Engelbert Kaempfer Art

Engelbert Kaempfer was a German physician and naturalist. He had been working in Japan as a physician for the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie in Nagasaki from 1690–92. During his stay, he visited Edo twice, being received by the Shoguns, part of the local head of the Compagnie. He then took many important pieces of information about Japan, making sketches of plants, buildings, manufactures, etc., which would have been then used as a model for the engravings of the book. After his return to Europe, he devoted much of his time to writing accounts about his traveling experiences. Since Kaempfer died in 1716, the manuscript of the History of Japan was acquired by Sir Hans Sloane and translated by his librarian Johann Caspar Scheuchzer, who then became also the publisher of the English editions of the book in 1727 and 1728 (this second release is the first complete of a Second Appendix, as described above). The success of the book, which first introduced European audiences to the real history, culture and physical description of Japan, allowed the release of a Dutch (1729–1733) and a French (1733) edition and later of a shorter German edition (1779).