VI. RYŌTAKU MAENO

Here is a friend of mine, Ryōtaku Maeno, an official physician of the Feudal Lord of Nakatsu.  He lost his parents when he was very young, and was brought up by Zentaku Miyata, his uncle, who was an official doctor of the Feudal Lord Yodo.  This Zentaku was a learned man, but he was somewhat different from ordinary persons, being eccentric in taste.  In educating Ryōtaku also, he was very singular.  He told Ryōtaku to cultivate himself in an art or skill which appeared to be going out of vogue or take up an accomplishment which people no longer paid attention to, and to keep on fostering it so that the world would be benefited by it.

Ryōtaku himself was also of an unusual character by nature.  He did not act contrary to Zentaku's instructions.  His profession was medicine, faithfully pursuing Tōdō Yoshimasu's School.  In polite accomplishments, he studied hitoyogiri (a kind of bamboo-flute) which was out of vogue, and mastered it thoroughly to the extent that he was initiated into its mysteries.  Another strange doing of his was that he trained himself in the Noh style of comedy of Saruwaka School.

Being disposed like this to look for something unusual, he naturally became interested in studying the Dutch language and learned those letters written sideqays and some words under the tutelage of Aoki.  In the Notes on Dutch Translation (Rangaku-sen) published by Ryōtaku later, there is an account as follows: - Many years previously, Kōō Saka, a recluse of the same clan as his, showed him some fragments of a Dutch book and asked him if they would be comprehensible to the human mind.  Ryōtaku took them home and pondered over them earnestly: "These are of a different country and of a different language, but why should it be impossible for me to understand them since they were written by a human being the same as I!"  He resolved to try, but there was not even a clue to understanding them.

By change, however, he was informed of Aoki's being well informed in Dutch language, so he became his pupil.  Aoki kindly furnished him with some books of his own publication including An Abridged Monograph on Dutch Words (Oranda-moji Ryakukō).  It is reported that Ryōtaku worked very hard to be worthy of his teacher's encouraging guidance, and acquired exhaustively every bit of Aoki's knowledge in Dutch language.

This Ryōtaku's encounter with Aoki is said to have taken place after the latter returned to Edo from Nagasaki.  IT seems that Aoki went to Nagasaki about the Enkyō Era (1744-1748), and that Ryōtaku became his pupil about the end of Hōreki Era (1751-1764), or the beginning of Meiwa Era (1764-1772) when he was a little over 40.  At any rate, he was the first commoner Japanese - not in any official position though he was a doctor - who studied the Dutch language in earnest.

Dr. Ogata's note: Ryōtaku Maeno was born in 1723 and died on the 17th of October, 1803 in Edo at the age of 81

VII. SUPPRESSION OF THE STORY OF THE THINGS DUTCH. THE DUTCH ALPHABET.

In those days, however, the ordinary persons carefully refrained from playing with Dutch alphabet letters or words.  For example, Rishun Gotō, a well-known herbalist, published a small and non-academic book titled Story of the Things Dutch (Orandabanashi), in which the 25 Dutch alphabet letters were printed.  He was subjected to a severe censure concerning those Dutch letters, and the book was suppressed.

Some time later than this affair, there lived in Kōjimachi, Edo, a person by the name of Kiseki Yasutomi, an official doctor of Feudal Lord Yamagata.  He learned the 25 Dutch letters in Nagasaki and came home with a table of the Japanese syllabary written in them.  He was proud of it, and gave out as though he could read Dutch books too.  He struck me as a singular person.  Jun-an Nakagawa of the same clan as mine lived at Kōjimachi; he was initiated into the Dutch letters by Yasutomi.

VIII. RYŌTAKU AND I. SENIOR INTERPRETER ZENZABURŌ NISHI. DUTCH LANGUAGE.

I was not aware that Ryōtaku was interested in things Dutch until one day - it was so very long ago that I do not recall the date, but some time in early Meiwa - when as was the custom, the Dutchmen were in Edo to pay their annual homage to the Shōgun, Ryōtaku came to call on me.  I asked him where he was going.  He answered that he was going to the hotel where Dutchmen were staying and see an interpreter there so that he might learn something of Holland and her language.  I was then young and full of vigor, easily tempted by anything that came my way.  "Wouldn't you take me along? I want to meen an interpreter too," I said.  Ryōtaku was more than glad to aid me, and I accompanied him to the hotel.

Senior translator Zenzaburō Nishi was there.  I was introduced to him through Ryōtaku, and expressed my desire to study Dutch.  Zenzaburō's answer was very discouraging, saying that it was very difficult to learn and understand Dutch.  "Take, for example," he said, "Suppose you want to know the word for 'drinking water or wine,' in the beginning you will have to resort to signs, say, hold a tea cup, make the act of pouring something in it, touch it with your mouth and gesticulate what word you should use to express the act.  Then with a nod he would say 'drink.'  You have to go through this whole process just to know the word 'drink.'  Again, suppose you want to ask a man if he is wet or dry; that is, about his drinking.  There is no way of asking it by signs.  You might try simulating drinking much or little.  The trouble is, however, that a person may drink much, but he may not particularly like it, while another may drink very little, and still he may appreciate it very much.  Things like this are matter of mental mood, and there is no way of showing the distinction.

"Now, the word 'like' is 'aantrekken' in Dutch.  I was born in an interpreter's family and have been familiar with translation since my childhood, but remained without knowing the true sense of this word.  Only recently, that is, after I have lived fifty years of my life, it flashed across my mind while traveling with the Dutchmen on this trip to Edo.

The word 'aan' primarily means 'yonder,' while 'trekken' means 'draw.'  So, 'aantrekken' means 'draw nearer something which is yonder.'  Thus a man who likes drinking is one who feels like drawing wine nearer, in other words, he likes wine.  This word is also used to convey the idea of pining for home; it expresses the sentiment of wanting to bring one's home nearer.  Digging at Dutch language costs you much trouble to this extent.  Even for a man like me who is constantly in touch with the Dutch, it is by no means an easy thing to understand them.  Needless to say, it will be impossible for a person like you to learn it while staying in Edo all the time.  The scholars like Mr. Noro and Mr. Aoki come to our hotel every year and make assiduous efforts, but they have a hard time making progress at all.  So, I rather advise you not to attempt it."

I don't know how Ryōtaku took the interpreter's words.  Being rather impatient by nature, I accepted them right there, considering that I had no perseverance to accomplish such a hard study, I would not waste time burdening myself with such a troublesome job.  Deprived of my interest in Dutch learning, I meekly returned home.

Note: Dr. Ogata conjectures it was 1766 (the 3rd year of Meiwa) from the records of Nishi's visit to Edo

IX. DUTCH TREASURES.

About this time, people somehow began to be enamored of anything Dutch.  They would treasure imported vessels and other curious things.  A dilettante, if worthy of the title, never failed to have a collection, large or small, of Dutch things.

Especially this was the time when Okitsugu Tanuma (formerly Feudal Lord Sagara) had the control of the government as a powerful councilor to the Shōgun, and the people were extravagent and gay, many things such as weerglas (barometer), thermometer, donderglas (Leyden jar), vochmeter (hydrometer), donkerkamer (camera obscura), toover lantaren (magic lantern), zonglas (sunglass), roeper (megaphone) were brought over on board Dutch ships besides all sorts of timepieces, telescopes, glass handiworks, and numerous other objects.  People wondered at their delicate workmanship and the subtlety of their mechanism.  People swarmed every spring around the hotel where the Dutch party was staying.

X. JANS CRANS AND GEORGE RUDOLF BAUER. I BECAME A PUPIL OF SENIOR INTERPRETER KŌZAEMON YOSHIO, OBSERVED VENESECTION, AND COPED LAURENS HEISTER'S HEELKUNDIGE ONDERWYZINGEN, OTHERWISE CALLED CHIRURGIJN.

I have forgotten the exact date when whis happened.  It was around 1767 or 1768 (the 4th or the 5th year of Meiwa Era) that Jan Crans, Capitan, and George Rudolf Bauer, a surgeon, came to Edo.  Crans was a man of wide knowledge and Bauer was very skillful in surgical operations.

Senior interpreter Kōzaemon Yoshio (called Kōsaku later, his pseudonym being Kōgyō) was trained in surgery mainly under Bauer's guidance.  Kōzaemon was noted for his excellent surgery.  Many people came to Nagasaki from even as far as the western and central parts of Japan to study under him.

When Crans and Bauer came to Edo, Kōzaemon was in their company to act as interpreter.  Being informed of his talent, I immediately became his pupil and visited him at his hotel every day.  One day I watched Bauer examine Genpaku Kawahara, a medical student, and treat gangrene of his tongue.  Also, I observed him practice venesection.  He performed it perfectly to our great admiration.  Estimating beforehand the distance which blood would spout, he placed a vessel rather far to receive it.  And the blood gushed out right to that spot.  This was the first venesection ever held in Edo.

I was young and vigorous then, as I mentioned before, and visited them without missing a single day.  One day, Kōzaemon showed me a strange book, telling me that it was the Heelkundige Onderqyzingen by Laurens Heister.  He went on to say that the book was imported into Japan for the first time the year before.  "I was so anxious to have it that I offered twenty barrels of Sakai sake (Japanese wine of superior quality produced in Sakai) in exchange for it," he said.

Needless to say, I could not read the book, not a word or a line.  But the illustrations of the book looked markedly different from those in Japanese or Chinese books.  Just viewing their exquisite precision, I felt as though being enlightened.  So, I borrowed the book for some time as I wanted to copy the pictures at least.  Working day and night, often sitting up all night long till the cocks crowed, I finished the task so as to return it before his departure.