page_title: Illustrations of Japan
section_title: About the author
hierarchical_section_title: Illustrations of Japan / About the author
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait in the Western style, Japanese painting on rolled cloth, 18th century
context_page_description: The Dutch-language book Bijzonderheden over Japan, behelzende een verslag van de huwelijks plechtigheden, begrafenissen en feesten der Japanezen, de gedenkschriften der laatste Japansche keizers, en andere merkwaardigheden nopens dat rij. Uit het Engelsch, met gekleurde platen naar Japansche originelen is about Japanese history, customs and ceremonies during the Tokugawa period observed by Dutch senior official in the VOC Isaac Titsingh, published in 1824 in The Hague by Wed. J.Allart. It was based on the English book Illustrations of Japan; consisting of Private Memoirs and Anecdotes of the reigning dynasty of The Djogouns, or Sovereigns of Japan; a description of the Feasts and Ceremonies observed throughout the year at their Court; and of the Ceremonies customary at Marriages and Funerals: to which are subjoined, observations on the legal suicide of the Japanese, remarks on their poetry, an explanation of their mode of reckoning time, particulars respecting the Dosia powder, the preface of a work by Confoutzee on filial piety, published two years before in 1822 by R. Ackermann in London.
context_section_description: Isaac Titsingh stayed in the Dutch trading post of Dejima from 1779 to 1784 in the position as a VOC senior official. In this time period the only Europeans that were allowed to embark in Japan, were VOC vessels in Nagasaki. He ran the VOC trading station as a chief negotiator of trade between the Japanese and the VOC merchants and officer. Titsingh's goal was to become an “authority on the country” during his time in Japan.
  Isaac Titsingh was born in Amsterdam to a family of well-known surgeons. He joined the VOC in 1765 and embarked to Batavia in this year. After becoming a Freemason and was positioned as an 'opperhoofd' in the Japanese factory of the VOC in Dejima he went to Japan in 1779.  Titsingh had a Doctorate degree in law and medicine, was a graduate from Leiden University and was one of the most educated Dutchmen that went to Japan in the position as a chief officer of the VOC.
caption: Isaac Titsingh portrayed as Opperhoofd
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