Places
1. From Dejima to Tokyo

In the 1850s, after two centuries of isolation, Japan signed commercial treaties that opened several ports to international trade. This initiated a cascade of events that eventually resulted in civil war and the overthrow of the shogunate.

In this rapidly changing political and economic environment, Dutch diplomats in Japan had to find new ways of working and new places to do this work, while building a new relationship with Japan.

They initially stayed at the trading post at Nagasaki’s Dejima island, to which the Dutch had been confined since 1641.¹ Japan got its first Dutch diplomat in 1855 when Dejima’s chief agent, Jan Hendrik Donker Curtius, received the title “Dutch Commissioner in Japan.” It was hoped that this would raise his standing in the eyes of the Japanese government and help with the negotiation of a commercial treaty.

As a result, the house and office of the chief agent became the first Dutch diplomatic location in Japan. When Donker Curtius was replaced by Consul General Jan Karel de Wit in 1860, it became the consulate general, effectively the Dutch legation in Japan.

The first Dutch consulate proper was opened in Kanagawa in 1859 by Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek. It was moved to Yokohama in 1861. Over the next decade, consulates were opened in other cities as well. The aim was to assist Dutch merchants, and promote Dutch trade. If the amount of trade disappointed, the consulate was quickly closed, as happened in Niigata and Tokyo.

Around this point, things become a bit confusing. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce that the Netherlands and Japan signed in 1858 allowed a Dutch “diplomatic agent” to reside in Edo (present-day Tokyo). The Chō’ōji temple in Takanawa was rented for this purpose and many books and articles introduce Chō’ōji as the Dutch legation at this time.

Both De Graeff van Polsbroek and De Wit stayed at Chō’ōji during their negotiations with the Japanese government. However, they did not live there. De Graeff van Polsbroek remained in Yokohama, while De Wit stayed in Nagasaki. During his three years in Japan, De Wit’s presence in Edo was actually limited to just four brief visits.²

In practice, Chō’ōji was a sort of satellite office, generally used for just a few days at a time.³ It appears that no Dutch diplomatic staff were based there permanently.

Although Consul General De Wit remained in Nagasaki, the town became increasingly irrelevant after Yokohama was opened to international trade in 1859. Most foreign merchants settled in the new port, while foreign representatives opened legations in Edo.

It took the Dutch government quite a while to accept this. Only when De Wit left Japan in 1863 was the consulate general finally moved out of Nagasaki.

With Yokohama-based De Graeff van Polsbroek becoming the new consul general, this city became the new location of the consulate general. Meanwhile, Chō’ōji continued to be used as a branch office.

When De Graeff van Polsbroek became the first minister resident of the Netherlands in Japan in 1868, it officially transformed the consulate general in Yokohama into the Dutch legation, comparable to a current day embassy. It was exclusively based in Yokohama after the rental contract with Chō’ōji was discontinued around 1870.

In 1886, the Legation was moved to its current location in Tokyo. Here, it became the embassy in 1952.

It can be said that the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Japan was born in Yokohama. This is where, in 1862, the first purposely built Dutch diplomatic structure in Japan was built. It is also where the first Dutch minister resident lived and worked. Yokohama was the first diplomatic home of the Netherlands in Japan after leaving Dejima, and the location where the foundations were laid for a professional style of Dutch diplomatic representation in Japan.

Next: 2. Nagasaki

Notes

• Footnotes are only shown on this site, not in the book.
• See the Archive for some of the primary documents used in the study.

¹ Dutch trade relations were based on a document that Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu had given to Dutch merchants in 1605. The first dutch trading station was set up at Hirado in Nagasaki. The Dutch were moved from Hirado to Dejima in 1641. The Dejima trading post was administered by a chief agent (Opperhoofd), since 1800 appointed by the Dutch colonial government in Batavia. Officially, the Opperhoofd was not a diplomatic representative of the Netherlands.

² See Note 3 in Edo-Tokyo based on Yokoyama, Yoshinori (1993) Dutch-Japanese Relations during the Bakumatsu Period: The Monthly Reports of J.K. de Wit, Tokyo: Journal of the Japan-Netherlands Institute, volume V pp. 1-260.

Interestingly, in another article, Yokoyama claims it was only three visits: Blussé, Leonard, Remmelink, Willem, Smits, Ivo (2000) Bewogen Betrekkingen: 400 jaar Nederland – Japan, Hilversum/Leiden: Teleac / NOT, 190.

³ That Chō’ōji was used for only very short periods of time becomes clear from the memoirs of De Graeff van Polsbroek, the writings of diplomats like Rudolf Lindau and Aimé Humbert, newspaper articles, and other sources.

Published October 29, 2022
Updated November 8, 2022 1:43 PM