Kämpfer was born September, 1651, in the northwest of Germany, in the county of Lippe, at Lemgow, a small town of which his father was minister. He was early destined for the profession of physic, and, after the best school education his father could give him, spent three years at the university of Cracow, in Poland, and four years more at that of Koningsburg, in Prussia. Thence he passed to Sweden, where, inspired with a desire of seeing foreign countries, he obtained the place of secretary to an embassy about to be sent to the king of Persia. That country he reached by way of Moscow, Astracan, and the Caspian Sea, arriving at Ispahan in 1684. During his residence there, he employed himself chiefly in researches into the natural history of the country; and for the sake of continuing those researches, when the embassy was the next year about to return home, he obtained, through the recommendation of the Swedish ambassador, the place of chief surgeon to the Dutch East India Company’s fleet, then cruising in the Persian Gulf. “It agreed best with my inclination,” so he says in the preface to his work on Japan, “to undertake a further journey, and I chose rather to lead the restless and troublesome life of a traveller, than by coming home to subject myself to a share in that train of calamities my native country was then involved in. Therefore, I took my leave of the ambassador and his retinue (who did me the honor to attend me a mile out of Ispahan) with a firm resolution to spend some years longer in seeing other Eastern courts, countries, and nations. I was never used to receive large supplies of money from home. ’T was by my own industry I had till then supported myself, and the very same means maintained me afterwards, as long as I stayed abroad, and enabled me to serve the Dutch East India Company, though in a less honorable employment.
“This offspring of Japhet enjoys, more than any other European nation, the blessing of Noah to live in the tents of Shem, and to have Canaan for their servant. God hath so blessed their valor and conduct, that they have enlarged their trade, conquests and possessions, throughout Asia, to the very extremities of the East, and there hath never been wanting among them a succession of prudent and able men, who have promoted their interests and welfare to the utmost of their capacity. But to come to the point. It was by the gracious leave, and under the protection of this honorable Company, that I have often obtained my end in the Indies, and have had the satisfaction at last to see the remote empire of Japan, and the court of its powerful monarch.”
Kämpfer remained at Gamroon, on the Persian Gulf, for near three years, employing his leisure in scientific researches. Leaving that unhealthy station in June, 1688, he proceeded in the fleet along the coasts of Persia and India to Ceylon, and thence by Sumatra to Batavia, where he arrived in September, 1689. Having obtained the appointment of physician to the factory in Japan, he left Batavia in May, 1690, and having touched at Siam, of which he has given an account in his book, on the 22d of September, about noon, he came in sight of the high mountainous country about Nagasaki. As soon as the land was seen, all on board were required, as the usage was, to give up their prayer-books and other books of divinity, as also all the European money they had about them, to the captain, who, having taken a memorandum of them, packed away all these surrendered articles in an old cask, to be hid away from the Japanese, but to be surrendered to the owners on leaving Japan. At sunset, Nagasaki was six or seven leagues distant. At midnight they reached the entrance of the bay, in which they found fifty fathoms of water. This entrance was full of rocks and islands, which obliged them to wait till morning; and then, being becalmed, they fired cannon to notify their arrival. These were heard at the Dutch factory, six miles distant, and in the afternoon four small vessels came out with some persons from the factory, accompanied by swarms of Japanese officers, clerks and soldiers, and the chief interpreter, who, on boarding the ship, demanded all writings and letters, in the hands of whomsoever they might be. They soon left, and the ship followed slowly, making her way by kedging, till by ten at night she dropped anchor within half a league of the city. The next morning she was towed in still further by a fleet of Japanese boats.
The harbor was found to be well protected, and completely enclosed by rocks, islands and mountains, on the tops of which were guard-houses, from which those on the look-out, by means of their spy-glasses, detected the ship shortly after she had made the land, and had given notice of her arrival to the authorities. Along the shore several bastions were seen, with palisades painted red, but no cannon; and on the hills several fortifications, screened by cloths, so as to prevent what was in them from being visible.
Having dropped anchor within three hundred yards of the island of Deshima, they were again boarded by two Japanese officers, with a host of attendants, who made a careful examination of all on board, according to a list given them, writing down their names and business. Five or six of the number were then subjected to a strict cross-examination as to all the particulars of the voyage. It so happened that the steward had died, the day before their arrival, of a fit of apoplexy, consequent upon his being denied any more arrack, or brandy—apart from his drinking, an able man, and, as Kämpfer tells us, the son of a noted divine at the Hague, but who, by early indulgence, had fallen into debaucheries and a dissolute life. Many questions were asked about the dead man, and his breast and other parts of the corpse were carefully examined to see if there were any cross or other mark of the popish religion upon it. After much urging, the Japanese consented to the immediate removal of the body; but none of the ship’s company were allowed to attend, or to see what was done with it.
As soon as this roll-calling and examination were over, Japanese soldiers and revenue officers were put into every corner, and the ship was, as it were, completely taken out of the hands of the Dutch. For that day only, they were left in possession of the boats to look after the anchor; but all their arms and gunpowder were taken away. “In short,” says Kämpfer, “had I not been beforehand acquainted with their usual proceedings, I could not have helped thinking that we had got into a hostile country, and had been taken for spies.” That evening was received from the factory a supply of fowls, eggs, fish, shell-fish, turnips, radishes [daikon],—which, as Kämpfer afterwards observed, were largely cultivated, and formed a great part of the food of the country people,—onions, fresh ginger, pumpkins, watermelons, white bread, and a barrel of sake, or Japanese rice-beer.
On the twenty-ninth the officers of the factory came on board, and calling the ship’s company together, read to them the orders of the Dutch East India Company, and of the governor of Nagasaki, to the effect that every one was to behave soberly and discreetly with respect to the natives and to the laws and customs of the country. A paper containing these orders, written in Dutch, was, according to the Japanese custom, left on board for everybody to read. No one, except the captain of the ship and the director, or head officer (in Dutch, Opperhoofd), of the factory, could leave the ship for Deshima, or return on board again, without a written passport, in the one case granted by the Japanese officers on board, in the other by those upon the island. On the twenty-sixth Kämpfer took his goods and landed for his two years’ residence on the island. It was his object to get all the knowledge he possibly could of the present state and past history of Japan; but in this he encountered many difficulties. The Japanese officers, with whom the Dutch came in contact, were all bound by an oath, renewed every year, not to talk with the Dutch, nor to make any disclosures to them, respecting the domestic affairs of the country, its religion, or its politics; and not only that, they were also bound by oath to watch and report each other—which fear of being informed against was indeed their chief dread and restraint. “Naturally the Japanese were,” in Kämpfer’s opinion, “their pride of warlike humor being set aside, as civil, as polite and curious a nation as any in the world, naturally inclined to commerce and familiarity with foreigners, and desirous to excess to be informed of their histories, arts and sciences. But,” he adds, “as we are only merchants, whom they place in the lowest class of mankind, and as the narrow inspection we are kept under must naturally lead them to some jealousy and mistrust, so there is no other way to gain their friendship, and to win them over to our interest, but a willingness to comply with their desire, a liberality to please their avaricious inclinations, and a submissive conduct to flatter their vanity. ’Twas by this means I worked myself into such a friendship and familiarity with my interpreters, and the officers of our island, who daily came over to us, as I believe none before me could boast of, ever since we have been put under such narrow regulations. Liberally assisting them as I did with my advice and medicines, with what information I was able to give them in astronomy and mathematics, and with a cordial and plentiful supply of European liquors, I could also in my turn freely put to them what questions I pleased about the affairs of their country, whether relating to the government in civil or ecclesiastical affairs, to the customs of the natives, to the natural and political history; and there was none that ever refused to give me all the information he could, when we were alone, even of things which they are strictly charged to keep secret. The private informations thus procured from those who came to visit me were of great use to me in collecting materials for my intended history of this country; but yet they fell far short of being altogether satisfactory, and I should not, perhaps, have been able to compass that design, if I had not by good luck met with other opportunities, and in particular the assistance of a discreet young man, by whose means I was richly supplied with whatever information I wanted concerning the affairs of Japan. He was about twenty-four years of age, well versed in the Chinese and Japanese languages, and very desirous of improving himself. Upon my arrival, he was appointed to wait upon me as my servant, and at the same time to be by me instructed in physic and surgery. The Otona, who is the chief officer of our island (of Deshima), having been attended by him under my inspection in a serious illness, suffered him to continue in my service during the whole time of my abode in the country, which was two years, and to attend me in our two journeys to court, consequently four times, almost from one end of the empire to the other—a favor seldom granted to young men of his age, and never for so long a time. As I could not well have obtained my end without giving him a competent knowledge of the Dutch language, I instructed him therein with so much success that in a year’s time he could write and read it better than any of our interpreters. I also gave him all the information I could in anatomy and physic, and further allowed him a handsome yearly salary to the best of my ability. In return I employed him to procure me as ample accounts as possible of the then state and condition of the country, its government, the imperial court, the religions established in the empire, the history of former ages, and remarkable daily occurrences. There was not a book I desired to see on these and other subjects, which he did not bring to me, and explain to me out of it whatever I wanted to know. And because he was obliged, in several things, to inquire, or to borrow, or to buy of other people, I never dismissed him without providing him with money for such purposes, besides his yearly allowance. So expensive, so difficult a thing is it to foreigners, ever since the shutting up of the Japanese empire, to procure any information about it.”
After two years thus spent, Kämpfer left Japan in November, 1692, and reached Amsterdam, by way of Batavia, the October following, bringing with him a very rare collection of Japanese books, maps, coins, etc. It had been his intention immediately on his return to prepare his notes and memoirs for publication; but being appointed physician to the count of Lippe, his native prince, and speedily obtaining a large private practice, and assuming also the responsibility and cares of a family, this purpose was long delayed. His “Amoenitates Exoticae,” notes of his eastern travels, did not appear till 1712, and he died in 1716, leaving his “History of Japan” still unpublished. It first appeared in 1727, translated from the German into English, and published in two folios, with numerous engravings[134], under the patronage of Sir Hans Sloane and the Royal Society. There was prefixed to it by the translator, Dr. I. G. Scheuchzer, a valuable introduction, containing a catalogue of works upon Japan which Charlevoix, in the similar catalogue at the end of his History of Japan, has mainly copied; as was done also by his publishers, as to most of Kämpfer’s engravings.
Kämpfer’s work is divided into five books[135]. The first book contains, first, a general and particular geographical description of the empire, derived mainly from Japanese writers; second, a disquisition on the origin of the Japanese,—whom Kämpfer thinks, from the evidence as well of language as of character, not to be a Chinese colony, nor even to belong to the same stock; third, the stories, evidently mythical, which the Japanese give of their own origin; and fourth, an account of the climate of Japan, its minerals and metals, plants, animals, reptiles, fish and shells.
The second book devoted to the political state of Japan contains, first, their mythological history; second, the annals of the Dairi, with a description of their court and residence; and third, a list of the Kubō-Sama. This part of the work, at least the annals, is sufficiently dry; but it contains the substance of all that the Japanese know or believe as to the chronology of their own history.