The Dutch Language in Japan (1600-1900). A Cultural and Sociolinguistic Study of Dutch as a Contact Language in Tokugawa and Meiji Japan

Abstract

Our starting point is the authoritative judgement by Marius B. Jansen, Professor Emeritus of Japanese History at Princeton University, in his The Making of Modern Japan: ‘The story of the struggle of Japanese to learn more about the West from the Dutch is one of the most extraordinary chapters in cultural exchange in world history.’ (Jansen 2000, 211). It is this story of Rangaku (Dutch Studies in Japan) which is the central topic of Christopher Joby’s masterful new book, published in January by Brill: The Dutch Language in Japan (1600–1900). A Cultural and Sociolinguistic Study of Dutch as a Contact Language in Tokugawa and Meiji Japan. After his PhD in History from Durham University in 2006, Joby in 2014 and 2015 produced two solid monographs on language contact and cultural connections between the Dutch and the English in the 17