Title: Über die Kunde von Japan. Über die Früheren
Reisen der Russen nach Japan, und ihre zu hoffenden Handelsverbindungen
mit diesem Reiche - Als nachtrag zu dem Aufsatze des hern Schneegass.
[Latest News from Japan. Earlier Russian Voyages to Japan to Establish Trade
with the Kingdom - As an Addendum to the essay of Dr. Schneegass.]
Weimar: Industrie-Comptoirs, 1805.
8vo. This is two complete consecutive monthly issues, 69 pages of
which pertain to the above mentioned account, which was issued in two parts.
Bound without the map, otherwise in very good condition, in recent blue paper
covers with label. Text is in German. A fascinating primary resource.
This early nineteenth century essay on Japan, and Russian trade interest
with Japan, fifty years prior to Commodore Perry, who would open trade relations
between Japan and America. With a brief excerpt from journals of Lieutenant
Adam Laxmann, the first Russian to set foot in Japan, and possibly the first
official to hold Japanese documents granting permission to trade.
Also contains detailed description of the Japanese Islands (Nippon),
primary cities including Tokyo (formerly Edo, Yedo, Yeddo), featuring
indigenous customs, religous beliefs, and commentary on the Mikado, or
Emperor of Japan.
These are the original pages printed in 1805, and NOT a reprint.
This narrative is from a rare multi-volume geographical and scientific journal titled "Allgemeine Geographische Ephemeriden", which issued fifty volumes from 1798-1816
and which encompassed critical contemporary topics of geography and astronomy.
Adam Christian Gaspari and Franz Xaver von Zach were editors of this important
scientific journal.
Adam Kirillovich (Erikovich) Laxman (1766 - 1806) was a Finland-Swedish
military officer. As lieutenant in the Imperial Russian military, he was
commissioned to lead an expedition to Japan in 1791, returning two Japanese
castaways to their home country in exchange for trade concessions from the
Tokugawa shogunate.
Laxman landed on Hokkaido in October 1792, where he was met by members of the Matsumae clan, who were entrusted with defending Japan's northern borders. Unlike previous foreign visitors, Laxman was treated hospitably, but this changed when he demanded, imprudently, that he be able to deliver the castaways (Daikokuya Kodayu's party) to Edo (modern-day Tokyo) in person. He was soon met by two envoys and five hundred men, sent from Edo by senior councilor Matsudaira Sadanobu, who attempted to delay or prevent Laxman's traveling much deeper into Japanese territory. They asked
that he travel to the town of Matsumae, overland and without his ship. Laxman refused, and ultimately was allowed to sail, with Japanese naval escort, to the port of Hakodate; from there, 450 Russians and Japanese would march to Matsumae Castle.
Oddly, despite his impudence, Laxman was granted lavish Western-style living quarters; they were allowed to ignore the custom of kneeling and bowing before the Shogun's envoys, and were bestowed three samurai swords, and a hundred bags of rice. The envoys then explained to him that Japanese law demanded that all foreign trade be performed at Nagasaki. Since he had come to return castaways, they explained, he would be allowed to leave peacefully. When Laxman refused to leave without a trade agreement, he was provided with papers that explicitly stated that Nagasaki would welcome one Russian ship, that foreign ships were not allowed to dock anywhere else in the country, and that Christianity would also not be tolerated anywhere in Japan.
Laxman returned to Russia essentially empty-handed, though he held (quite possibly) the first official Japanese documents granting permission to trade, to a nation other than China or the Netherlands. When an attempt was made to trade at Nagasaki, nine years after Laxman's return to Russia, the Russian mission was greeted with a lengthy dispatch from the Shogunate explaining that Japan was closed to foreign trade and demanding that they leave. After this major setback, the Tsarist government debated for many years the actual intention and meaning of the documents, and, leaving the opening of Japan to private entrepreneur explorers, ultimately failed to open Japan.
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