Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:24:50.845Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Privileges of Working with the VOC: Supplementary Incomes of the Interpreters in Nagasaki and Canton

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2014

Isabel Tanaka-Van Daalen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In order to “describe world history from a new angle,” Professor Haneda Masashi has set up the framework of “Comparative Studies on the Cross-cultural Contacts in Asian Port Cities in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” One of the proposed points of comparison concerned communications between Europeans and local people and the indispensable role of interpreters, on whose work “the Dutch trade representatives relied utterly in their business and daily life” in Canton as well as Nagasaki.

Whereas Professor Yao Keisuke, elsewhere in this special issue, has emphasised the different roles of the interpreters in both port cities, Professor Haneda is more in favour of pointing out the similarities. He has identified state control of foreign trade, motivated by concerns over “security, social stability, and the prosperity of the state,” as a fundamental feature common to both countries in this period. Because of a clear distinction between the local people as “insiders” and Europeans as “outsiders,” the foreigners' activities were strictly controlled and contacts between locals and Westerners restricted to a minimum. The interpreters stood between both parties as mediators and were intentionally used by the authorities as “tools of control,” sometimes functioning as spies reporting on suspicious activities, but also acting as safety shields against direct Dutch confrontations or breaches of etiquette and protocol. Mechanisms to control the interpreters themselves were built in as well.

Type
Mediating Trade: Interpreters and Translators
Information
Itinerario , Volume 37 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Canton and Nagasaki Compared , December 2013 , pp. 116 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Published Primary Sources

The Deshima Dagregisters 1641–1650, vol. 11, edited by Viallé, Cynthia and Blussé, Leonard. Leiden: Institute for the History of European Expansion, 2001.Google Scholar
The Deshima Dagregisters 1660–1670, vol. 13, edited by Viallé, Cynthia and Blussé, Leonard. Leiden: Institute for the History of European Expansion, 2010.Google Scholar
The Deshima Diaries: Marginalia 1740–1800, edited by Blussé, Leonard, Viallé, Cynthia, Remmelink, Willem, and van Daalen, Isabel. Tokyo: The Japan-Netherlands Institute, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engelbert Kaempfer: Heutiges Japan, 2 vols, edited by Michel, Wolfgang and Terwiel, Barend. München: Iudicum Verlag, 2001.Google Scholar
Hankachō: Nagasaki Bugyosho Hanketsu Kiroku (The Judicial Court records of the Nagasaki Governor), edited by Morinaga, Taneo, 11 vols. Nagasaki: Hankachō Kankōkai, 1958–1961.Google Scholar
Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed by Engelbert Kaempfer, transl. and annot. by Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice M.. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Kanpō Nikki to Hankachō (The Kanpō Diaries and the Hankachō), edited by Etchū, Tetsuya and Morinaga, Taneo. Nagasaki: Nagasaki Bunkensha, 1977.Google Scholar
Meylan, German F.Geschiedkundig Overzigt van den Handel der Europezen op Japan. Batavia: 's Lands Drukkerij, 1833.Google Scholar
Morse, Hosea Ballou. The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China 1635–1834, 5 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1926–1929.Google Scholar
“Nagasaki Kaisho Gosatsumono” (The five books of the Nagasaki Kaisho). In Nagasaki Kenshi: Shiryōhen, vol. 4: 3–243.Google Scholar
Nagasaki Jikki Nendairoku (Chronology of Nagasaki affairs), edited by Kankōkai, Kyūshū Bunka-shi Kenkyūjjo Shiryōshū. Fukuoka: Kyūshū Daigaku Daigakuin Hikaku Shakai Bunka Kenkyūka, 1999.Google Scholar
Nagasaki Jitsuroku Taisei (Compilation of true records of Nagasaki), 2 vols., edited by Niwa, Kankichi and Morinaga, Taneo. Nagasaki: Nagasaki Bunkensha, 1973–1974.Google Scholar
Nagasaki Kenshi: Shiryō-hen (The History of Nagasaki prefecture; sources). vol. 4, edited by Iinkai, Nagasaki Kenshi Henshū. Nagasaki: Yoshikawa Kūbunkan, 1965.Google Scholar
“Nagasaki-ki” (Accounts of Nagasaki) In Ōta, , Kinsei Nagasaki, 435–513.Google Scholar
“Nagasaki Shoji Oboegaki” (Memorandum on all kinds of affairs in Nagasaki). In Ōta, , Kinsei Nagasaki, 253–432.Google Scholar
“Nagasaki Tsūji Yuishogaki” (Pedigrees of Nagasaki interpreter families). In Nagasaki Kenshi: Shiryō, 818–65.Google Scholar
Kiyosuke, Oōka. Kiyō Gundan (Nagasaki Miscellenea), edited by Nakada, Yasunao and Nakamura, Tadashi. Tokyo: Kondō Shuppan, 1974.Google Scholar
“Oranda tsūuji-domo maegaki nitsō kishōmon maegaki” (Two forewords to the oaths of the interpreters of Dutch), included in the “Nagasaki Shoji Oboegaki,” bk. 9, Kanbun 11 (1671), 9th month, last day.Google Scholar
Ota, Katsuya. Kinsei Nagasaki: Taigai Kankei-shiryō (Early modern Nagasaki and sources related to its foreign relations). Kyoto: Shibunkaku Shuppan, 2007.Google Scholar
Tsūkō Ichiran (Compilation of reference materials on Japan's overseas relations), edited by Fukusai, Hayashi. 8 vols. Osaka: Seibundō (reprint), 1967.Google Scholar
Blussé, Leonard, Remmelink, Willem, and Smits, Ivo (ed). Bridging the Divide: 400 Years The Netherlands-Japan. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000.Google Scholar
Cheong, Weng Eang. Hong Merchants of Canton: Chinese Merchants in Sino-Western Trade, 1684–1798. Richmond Surry: Curzon Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Haneda, Masashi. “Framework and Methods of Comparative Studies on Asia Port Cities in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” In Asian Port Cities 1600–1800: Local and Foreign Cultural Interactions, edited by Haneda, Masashi, 1–12. Singapore: Nus Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Haneda, Masashi. “Canton, Nagasaki and the Port Cities of the Indian Ocean: A Comparison.” In Asian Port Cities 1600–1800: Local and Foreign Cultural Interactions, edited by Haneda, Masashi, 13–23.Google Scholar
Hesselink, Reinier H. and Matsui, Yōko. “Sakoku, or Japan ‘Closed off’ from the World: a New Stage: the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century.” In Bridging the Divide, edited by Blussé, Leonard, Remmelink, Willem, and Smits, Ivo, 35–53. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000.Google Scholar
Honma, Sadao. Bōeki-toshi Nagasaki no Kenkyū (Study on the trading city Nagasaki). Fukuoka: Kyūshū Daigaku Shuppankai, 2009.Google Scholar
Ishida, Chihiro. “Nagasaki Kaisho kaikei no bunseki” (An analysis of the Nagasaki Kaisho). Nichirangakkai Kaishi 8:1 (1983/1910): 50–76.Google Scholar
Itazawa, Takeo. Nichiran Bunka Kōshō-shi no Kenkyū (The study of cultural relations between Japan and the Netherlands). Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1959.Google Scholar
Jörg, Christiaan J. A.Porcelain and the Dutch China Trade. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaji, Teruyuki. “Nagasaki kikiyaku to jōhō” (The Nagasaki kikiyaku and information). In Kinsei Nihon no Kaigai Jōhō (Overseas information in early modern Japan), edited by Tetsunori Iwashita and Fusa'aki Maehira, 43–59. Tokyo: Iwata Shoin, 1997.Google Scholar
Katagiri, Kazuo. Oranda Tsūji no Kenkyū (A study of the Japanese interpreters of Dutch). Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1985.Google Scholar
Katō, Ei'ichi. “Hirado Oranda shōkan Nihonjin tsūji Sadakata Riemon kō” (Sadakata Riemon, an interpreter at the Dutch trading post in Hirado) In Bakuhansei Kokka no Seiritsu to Taigai Kankei (The formation of a Bakuhan-system state in the Edo period and its foreign relations), 340–90. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1998Google Scholar
Katō, Ei'ichi. “Hirado Oranda shōkan no Nihonjin koyōsha ni tsuite” (Japanese servants at the Dutch trading post in Hirado). In Bakuhansei Kokka no Seiritsu to Taigai Kankei (The formation of a Bakuhan-system state in the Edo period and its foreign relations), 296–339.Google Scholar
Katō, Ei'ichi. “Tsūji no shakaishi: Oranda tsūji izen” (A social history of the interpreters: before the formation of interpreters of Dutch). Narutaki Kiyō 3 (1993): 51–79.Google Scholar
Kimura, Naoki. Bakuhan-sei Kokka to Higashi-Ajia Sekai (The Bakuhan-system state and the East-Asian world). Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2009.Google Scholar
Liu, Yong. “The Commercial Culture of the VOC in Canton in the Eighteenth Century.” In Asian Port Cities 1600–1800: Local and Foreign Cultural Interactions, edited by Haneda, Masashi, 43–62. Singapore: Nus Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Matsui, Yoko. “Nagasaki ni okeru Oranda tsūji-shoku no keisei katei: Orandago shiryō ni miru “ko-tsūji” no seiritsu made” (The formation of the Japanese interpreters of Dutch in Nagasaki until the development of so-called junior interpreters, as seen in Dutch sources). Nichirangakkai Kaishi 21:2 (1997/1993): 1–20.Google Scholar
Matsuo, Shin'ichi. Edo Bakufu no Taigai Seisaku to Engan Keibi (The foreign policy of the Edo Shogunate and coastal defence). Tokyo: Azekura Shobō, 2010.Google Scholar
Morioka, Yoshiko. “Nagasaki bōeki ni okeru kanzei: bōeki rijun kara mita Nagasaki bōeki no hensen” (The taxes of the Nagasaki trade: changes in the Nagasaki trade as seen from the trade profits). Bunka (Tōhoku Daigaku Bungakukai) 18:1 (1954): 19–44.Google Scholar
Iinkai, Nagasaki Kenshi Henshū (ed). Nagasaki Kenshi: Taigai Kōshō-hen (The History of Nagasaki prefecture; foreign relations). Nagasaki: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1985.Google Scholar
Nagazumi, Yōko. “Foreign intelligence and its interpreters.” In Engelbert Kaempfer: Werk und Wirkung, edited by Haberland, Detlef, 30–8. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1993.Google Scholar
Nagazumi, Yōko. “Improvements in Dutch Language Skills and the Russian Question in Japan: 1739–1805. In Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko 55 (1997): 1–21.Google Scholar
Nagazumi, Yōko. “The Decline of Trade and Russian Expansion in East Asia.” In Bridging the Divide, edited by Blussé, Leonard, Remmelink, Willem, and Smits, Ivo, 57–72. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000.Google Scholar
Nakamura, Tadashi. Kinsei Nagasaki Bōeki-shi no Kenkyū (The History of the Nagasaki trade in early modern Japan). Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1988.Google Scholar
Nakamura, Tadashi. “Kinsei Nagasaki ni okeru bōeki rigin no kobetsu haitō” (The distribution per household of the trade profits in early modern Nagasaki). Kyūshū Bunka-shi Kenkyūjo Kiyō 17 (1972): 53–96.Google Scholar
Nakamura, Tadashi. “Oranda tsūji no shishōbai: Narabayashi-ke ‘shokakitome’ o chūshin ni” (The private trade of the interpreters for the Dutch: focusing on the “miscellaneous notes” of the Narabayashi family). In Kaikoku to Kindaika (The opening of Japan and its modernisation), edited by Tadashi, Nakamura, 80–113. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1997.Google Scholar
Nakamura, Tadashi. “Oranda tsūji no yakukabu jōto, I, II” (The transfer of the posts of the interpreters of Dutch). Rangaku Shiryō Kenkyūkai Kenkyū-hōkoku 212 (1968/1968): 251–268 and 213 (1968/9): 309–316.Google Scholar
Numakura, Nobuyuki. “Kaikoku zengo, Nagasaki ni okeru kaigai jōhō no shūshū dentatsu katsudō ni tsuite: Kumamoto-han to Gotō-han Nagasaki kikiyaku (rusui) no katsudō o chūshin ni” (On the leakage of information from abroad in Nagasaki in the 1840–50s: mainly on the activities of the Nagasaki kikyaku (rusui) of the Kumamoto and Gotō fiefs). Shoryōbu Kiyō 47 (1995): 41–60.Google Scholar
Stifler, Susan Reed. “The Language Students of the East India Company's Canton Factory.” Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 69 (1938): 46–82.Google Scholar
Suzuki, Yasuko. Kinsei Nichiran Bōeki no Kenkyū (Study of the Japan-Netherlands trade in the 17th and 18th centuries). Kyoto: Shibunkaku Shuppan.Google Scholar
Tanaka-Van Daalen, Isabel. “Communicating with the Japanese under Sakoku: Dutch Letters of Complaint and Attempts to Learn Japanese.” In Large and Broad: the Dutch Impact on Early Modern Asia, edited by Nagazumi, Yōko, 76–129. Tōkyō: Toyo Bunko, 2010.Google Scholar
Tanaka-Van Daalen, Isabel. “Oranda tsūji keizu (III): Ogawa-ke, Moriyama-ke.” Nichirangakkai Kaishi 28:1 (2003/2010): 81–115.Google Scholar
Tanaka-Van Daalen, Isabel. “Oranda tsūji keizu (V): Namura-ke” (The genealogies of the interpreter families working for the Dutch on Deshima: the Namura family). Nichirangakkai Kaishi, 32: 2 (2007/2012): 35–77.Google Scholar
Tanaka-Van Daalen, Isabel. “Oranda tsüji Tominaga Nihyōe to VOC no jōhō shūshū” (The interpreter of Dutch, Tominaga Nihyōe and intelligence gathering by the VOC). In Nagasaki: Tōzai bunkakōshō-shi no sutēji, Porutogaru jidai-Oranda jidai (Nagasaki, the stage for the historical relations between East and West: the Portuguese and Dutch periods), edited by Wakaki, Tei'ichi, 194–217. Tokyo: Bensei Shuppan, 2013.Google Scholar
Tanaka-Van Daalen, Isabel. “Titsingu no ‘fukushin no keiko-tsūji’ no nazo” (The mystery of Titsingh's trusted apprentice-interpreter). Nichiran Gakkai Tsūshin 82 (1998): 1–4.Google Scholar
Tomori, Maiko. “Nagasaki jiyakunin” (Nagasaki local officials). In Mibunteki Shūen to Kinsei-shakai, vol. 7: Bushi no Shūen ni ikiru (The periphery of social status in early modern Japanese society: living in the periphery of the samurai warriors), edited by Morishita, Tōru, 50–75. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2007.Google Scholar
Torii, Yumiko, “Nagasaki-kata hikae” kanken” (Narrow views on the notes concerning Nagasaki transactions). In Rangaku no kita michi; Takeo ryōshu no kaimono-chō (The route to Rangaku: the note books of purchases by the Lord of Takeo), 12–14. Takeo: Takeo-shi Toshokan/Rekishi Shiryōkan, 2004.Google Scholar
Torii, Yumiko. “‘Dutch Studies’: Interpreters, Language, Geography and World History.” In Bridging the Divide, edited by Blussé, Leonard, Remmelink, Willem, and Smits, Ivo, 117–137. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000.Google Scholar
Van Dyke, Paul A.The Canton Trade: Life and Enterprise on the China Coast, 1700–1845. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Van Dyke, Paul A.Port Canton and the Pearl River Delta, 1690–1845 (Ph.D. diss., University of Southern California, 2002).Google Scholar
Van Dyke, Paul A.Merchants of Canton and Macao: Politics and Strategies in Eighteenth-Century Chinese Trade. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Yao, Keisuke. “The Fundamentally Different Roles of Linguists in the Ports of Nagasaki and Canton. In Canton and Nagasaki Compared 1730–1830: Dutch, Chinese, Japanese Relations, edited by Groenendijk, Evert, Viallé, Cynthia, and Blussé, Leonard, 203–8. Leiden: Institute for the History of European Expansion, 2009.Google Scholar
Yamamoto, Hirofumi. Nagasaki Kikiyaku Nikki: Bakumatsu no Jōhō-sensō (The daily records of the Nagasaki kikiyaku: the information war in the Bakumatsu period). Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 1999.Google Scholar