Shiba Kokan was an artist and scholar who introduced many aspects of Western learning to Japan. He was a pioneer of Western-style painting and in 1783 he produced the first Japanese copper-plate etching. He first studied Kano school painting which was heavily influenced by Chinese themes and then studied under the ukiyo-e artist Suzuki Harunobu. However, he became interested in Western painting and studied Dutch books to learn its new techniques of shading and perspective. In 1788 he finally travelled from Edo to Nagasaki and visited the Dutch trading enclave on the island of Deshima, the account of which forms the subject of Saiyu ryodan. In addition to the account of Deshima he makes many observations on Japanese life as he sees it on the journey.

There are slightly differing theories about the versions published under the titles Saiyu ryodan and Gazu saiyu dan, however it seems likely that Gazu saiyu dan was a slightly later publication with some slight changes. Copies of both in the collection of Waseda University, Tokyo are fully illustrated online - go to:

http://www.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kotenseki/html/ru03/ru03_00334/index.html (Saiyu ryodan)
http://www.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kotenseki/html/ru03/ru03_00028/ (Gazu saiyu dan)

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.