Titsingh in China. Photo by Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Wikipedia Commons

Top 10 Facts about Isaac Titsingh


 

Isaac Titsingh was a Dutch diplomat, historian, Japanologist, and merchant who was born in 1745 and died in 1812 aged 68 years.

Titsingh was a senior official of the Dutch East India Company which in Dutch was Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or “VOC” in short and was based mainly in East Asia for a long time.

He represented VOC in exclusive official contact with Tokugawa of Japan, traveling to Edo twice for audiences with the shogun.

He served as the governor general of VOC and represented the Dutch in Chinsura, Bengal in South Asia.

The top 10 facts about Isaac Titsingh include the following.

1. Titsingh Was Born in A Well-to-do Family and Was Educated in Amsterdam

Amstelkerk. Photo by Aerovisio / Ronald Abelskamp. Wikimedia Commons

Isaac Titsingh was born to Albertus Titsingh and his second wife, Catharina Bittner in Amsterdam in 1745. On 21 January 1745 he was baptized at the Amstelkerk in Amsterdam.

His family was well-to-do as his father was a successful and prominent surgeon in Amsterdam.

His father therefore had the wherewithal to bring up Titsingh with the “enlightened education” available in 18th century in Amsterdam.

Titsingh studied medicine and also obtained a Doctorate of Law from Leiden University in January 1765.

He became a member of the Amsterdam Chirurgijngilde or Barber surgeon’s guild.

2. Titsingh Was VOC ‘s Chief Factor at Dejima In Japan

Dejima 1775. Photo by Fg2. Wikimedia Commons

Titsingh embarked on a VOC career in Batavia in 1766 after his appointment as a freeman. He worked his way up to Second Administrator of the Granary in the company by 1773.

The VOC subsequently appointed him the commercial opperhoofd or Chief factor at Dejima, Japan, which the Tokugawa shoguns had ruled for almost two centuries in 1779.

The VOC sent Titsingh to the Dutch factory at Chinsura, India, in 1785, where he spent seven years after spending four one-year terms in Japan.

The trading post at Dejima was intermittently headed by Titsingh as 1780 to 1794.

3. Titsingh Was the First Freemason and Only European Allowed to Enter Japan During Sakoku

The most singular importance of the commercial opperhoofd, or chief factor and hence the head of the VOC in Japan during the late 1700’s was in relation to the Japanese policy of Sakoku.

Sakoku was an isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate which lasted for a period of 265 years during the Edo period as from 1603 to 1868.

Under Sakoku, relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited.

Common Japanese people were kept from leaving the country and nearly all foreign nationals were banned from entering Japan with death penalty for contravention imposed.

The policy was a reaction to religious proselytizing by Europeans during the 16th century.

The sole exception to Sakoku was the VOC’s factory or trading post on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay in Kyushu, Japan.

4. Titsingh Headed the Trading Station Which Was the Sole Conduit for Trade

Shogun-Tokugawa-Ieyasu. Photo by Utagawa Yoshitora (1836–1880) . Wikimedia Commons

The sole official conduit for trade and for scientific-cultural exchanges between Europe and Japan during Sakoku was the traders at Dejima under the trading post.

The shogun accorded the VOC’s Chief factor or opperhoofd the status of a tributary. Titsingh had to pay an obligatory annual visit of homage to the Shogun-Tokugawa-Ieyasu in Edo twice.

Titsingh’s informal contacts with bakufu officials of Rangaku scholars in Edo were as important as his formal audiences with the shogun given the scarcity of such opportunities.

5. Titsingh Established Cordial Relationship with The Japanese

Tsoe bosi. Photo by PHGCOM. Wikimedia Commons

There was a marked improvement of the social position of the Dutch merchants and the treatment of the Dutch vis-à-vis the Japanese during the 18th century than in other centuries in the past.

In the past the average VOC’s opperhoofd was not interested in Japanese customs or culture.

However, Titsingh showed incredible interest and distinguished himself as an attentive observer of Japanese civilization when compared to his colleagues in Dejima in the past.

He established cordial and amicable relations between the Dutch merchants and the Japanese. He was   given a present “Tsoe bosi” an acupuncture mannequin which he brought to Paris. 

Before his arrival there had been constant fights over trade issues and a deep hostility between the Japanese and Dutch merchants.

6. Titsingh Was Appointed Director of The Trading Post at Chinsurah

Titsingh was appointed director of the trading post at Chinsurah in Bengal in 1785 and worked there for 7 years.

He was described, as “the Mandarin of Chinsura” by philologist and Bengal jurist William Jones.

He returned to Batavia in 1792 and was appointed as the treasurer and later as the Maritime commissioner of VOC.

7. Titsingh Was Appointed the Dutch Ambassador to China In 1794

During the sixtieth anniversary of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor in China, Titsingh was appointed Dutch ambassador to the court of the Emperor.

 Titsingh delegation to the embassy included Andreas Everardus van BraamHouckgeest and Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes.

The complementary accounts of this embassy to the Chinese court were published in Europe as well as in the United States of America.

8. Titsingh Was the First Freemason to Be Received by the Qianlong Emperor

Titsingh undertook a grueling mid-winter trek from Canton to Peking now Beijing. The trek enabled him to see parts of inland China which no other European before him had accessed.

His party arrived in Peking in time for New Year’s celebrations and his delegation were received with uncommon respect and honors .

Titsingh is believed to be the only Freemason from Europe received at the court of the Qianlong Emperor and also the first Freemason in China.

9. Titsingh Compiled Translations of Japanese Texts in His Sunset Years

Titsingh came to London, and then settled in Paris where he devoted himself to compiling translations of prime Japanese texts after many years in Java, India and China.

The texts revealed the almost unknown world of eighteenth-century Japan, discussing politics, history, poetry and rituals.

That work was one of the most exciting anthologies of the period.

In 1821-1822, Titsingh’s Illustrations of Japan appeared in English, French and Dutch posthumously.

10. Titsingh Was the Only Philosopher Employed by the VOC

Titsingh can be described as being the only philosopher employed by the VOC in its almost two hundred years of existence.

In the trading post history of the VOC in Japan as from 1600 to1853, he was the most sophisticated of all VOC employees.

He can be considered as a true philosopher of the 18th century, due to his extensive private correspondence on religious as well as human topics.

His endeavors in the exchanges between the outside world and his own also give further proof.

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