From the Collection of James E. Fagan (1926-2011)

Hayashi Shihei (1738-1793)
Orandasen zusetsu [Illustration of a Dutch Ship]
Woodblock print, hand coloured, depicting the Schllaak, a large ship of the Dutch East India Company, Kansei 2 [1790]

Sealed at lower right Sendai Hayashi Shihei jukkai zohan [Copywritten by Hayashi Shihei of Sendai], mounted as a hanging scroll
102 x 55cm. (print only)
169 x 68.5cm. (including mount)
76 x 3.3 x 3.3cm. (when rolled)

Provenance
James E. Fagan (1926-2011) was an American collector with a special interest in the introduction of Western culture and technology to Japan’s closed Edo-era society (1603-1868), also known as the Tokugawa period. Mr Fagan studied Japanese language and history at Stanford University, and served as a US Naval officer in the Pacific theatre. He then lived and worked in Japan as an attorney in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

During this time, Fagan assembled and researched his collection of rare Edo-era woodblock and manuscript maps, prints and books not available outside Japan. Highlights include Nagasaki-e (showing the Japanese fascination with the Dutch East Indies (VOC) outpost at Deshima island), early Rangaku examinations of Western science and languages, the evolution of Japanese cartographic knowledge, and the study of English and Russian military might and technology. Imaginative illustrations and maps, from Japanese castaways reporting back to the Japanese Court, also provide a glimpse of how the Western world appeared to the first Japanese to circumnavigate the globe.

The collection demonstrates Japan’s keen curiosity about the Western world during its long isolationist period, and the artful way the Japanese perspective captures the impact of European contact.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

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Lot Essay

This rare print boldly depicts the Schllaak, a merchant ship of the Dutch East India Company which came to Nagasaki in 1730. Although the artist would not have seen this actual ship (1730 being before his birth), foreign ships provided very popular subject matter throughout the hundred years of Nagasaki printmaking. Two ships such as the one depicted in this print sailed annually between Nagasaki and the company’s seat of colonial government at Jakarta (Batavia) on Java, Indonesia. A stark contrast to Japanese ships with their enormous size and impressive array of canons and armour, they must have been an imposing sight.

Amongst the ship’s flags is one bearing the trademark VOC of the Dutch East India Company and on board a member of the crew is looking from the stern through a telescope whilst others are climbing the rigging. This print is very closely based on a slightly earlier version published in 1782, also published by Toshimaya in collaboration with Shihei and which has minor differences in the design and the layout of the text. Due to the popularity of the subject, these first and second editions were then followed by numerous re-issues from 1800 onwards, which become increasingly smaller and lacking the complexity of the earlier versions.

The text above the ship, written by Shihei, gives some fascinating insights focused mainly on Holland and the Dutch. He explains that Holland is a province of the Netherlands and part of Europe, which lies “to the northwest of the world”. Of Dutch people he writes that they have five distinctive physical features: Long noses, blue eyes, red hair, white skin and are very tall. He explains the distance between Holland and Japan and that the Dutch ships that visit Nagasaki sail regularly from Batavia. He details how a Dutch ship is made, its dimensions, the number of sails, flags and guns, even the weight of the cannon balls. He includes the enslavement of East Indian Blacks as part of the make up of the crew and explains the social hierarchy amongst the crew. At the end he lists the goods imported and exported on these ships.

See Cal French, Tadashi Sugase, Kiichi Usui, Through Closed Doors: Western Influence on Japanese Art 1639-1853, Exhibition catalogue, (Rochester, 1977), p. 42-44.