. The first illustrations of Japanese fishes published in a European book.
2 The Introduction of Linnean Nomenclature in Japan
Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778) hardly needs to be mentioned with regard to Japanese ichthyology, as the only Japanese species mentioned in the tenth edition of his Systema naturae was the goldfish, Cyprinus auratus.6 The Dutch physician Martinus Houttuyn (1720–1798) was also a naturalist (especially a plant and bird lover) and a great admirer of Linnaeus. To make Linnaeus’s work available to a larger Dutch audience, he produced between 1761 and 1773 a 37-volume work Natuurlyke Historie of uitvoerige Beschryving der Dieren, Planten en Mineraalen, volgens het Samenstel van den Heer Linnaeus (Natural History or Detailed Description of Animals, Plants and Minerals, According to the Compilation of Mr. Linnaeus). The first 18 volumes were dealing with zoology, the next fourteen with botany, and the last five with mineralogy.7 As Houttuyn’s name was lacking on the title page, many people thought it was only a translation of Linnaeus’s Systema Natura. However, the content of Houttuyn’s work was ten times that of the Systema Natura. For example, whereas Linnaeus named and described the goldfish in a few lines, Houttuyn devoted 15 pages to this species. Moreover, Houttuyn included figures of many species [Fig. 23.2]. Whereas in 2017 Akihito, the then emperor of Japan and respected ichthyologist, in an address presented at the tricentennial of the Linnean Society of London stated: ‘We do not know exactly when the scientific names under the binomial nomenclature, originated by Linné, were introduced to Japan’,8 I believe the systematics and nomenclature of Linnaeus were introduced in Japan with Houttuyn’s work.
Houttuyn Martinus, Natuurlyke historie […] (Amsterdam, Frans Houttuyn: 1765), Plate LXVII. Fig. 1. Rivier-Govie of Grondel; Fig. 2. Steenkarper of Karausch; Fig. 3. Chineesche Goudvisch; Fig. 4 Blanke Voorn; Fig. 5. Riet Voorn of Ruisch; Fig. 6. Asterling of Nesteling.
Von Siebold in the account of his journey to the shogun of Japan in 1826 came close to the answer to this question. On March 29, near the town of Miya, he met some of his former students, including Mizutani Sukeroku, who showed him drawings of plants and animals he had made. Siebold notes:
Two volumes of sketches, however, particularly caught my attention; it was a collection of Japanese crops, all accurately provided with Linnean names. Under each plant, the name of the genus was indicated, and of the 102 captions, I could only label four as wrong. Many of the genera indicated have been reported under the local Flora neither by Kaempfer nor by Thunberg, and some of them had not even been found by me. I very much wanted to know from him what literature he had used for this, and heard that he only had a Dutch edition of Linné available for his research.9
Probably von Siebold did not know the work of Houttuyn, but evidently, this was a copy of Houttuyn’s Natuurlijke Historie. Boeseman and de Ligny noted that the Japanese botanist Yokusai Iinuma (1783–1865) was reported to have mainly consulted Houttuyn’s Natuurlyke Historie for his twenty volume iconography of Japanese plants.10 In Yokusais’ work a picture of the title-page of Part I, vol. 1 of Houttuyn’s work suggests that he had not only the botanical volumes at his disposal but probably the whole series.
MacLean, who studied the introduction of books and scientific instruments in Japan, noted that the Japanese since 1800 possessed a rather good knowledge of botany and zoology at the time of circa 1778.11 In that year the Dutch printer and bookseller J.A. de Chalmot (1734–1801) published an encyclopaedic work in seven volumes in which the productions of nature played an important role. For fishes he mainly relied on Buffon’s Histoire Naturelle and Houttuyn’s work, often copying complete descriptions. Both Houttuyn’s volumes and De Chalmot’s work were imported into Japan onwards from 1800. MacLean referring to Eikoh Shimano, concluded that the Japanese translated de Chalmot’s work from 1811–1839, and: ‘It was the greatest translation enterprise in the whole Edo period – the officially sponsored Kosei Shinpen’.12 This means that basic knowledge of Linnean systematics and nomenclature from this date was even present in the Japanese language.
3 Post-Linnean Authors
The Swede Carl Peter Thunberg (1743–1828) studied medicine at the University of Upsala where he became a pupil of Linnaeus. Like his teacher, he became especially interested in botany. In 1771, by the mediation of Dr. J. Burman, professor of Botany at Amsterdam, he was offered a position with the Dutch East India Company. After having spent three years in South Africa he was appointed physician at Deshima, where he arrived in August 1775. Thunberg taught medicine, pharmaceutical science, and natural history to Japanese doctors and interpreters, joined the court journey of 1776, and collected many plants and animals. He left Japan in December 1766.13 Back in Batavia, he handed a collection of fishes to J.C.M. Radermacher, a high officer of the Dutch East Indian Company, amateur botanist, and one of the founders of the Bataviaasch Genootschap voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen (Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences) Radermacher sent this collection to Houttuyn in Amsterdam. In 1782, on the basis of this collection, Houttuyn published, again in Dutch, the first paper solely dealing with Japanese fishes, entitled: “Beschrijving van eenige japansche visschen en andere zee-schepselen” (Description of some Japanese fishes and other sea creatures).14 In this paper 36 fish species were described, 21 of which were new for science. No figures of the species were added. The specimens of this collection, including the types of the new species, were dispersed and must be considered lost.15
After six months in Batavia during which he made a collection of Javanese plants, Thunberg sailed to Amsterdam via Ceylon, where he stayed five months to make collections, and Cape of Good Hope. From Amsterdam, he made a short trip to England where he examined collections of Kaempfer. After an absence of 8½ years, laden with collections, Thunberg finally came back to Sweden in March 1779. Thunberg, who some years after his return to Sweden succeeded Linnaeus as professor of medicine and botany, published many papers on his botanical collections; however, in his account of his voyages, he also included a list of 49 Japanese fishes.16 Moreover, he published six short papers in which he described and figured twelve new Japanese species [Fig. 23.3].17 Two of Thunberg’s students wrote a dissertation on Japanese fishes.18 Both are merely lists of species with a few theses.
Illustrations of two Japanese fishes in Thunberg Carl Peter, “Beskrifning pa tvanne Fiskar ifran Japan”, Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar 11 (1790) 106 /Der Konigl. Schwedischen Akademie Der Wissenschaften Neue Abhandlungen Aus Der Naturlehre, Haushaltungskunst Und Mechanik 11 (1790) 100–103. Both had already been named (but not figured) by Houttuyn (1782). Ostracion hexagonis = Kentrocapros aculeatus (Houttuyn) and Sciaena cataphracta = Monocentrus japonicus (Houttuyn).
In the intermezzo between Thunberg’s departure and the arrival of von Siebold, Nagasaki was visited by a group of Russian and German scientists who hardly came in contact with Dutch officials, but who would indirectly have a great influence on the Dutch interfering with Japanese ichthyology: From October 1804 till April 1805 the ship Nadesha of the first Russian circumnavigation was forced to anchor in the bay of Nagasaki. However, the crew was not allowed to leave the ship. For six months, all the two naturalists, G.H. von Langsdorff and W.G. Tilesius von Tillenau, both Germans, could do, was to investigate and draw the fishes that were brought on board as food.19 The types of the new species described in this way were eaten afterward! However, only a few of Tilesius’s drawings were used for actual species descriptions [Fig. 23.4]. The paintings published in Adam Johann von Krusenstern’s Atlas zur Reise um die Welt could not be accepted for taxonomy because the species names were written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Von Langsdorff donated the few fishes he managed to save from the kitchen to the Berlin museum. Its director, Dr M.H.C. Lichtenstein, presented them to the French zoologist Georges Cuvier,20 who subsequently described 20 new species from this collection.
Tilesius von Tillenau Wilhelm Gottlieb von, “Description de quelques poissons observés pendant son voyage autour du monde”, Mémoires de la Société impériale des naturalistes de Moscou 2.20 (1809) 212–249, plate 15. Based on drawings by W.G. von Tilesius.
The German physician Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (1797–1866) stayed six years and five months in Japan, of which the last year, 1829, was spent under house arrest. Probably inspired by von Langdorff and Tilesius, during that year, he made a list of fishes brought him as provision, and selected plants from the fodder brought for his goat. Von Siebold was much more interested in botany than in zoology, yet immediately after his arrival on Deshima in August 1823, he started to investigate the zoological collection of the opperhoofd J. Cock Blomhoff, who was to leave Deshima before the end of that year. When leaving, Blomhoff not only took his collection with him, but also von Siebold’s manuscript. Von Siebold’s first zoological paper was published (with the wrong initials) in Batavia in 1824.21 Regrettably, only one species of fish was present in Blomhoff’s collection: the nurse shark Squalus cirratus Bosc. (Ginglymostoma cirratum (Bonnaterre 1788)).
In September 1828 when von Siebold was dismissed from research activities he wrote in a summary of his research,22 that he had neglected the collecting of fishes, as they were hard to preserve, and because he believed that their live colours should be painted. However, his painter Toyosuke (Kawahara Keiga) was fully occupied with painting plants. Nevertheless, a total of about 700 fishes (almost all in spirits) were shipped to Leiden by von Siebold. Before he left Japan, von Siebold greatly stimulated his successor Heinrich Bürger to concentrate on making a good collection of fishes. Moreover, von Siebold was initiator, developer, and editor of the Fauna Japonica, of which the Fish volume was the most species-rich.
The German Heinrich Bürger (1896–1858) worked in Batavia as an apothecary before he was sent to Japan in 1825 to assist von Siebold. Although von Siebold charged him with geological and chemical research, he also trained him as a naturalist. On October 1, 1828, Bürger became responsible for all research on natural products of Japan, but only after von Siebold’s departure, at the end of 1829, Bürger began his research on fish. He made detailed descriptions of 500–600 species which he numbered and had most of them painted with the same numbers by Keiga.23 Following von Siebold’s advice, he gave his species a Latin generic name and a specific name derived from the Japanese name. However, in contrast to Bürger’s statement, only 200 of these descriptions reached Leiden. Bürger also made shipping lists. In four shipments, 1382 specimens (most of them stuffed) [Fig. 23.5] and 259 fish paintings by Keiga were sent to Leiden.24 The stuffed fishes were prepared with the technique described by Temminck.25
A stuffed Naturalis specimen of Monocentrus japonicus (Houttuyn 1782) RMNH.PISC.D 677, collected by Heinrich Bürger. The specimen was stuffed in Japan and shipped to Leiden without a pedestal.
According to Maclean,26 after Bürger’s departure for Java in December 1834 the Japanese Magoeits and Foské continued the research in natural science. Maclean also mentions that the inquiries on natural science were finished in 1842.
Kawahara Keiga (1786–1860?) was the only Japanese artist who was allowed to work at Deshima during his employment for the Dutch factory. Keiga had already made small paintings of plants and animals for J.G.F. van Overmeer Fischer and J. Cock Blomhoff, before he started to work for von Siebold for whom he mainly made scientific paintings of plants.27 During the court journey, Keiga also painted landscapes for von Siebold. From 1830 onwards Bürger commissioned him to make life-size paintings of fresh fishes and crustaceans. Keiga succeeded very well in capturing the fresh colours. He probably had been shown the figures of Tilesius from von Krusenstern’s Atlas [Fig. 23.6] and painted the fishes in a very European style. However, he painted them without applying shadows and a light spot in the eye.
Painting of a Japanese goby made by Kawahara Keiga in 1831. RMNH.ART.231. Pencil remarks and outline of the head were made by Schlegel to instruct the lithographer. The number 138 refers to the description in Bürger’s manuscript.
In Leiden at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, the German Hermann Schlegel (1804–1884), then curator of Vertebrates and very good draughtsman, investigated the fishes and described them for the Fauna Japonica. Although the name of C.J. Temminck, the director of the museum, is also on the title page, he did not contribute to the descriptions of the fishes.28 The descriptions Bürger made in Japan, must at least have been helpful and parts of it were almost literally used, but Bürger’s role was hardly acknowledged by Schlegel. On the basis of the collections of von Siebold and Bürger, and the Pisces volume of the Fauna Japonica, 348 species were described, 165 of which were new to science. For 20 of these, Japanese names were used in the specific name.
Most plates of fishes in the Fauna Japonica are based on paintings of Keiga. Schlegel added pencil notes to many of Keiga’s paintings to instruct the lithographers who transferred the paintings to stone [Figs. 23.7–8]. All plates in the Fauna Japonica are hand-coloured lithographs, which makes all plates slightly different and unique.
Temminck Coenraad Jacob – Schlegel Hermann, Fauna Japonica, Pisces. 4 (Leiden, Arntz: 1845), Plate 76, Fig. 1. Hand coloured lithograph of Burger’s species No. 138, illustrating the description of Sicydium obscurum = Tridentiger obscurus.
Painting of a Japanese shark made by Kawahara Keiga in 1831. This species had been described in 1830 by Bürger in his manuscript as Scijllium tora.
Before the first instalment of the Pisces volume of the Fauna Japonica was published in 1842, the Leiden Museum was visited, in 1837 and 1838, by two German researchers, Johann Müller and Jacob Henle, who worked on a monograph of the sharks and rays. They were impressed by the specimens from Japan and at their request, Schlegel sent specimens, Keiga’s paintings, and Bürger’s descriptions on loan to them in Berlin. In Müller and Henle’s Plagiostomen, published from 1839–1841, eleven species from Japan were included of which nine were new to science. All have Bürger’s name as the author. Moreover, Müller and Henle honoured Bürger by naming one of the new shark species after him [Fig. 23.9].
Müller Johannes – Henle Jacob, Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen (Berlin: 1838–1840), Plate 2. The illustration of Halaelurus buergeri (Müller & Henle 1838), based on Bürger’s specimen, Bürger’s description and the painting by Kawahara Keiga.
Dr. Pieter Bleeker (1819–1878) was trained as a physician in Haarlem. During this study, he regularly visited Teylers museum where he developed a great interest in zoology. As money was lacking to obtain a degree at Leiden University, he enlisted as a health officer in the Army in the Dutch East Indies. From 1840 to 1861 he was mainly stationed in Batavia. After discovering that the fish market in Batavia harboured many specimens he could not identify, he became interested, made collections, obtained the necessary literature from Europe, and became a self-made ichthyologist. As Bleeker had no access to preserved museum specimens for comparison, he had to rely on species descriptions and figures of other ichthyologists. This made him not only very critical of the efforts of his colleagues but also of his own descriptions and the products of his artists.
Already in 1845, he writes about his plans to publish an Atlas in which all species from the Indian archipelago would be depicted. A dream he could only (partly) fulfil after he had returned to the Netherlands. By the end of his life, he had published more than 500 papers on fishes.
Bleeker did not restrict himself to the fishes of the Indian Archipelago. He also published 17 papers dealing with Japanese fishes (from 1851 to 1879, the last one posthumously).29 Collections of fishes from Nagasaki, Edo (Tokyo), and the island of Kaminoseki were sent to him by health officers and other Dutch officials he had met in Batavia. These collections were made both before and after the opening of Japan in 1854. Bleeker discovered about a hundred species that were new for the fauna of Japan and some 45 that were new for science. His descriptions are increasingly detailed, often including internal characters. Remarkably, in some papers, Bleeker writes that he has copies of figures sent from Japan by Bürger, and in one case he states he himself has the original painting, and that the copy must be in Leiden.
In contrast to the scientists discussed earlier, Bleeker presented his species in a classification system. He compared the Japanese species with related/similar species and made keys for identification. He did more than just identification, making lists of catch localities, and comparing the faunas of different areas.
The figures illustrating his papers range from very basic etchings and hand-coloured lithographs to beautiful colour lithographs and were made by his three illustrators J. Courtin, [Fig. 23.10], Ch. Engel, and L. Speigler [Fig. 23.11]. Having good illustrations was very important to Bleeker; he returned to the Netherlands because facilities for colour lithography were lacking in Batavia. It is important to note that Bleeker based his colour descriptions on specimens that had been preserved in a solution of 30 percent ethanol for a period of several months. The illustrations of his artists were based on the same specimens and Bleeker’s interpretations of the preserved colours.
Bleeker Pieter, “Nalezingen op de ichthyologie van Japan”, Verhandelingen Bataviaasch Genootschap 25 (1853) 1–56. Hand coloured lithograph with details of the dentition. Original drawings by J. Courtin.
Detailed lithograph of Pseudosciaena (Bairdella) acanthodes Bleeker 1879 in Bleeker Pieter, “Énumeration des espèces de poissons actuellement connues du Japon, et description de trois espèces inédites”, Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen Amsterdam 18 (1879) 1–33. Original drawings by L. Speigler. This is a new species based on a specimen from the Hamburg museum. Note the shading behind the various elements of the head and the pectoral fin.
4 Early Japanese Books on Fishes
The Japanese appreciation for fish as a beautiful part of nature and as the main source of food has led to fish being often depicted in books. Several examples of these books (with hand-painted or plain woodblock prints) were brought from Japan by residents of Deshima, but none of them were used for systematic works on fishes. About these books Boeseman states: ‘These papers, however, consisted chiefly of numerous plates in water colours, generally very interesting and artistically perfect, but unimportant from a scientific point of view, as they are lacking in the accuracy of details’.30 As an example, Boeseman published some plates from an anonymous Japanese work on fishes (Artiste inconnu, 1835–1840),31 which appeared in about the same time as the Pisces volume of the Fauna Japonica. In their Pisces volume Temminck and Schlegel refer neither to this work nor to the beautifully illustrated Japanese books on aquatic animals brought by von Siebold.
Bleeker in two of his publications,32 refers to Kurimoto (1838), a book with 78 figures of freshwater and marine fishes, two figures of salamanders and a rather large accompanying text.33 Bleeker had this book translated by J.J. Hoffmann the first professor in the Japanese language in the world. The provenance of Bleeker’s copy of the book is unknown, as is the current location of the book and Hoffman’s translation. Bleeker was able to identify a number of species and used the catch localities.
Although the largest collection of Japanese fishes was housed in the Leiden Museum, Dutch researchers played no active role in educating Japanese ichthyologists after the opening of Japan. According to Abe34 the distinction of being the first Japanese to name a native fish using Linnean nomenclature probably belongs to Kakichi Mitsukuri (1857–1909), the third Japanese professor of Zoology in Japan, who published his new species Harriota pacifica (now Rhinochimarea pacifica) in 1895.35
5 Synoptic Conclusion
Because of their importance as a major source of protein, much information about fishes accumulated in Japan. However, a classification system had not been developed before the arrival of Europeans. Japanese ichthyology, like ichthyology in Europe, was initiated by medical doctors and gradually developed as a separate field of Zoology. Although primarily interested in botany, physicians stationed at Deshima were the first scientists who collected Japanese fish specimens to be studied in Europe. For these physicians fishes were not a special goal, but merely one part of the till then hardly known Japanese fauna. Kaempfer and Thunberg made private collections. The elaboration and publishing of Thunberg’s fishes by Houttuyn was also a private affair. The collections of Bürger and von Siebold and the paintings of Keiga were commissioned by, and thus the property of the Dutch government. Therefore, they were stored in the State Museum in Leiden and investigated and described by the then curator of Vertebrates H. Schlegel. Remarkably, the publication of the Fauna Japonica was largely a private enterprise of von Siebold. The Pisces volume of Siebold’s Fauna Japonica and the collection that form its basis will always remain the foundation of Japanese ichthyology even though the number of Japanese fish species increased more than ten times. After the Dutch government stopped funding natural history research in Japan in 1842, collecting Japanese fishes again became a private affair. Bleeker, who was never employed as an ichthyologist, encouraged people to collect and send him fishes, which he studied and described in his spare time. Some of his Japanese fishes were sold to the British Museum, but the majority of his collections came into possession of what is now the Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to the following Naturalis colleagues: Martine Hermsen for adapting the figures; Menno Hooft, Marianne van der Wal, Henk Caspers, and Karin Geenen for scanning figures from books; Gijs Baldee, Marianne, Karin, Annet Westbroek-Scheffer and Wanne de Bie for library assistance; Frank Loggen for photographs and Esther Dondorp for general support. The assistance of Matthi Forrer and Dick Raatgever is gratefully acknowledged.
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Bleeker Pieter, “Énumeration des espèces de poissons actuellement connues du Japon, et description de trois espèces inédites”, Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen Amsterdam 18 (1879) 1–33.
Boeseman M., “Revision of the Fishes Collected by Burger and Von Siebold in Japan”, Zoologische Mededelingen 28.1 (1947) 1–242.
Boeseman M., “Martinus Houttuyn (1720–1798) and his Japanese fishes”, UO 43 (1995) 1–9.
Boeseman M. – Ligny W. de, “Martinus Houttuyn (1720–1798) and His Contributions to the Natural Sciences, with emphasis on zoology”, Zoologische Verhandelingen Leiden 349 (2004) 1–222, figs. 1–15.
Bürger Heinrich, MS, without title, contains 200 descriptions of Japanese fishes (1830–1831). Collection Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
Caron François, Beschrijvinghe Van het Machtigh Coninckrijcke Japan, vervattende Den aert en eygenschappen van ’t Landt, manieren der Volckeren, als mede hare grouwelijcke wreedtheyde teghen de Roomsche Christenen (Amsterdam, Ioost Hartgers: 1648).
Caron François, Beschrijvinghe van het Machtigh Koninkrijcke Japan, vervattende den aerdt en eyghenschappen van ’t Landt, manieren der Volckeren, als mede hare grouwelijcke wreedtheyde teghen de Roomsche Christenen, (Amsterdam, Ioost Hartgers: 1649)
Caron François, Rechte beschryvinge van het Machtigh Koninghrijck van Iappan: be- staende in verscheyde Vragen, betreffende des selfs Regiering, Coophandel, maniere van Leven, strenge Justitie &c. voorgestelt door den Heer Philips Lucas, Directeur Generaal wegens de Nederlandsche Staat in India, ende de Heer Francois Caron,[…] (’s Gravenhage, Iohannes Tongerloo: 1661).
Cuvier Georges – Valenciennes Achille, Histoire naturelle des poissons, vol. 4 (Paris: 1829).
Houttuyn Martinus, “Beschryving van eenige Japanse visschen en andere Zeeschepselen”, Verhandelingen der Hollandsche Maatschappij van Wetenschappen Haarlem 20 (1782) 311–350.
Houttuyn Martinus, Natuurlyke historie of uitvoerige beschryving der dieren, planten en mineraalen, volgens het Samenstel van den Heer Linnaeus. Met naauwkeurige Afbeeldingen. 37 vols. (Amsterdam, Frans Houttuyn: 1761–1785).
Holthuis L.B. – Sakai T., Ph. F. von Siebold and Fauna Japonica. A History of Early Japanese Zoology. (Tokyo: 1970) 1–8, 1–323.
Kaempfer Engelbert, The History of Japan, giving an Account of the ancient and present State and Government of that Empire; of Its Temples, Palaces, Castles and other Buildings; of Its Metals, Minerals, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds and Fishes; of The Chronology and Succession of the Emperors, Ecclesiastical and Secular; of The Original Descent, Religions, Customs, and Manufactures of the Natives, and of their Trade and Commerce with the Dutch and Chinese. Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam (London: J. MacLehose and sons: 1727).
Kaempfer Engelbert, De beschryving van Japan, behelsende een verhaal van den ouden en tegenwoordigen staat en regeering van dat Ryk; van deszelfs tempels, paleysen, kasteelen en andere gebouwen: van deszelfs metalen, mineralen, boomen, planten, dieren, vogelen en visschen: van de tydrekening, en opvolging van de geestelyke en wereldlyke keyzers: van de oorsprondelyke afstamming, godsdiensten, gewoonten en handwerkselen der inboorllingen, en van hunnen koophandel met de Nederlanders en de Chineesen: Benevens eene beschryving van het koningryk Siam (’s Gravenhage – Amsterdam, P. Gosse and J. Neaulme, Balthasar Lakeman: 1729).
Krusenstern Adam Johan von, Reise um die Welt, in den Jahren 1803, 1804, 1805 und 1806, auf Befehl Seiner Kaiserlichen Majestat Alexanders des Ersten auf den Schiffen Nadesha und Newa. (Atlas) (Berlin, Haude und Spener: 1811).
Langsdorf G.H. von, Bemerkungen auf einer Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803–1807 (Frankfurt am Main: 1812).
Linnaeus Carolus, Systema naturae per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentibus, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio Decima, Reformata (Stockholm, Lars Salvius: 1758).
MacLean J., “Natural Science in Japan. I. Before 1830”, Annals of Science 30. 3 (1973) 257–298.
MacLean J., “The Introduction of Books and Scientific Instruments in Japan”, Japanese Studies in the History of Science 13 (1974) 9–86.
MacLean J., “Natural science in Japan from 1828 to 1849”, Janus 62 (1975) 51–78.
Mitsukuri K., “On a new genus of the chimaeroid group Harriotta”, Zoological Magazine (Tokyo) 7. 80 (1895) 97–98.
Mizuno M. et al., Iinuma Yokusai (Gifu-City: 1984).
Montanus Arnoldus, Gedenkwaerdige gesantschappen der Oost-Indische maatschappy in’t Vereenigde Nederland, aan de kaisaren van Japan: vervatende wonderlyke voorvallen op de togt der Nederlandtsche gesanten: beschryving van de dorpen, sterkten, steden, landtschappen, tempels, gods-diensten, dragten, gebouwen, dieren, gewasschen, bergen, fonteinen, vereeuwde en nieuwe oorlogs-daaden der Japanders: verçiert met een groot getal afbeeldsels in Japan geteekent: getrokken uit de geschriften en reis- aanteekeningen der zelve gesanten (Amsterdam, Jacob Meurs: 1669).
Müller J. – Henle F.C.J., Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen (Berlin: 1838–1840).
Ōbuchi T., Kurimoto Zuiken’s Album of Japanese Fishes. (Sijudo Publishers, Place unknown) (1838).
Siebold G.T. [sic] de,. De historiae naturalis in Japonica statu, nec non de augmento emolumentisque in decursu perscrutationum expectandis dissertatio, cui accedunt Spicilegia faunae Japonicae (Batavia: 1824).
Siebold Philipp Franz Balthasar von, Kurze Uebersicht des Gegenwärtigen Zustandes meiner wissenschaftligen Untersuchungen auf JapanMS Japaninstituts Berlin (1828).
Siebold Philipp Franz Balthasar von, Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan und dessen Neben- und Schutzländern Jezo mit der südlichen Kurilen, Sachalin, Korea und den Liukiu-Inseln. Herausgegeben von seinen Sohnen: 2. Auflage. (Würzburg und Leipzig: 1897).
Shimano, Eikoh, “The reception of Lavoisier’s Chemistry in Japan”, Isis 63. 3 (1972) 309–320.
Suzanna J.A., “Levensschets van Coenraad Jacob Temminck”, Jaarboek van de Maatschapij der Nederlandsche letterkunde (1858) 47–87.
Temminck Coenraad Jacob, Voorschrift, hoedanig te handelen met voorwerpen van Natuurlijke Historie, ten einde dezelve behoorlijk te verzenden en voor bederf te bewaren; ten gebruike van het ’s Rijks Museum van Natuurlijke Historie te Leyden (Leiden: 1825).
Temminck Coenraad Jacob – Schlegel Hermann, Fauna Japonica, Pisces. 1 (Leiden, Arntz: 1842).
Temminck Coenraad Jacob – Schlegel Hermann, Fauna Japonica, Pisces. 2 (Leiden, Arntz: 1843).
Temminck Coenraad Jacob – Schlegel Hermann, Fauna Japonica, Pisces. 3 (Leiden, Arntz: 1844).
Temminck Coenraad Jacob – Schlegel Hermann, Fauna Japonica, Pisces. 4 (Leiden, Arntz: 1845).
Temminck Coenraad Jacob – Schlegel Hermann, Fauna Japonica, Pisces. 5 (Leiden, Arntz: 1846).
Temminck Coenraad Jacob – Schlegel Hermann, Fauna Japonica, Pisces. 6 (Leiden, Arntz: 1850).
Thunberg Carl Peter, Resa uti Europa, Africa, Asia, förrättad åren 1770–1779, 3 vols. (Uppsala, Joh. Edman: 1788–1794).
Thunberg Carl Peter, “Beskrifning pa tvanne Fiskar ifran Japan”, Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar 11 (1790) 106 /Der Konigl. Schwedischen Akademie Der Wissenschaften Neue Abhandlungen Aus Der Naturlehre, Haushaltungskunst Und Mechanik 11 (1790) 100–103.
Thunberg Carl Peter, “Tvänne Japanske Fiskar”, Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar 13 (1792) 29.
Thunberg Carl Peter, “Atskillige forut okande Fiskar af Abbor-Slagtet”, Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar 13 (1792) 141–143.
Thunberg Carl Peter, “Beskrifning pa 2: ne nya Fiskar af Abbor-Slagtet ifran Japan”. Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar 14 (1793) 55–56.
Thunberg Carl Peter, “Beskrifning pa nya Fisk-arter utaf Abbor-slagtet ifran Japan”, Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar 14 (1793) 198–200.
Thunberg Carl Peter, “Sidsta Fortsattningen af Beskrifningen pa nya Fiskarter utaf Abbor—Slagtet ifran Japan”, Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar 14 (1793) 296–208.
Thunberg Carl Peter, Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa made during the Years 1770 & 1779 (London, F. and C. Rivington: 1795–1796).
Tilesius von Tillenau Wilhelm Gottlieb von, “Description de quelques poissons observés pendant son voyage autour du monde”, Mémoires de la Société impériale des naturalistes de Moscou 2.20 (1809) 212–249.
Tilesius von Tillenau Wilhelm Gottlieb von, “Abbildungen und Beschreibungen einiger Fische aus Japan und einiger Mollusken aus Brasilien, welche bey Gelegenheit der ersten Russischen Kaiserliche Erdumseglung lebendig beobachtet wurden”, Denkschriften der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München 3 (1811–1812) 71–88.
Tilesius von Tillenau Wilhelm Gottlieb von, Atlas zur Reise um die Welt, unternommen auf Befehl Seiner Kaiserlichen Majestät Alexander des Ersten auf den Schiffen Nadeshda und Neva. Unter dem Commando des Captains von Krusenstern (St. Petersburg: 1814).
Wernberg Olaus, Fauna Japonica (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Upsala: 1822).
Yamaguchi T., “Kawahara Keiga and natural history of Japan 1. Fish volume of Fauna Japonica”, Calanus 12 (1997) 1–35.
Yamaguchi T. – Machida Y., “Fish specimens collected in Japan by Ph. F. von Siebold and H. Bürger and now held by the National Natuurhistorisch Museum in Leiden and other two Museums”, Calanus, Special Number 4 (2003) 87–321.
MacLean J., “Natural Science in Japan. I. Before 1830”, Annals of Science 30. 3 (1973) 257–298; idem, “The Introduction of Books and Scientific Instruments in Japan”, Japanese Studies in the History of Science 13 (1974) 9–86.
Montanus Arnoldus, Gedenkwaerdige gesantschappen der Oost-Indische maatschappy in’t Vereenigde Nederland, aan de kaisaren van Japan: vervatende wonderlyke voorvallen op de togt der Nederlandtsche gesanten: beschryving van de dorpen, sterkten, steden, landtschappen, tempels, gods-diensten, dragten, gebouwen, dieren, gewasschen, bergen, fonteinen, vereeuwde en nieuwe oorlogs-daaden der Japanders: verçiert met een groot getal afbeeldsels in Japan geteekent: getrokken uit de geschriften en reis-aanteekeningen der zelve gesanten (Amsterdam, Jacob Meurs: 1669) 47.
Montanus, Gedenkwaerdige gesantschappen 49.
Holthuis L.B. – Sakai T., Ph. F. von Siebold and Fauna Japonica. A History of Early Japanese Zoology (Tokyo: 1970) 1–323.
Kaempfer Engelbert, The History of Japan, giving an Account of the ancient and present State and Government of that Empire; of Its Temples, Palaces, Castles and other Buildings; of Its Metals, Minerals, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds and Fishes; of The Chronology and Succession of the Emperors, Ecclesiastical and Secular; of The Original Descent, Religions, Customs, and Manufactures of the Natives, and of their Trade and Commerce with the Dutch and Chinese. Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam (London, J. MacLehose and sons: 1727) and idem, De beschryving van Japan, behelsende een verhaal van den ouden en tegenwoordigen staat en regeering van dat Ryk; van deszelfs tempels, paleysen, kasteelen en andere gebouwen: van deszelfs metalen, mineralen, boomen, planten, dieren, vogelen en visschen: van de tydrekening, en opvolging van de geestelyke en wereldlyke keyzers: van de oorsprondelyke afstamming, godsdiensten, gewoonten en handwerkselen der inboorllingen, en van hunnen koophandel met de Nederlanders en de Chineesen: Benevens eene beschryving van het koningryk Siam (The Hague – Amsterdam, P. Gosse – J. Neaulme – Balthasar Lakeman: 1729).
Linnaeus Carolus, Systema naturae per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentibus, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio Decima, Reformata (Stockholm, Lars Salvius: 1758) 322.
For an extensive study on the zoological part of this publication, see Boeseman M. – Ligny W. de, “Martinus Houttuyn (1720–1798) and His Contributions to the Natural Sciences, with Emphasis on Zoology”, Zoologische Verhandelingen Leiden 349 (2004) 1–222.
Akihito, “Linné and Taxonomy in Japan – On the 300th Anniversary of his Birth”, Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B., 86.3 (2010) 143–146.
Siebold, Philipp Franz Balthasar von, Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan und dessen Ne- ben- und Schutzländern Jezo mit der südlichen Kurilen, Sachalin, Korea und den Liukiu-Inseln. Herausgegeben von seinen Sohnen: 2. Auflage. (Würzburg und Leipzig: 1897).
Mizuno M. et al., Iinuma Yokusai (Gifu-City : 1984), vi, 1–513, 21 col. pls. [in Japanese], incl. A Bibliographical Sketch of Yokusai Iinuma, iv–vi (in English).
MacLean J., “The Introduction of Books and Scientific Instruments in Japan”, Japanese Studies in the History of Science 13 (1974) 9–86, here 22.
MacLean, “The Introduction of Books and Scientific Instruments in Japan” 25.
Holthuis – Sakai, Ph. F. von Siebold and Fauna Japonica; Thunberg Carl Peter, Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa made during the Years 1770 & 1779 (London, F. and C. Rivington: 1795–1796).
Houttuyn Martinus, “Beschryving van eenige Japanse visschen en andere Zeeschepselen”, Verhandelingen der Hollandsche Maatschappij van Wetenschappen Haarlem 20 (1782) 311–350.
Boeseman M., “Martinus Houttuyn (1720–1798) and his Japanese fishes”, UO 43 (1995) 1–9; Boeseman – Ligny, “Martinus Houttuyn”.
Thunberg Carl Peter, Resa uti Europa, Africa, Asia, förrättad åren 1770–1779, 3 vols. (Uppsala, Joh. Edman: 1788–1794).
These articles, dated 1790, 1792, and 1793, are to be found in the Bibliography at the end of the present article.
Wernberg Olaus, Fauna Japonica (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Upsala: 1822); Ahlstrom Alexander Magnus, Fauna Japonica continuata (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Upsala: 1823).
Tilesius von Tillenau Wilhelm Gottlieb von, “Description de quelques poissons observés pendant son voyage autour du monde”, Mémoires de la Société impériale des naturalistes de Moscou 2.20 (1809) 212–249; idem, “Abbildungen und Beschreibungen einiger Fische aus Japan und einiger Mollusken aus Brasilien, welche bey Gelegenheit der ersten Russischen Kaiserliche Erdumseglung lebendig beobachtet wurden”, Denkschriften der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München 3 (1811–1812) 71–88; idem, Atlas zur Reise um die Welt, unternommen auf Befehl Seiner Kaiserlichen Majestät Alexander des Ersten auf den Schiffen Nadeshda und Neva. Unter dem Commando des Captains von Krusenstern (St. Petersburg: 1814); Langsdorf G.H. von, Bemerkungen auf einer Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803–1807 (Frankfurt am Main: 1812).
Cuvier Georges – Valenciennes Achille, Histoire naturelle des poissons, vol. 4 (Paris: 1829) 261.
Siebold G.T. [sic] de,. De historiae naturalis in Japonica statu, nec non de augmento emolumentisque in decursu perscrutationum expectandis dissertatio, cui accedunt Spicilegia faunae Japonicae (Batavia: 1824).
Siebold, Philipp Franz Balthasar von, Kurze Uebersicht des Gegenwärtigen Zustandes meiner wissenschaftligen Untersuchungen auf Japan MS Japaninstituts Berlin (1828).
Bürger Heinrich, MS, without title, contains 200 descriptions of Japanese fishes (1830–1831) (Collection Naturalis Biodiversity Center).
Yamaguchi T. – Machida Y., “Fish specimens collected in Japan by Ph. F. von Siebold and H. Bürger and now held by the National Natuurhistorisch Museum in Leiden and other two Museums”, Calanus, Special Number 4 (2003) 87–321.
Temminck Coenraad Jacob, Voorschrift, hoedanig te handelen met voorwerpen van Natuurlijke Historie, ten einde dezelve behoorlijk te verzenden en voor bederf te bewaren; ten gebruike van het ’s Rijks Museum van Natuurlijke Historie te Leyden (Leiden: 1825).
MacLean, “The Introduction of Books and Scientific Instruments in Japan” 41.
Yamaguchi T., “Kawahara Keiga and natural history of Japan 1. Fish volume of Fauna Japonica”, Calanus 12 (1997) 1–35.
Suzanna J.A., “Levensschets van Coenraad Jacob Temminck”, Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandsche letterkunde (1858) 47–87, here 65.
The titles of these papers are listed in the Bibliography of the present article.
Boeseman M., “Revision of the Fishes Collected by Burger and Von Siebold in Japan”, Zoologische Mededelingen 28.1 (1947) 1–242, here 4.
Anonymous, Dessins de poissons japonais. MS, about 1835–1840 134. Boeseman, “Revision of the Fishes”, pl. III–V.
Bleeker Pieter, “Neuvième notice sur la faune ichthyologique du Japon”, Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen 2de Reeks 3 (1869) 237–252; idem, “Énumeration des espèces de poissons actuellement connues du Japon, et description de trois espèces inédites”, Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen Amsterdam 18 (1879) 1–33.
Kurimoto Zuisen’in – Obuchi Tsunenori, Kōwa gyofu (Edo, Shijudō: 1838). Ōbuchi T., 1838. Kurimoto Zuiken’s Album of Japanese Fishes. (Sijudo Publishers, Place unknown) 1–106.
Abe T., “A brief history of Japanese ichthyology”, in Uyeno T. – Arai R. – Taniuchi T. – Matsuura K. (eds), Indo-Pacific Fish Biology. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Indo-Pacific Fishes (Tokyo: 1986) 1–6.
Mitsukuri K., “On a new genus of the chimaeroid group Harriotta”, Zoological Magazine (Tokyo), 7.80 (1895) 97–98.