Revisiting Siebold's Japan Museum

German physicist, botanist and adventurer Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796–1866) is probably far better known in Japan than in his native country, and for good reason: he was both accused of treason by the Edo shogunate in what later became known as the 'Siebold Incident' (the good doctor possessed a suspicious collection of detailed maps of Japan, you see), and fathered Kusumoto Ine, the first Japanese woman to a receive a doctor's training. The National Museum of Japanese History out in Chiba's Sakura marks 150 years since Siebold's death with this extensive look at the multitudinous materials he collected in Japan and exhibited across Europe after being deported by the Edo government in 1829. Composed of items owned by the Five Continents Museum in Munich and Siebold's descendants, it offers a fascinating peek into the life and times of a man whose knowledge of and interest in Japanese affairs was unparalleled among his peers at a time when very few Westerners studied – and much less visited – the 'closed country'.