Doctor on Desima: Selected Chapters from Jhr. J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort’s Vijf Jaren in Japan (Five Years in Japan, 1857-1863)Translated by Elizabeth P. Wittermans and John Z. Bowers
Monographs (1970) pp. 1–144
This book records the observations of the young Dutch naval surgeon, Pompe van Meerdervoort, who arrive in Japan with the Second Dutch Naval Detachment sent at the request of the Japanese government in 1857, and left in 1863. As a man of his time, he did not limit himself to a study of Japan’s problems of sickness and health. Also interested in the country’s social, political, and economic structure, he wrote on a variety of subjects including religious and social institutions, military matters, and customs which he considered uniquely Japanese and quite patently different from what was considered acceptable social behavior in Europe during those times. The author’s colorful style of writing gives us a fascinating account of the existing conditions during his stay and expresses his personal views on the morals and mores of the Japanese–samurais and courtesans, housewives and ladies of the nobility, men of the world and men in the streets–at the time of their confrontation with the West.
1970. vii + 144 pages.
Hardback ¥2,000/$20.00/€20.00.