Philipp Franz Von Siebold and His Era: Prerequisites, Developments, Consequences and Perspectives - Tapa dura

The Dutch East Indian Company was founded about 400 years ago, and in 1641 the artificial island of Dejima in the port of Nagasaki became its base. This island represented the only bridge between Japan, at that time in self-isolation, and the European countries - the Netherlands in particular. The physician and surgeon Philipp Franz von Siebold, born in Wurzburg in 1796, was appointed as factory doctor of the Dutch East Indian Company in Dejima and, later on, he made history as the scientific discoverer of Japan for the Western world. His grandfather Carl Caspar von Siebold was the first real university surgeon in Wurzburg from 1796 until 1807, and was "the prominent surgeon of Southern Germany". In commemoration of Philipp Franz von Siebold, his 200th birthday and the developments introduced by him were celebrated by various events in Nagasaki and Wurzburg in 1996. This is an analysis of his life and Oriental-Occidental relations in that era.