let's get into it
Ine Kusumoto, date unknown.
this is Ine Kusumoto.
she was the first female doctor in Japan, an anomaly and a phenomenon, and i'm obsessed with her. i want to tell you her story, but i can't tell you about Ine without telling you about Siebold first.
Philipp Franz von Siebold.
this is Siebold.
full name Philipp Franz von Siebold, he was born in Germany in 1796. he spent his youth studying botany and medicine, serving as an army medic in his twenties. he's a talented doctor, and he's also put a few extra points into charisma - he soon charms (and sometimes lies) his way from Germany to Indonesia to Japan.
when we meet up with him, it's 1823, he's 27, and we're on Dejima.
Dejima island, by Keiga Kawahara.
this is Dejima.
it's a manmade island in Nagasaki harbor, connected to the main city by a single guarded bridge. it's also a trading post - perhaps the most exclusive one in the world. for almost 200 years, the isolationist Japanese government have allowed foreign trade from only two groups: the Chinese and the Dutch. (Siebold is, in fact, German, but he's pretending to be Dutch to keep himself out of trouble.) Nagasaki harbor is the only place these trade ships are allowed, and Dejima island is the closest any foreigner can get to being on Japanese soil.
by the 1820s, Japanese curiosity about western science and medicine had grown, and a handful scientists were allowed to join the small Dutch staff who manned the trading post year-round. cross-cultural contamination was closely guarded against, but scientific advancements could be cautiously shared along with lucrative trade goods. Siebold, with his medical background and academic talent, had been handpicked to continue botanical studies of Japanese flora while also serving as resident Dejima physician.
Siebold gets to work.
Siebold existed at the intersection of charm, bullishness, and genuine talent, so it did not take long for the rules to start bending. after helping influential patients on Dejima, he was allowed to make supervised visits to the mainland to treat sick townsfolk. Japanese researchers were fascinated with "Dutch learning" and Siebold soon earned himself an entourage of Japanese students. from these students and the people he doctored, he started amassing a collection of fascinating gifts and trinkets from a Western scientific perspective. he received many botanical specimens after the word spread that he loved plants, and he began tending a little garden on Dejima to study these formerly unknown Japanese flora.
Taki Kusumoto, Ine's mother.
this is Taki Kusumoto.
it's hard to sum up Taki's story in just a few words. she's been referenced often as an orandayuki yujo - that is, a Dutch-going prostitute. these companions were the only common folk allowed to visit or even live on Dejima. Taki lived with Siebold as a prostitute in name, if nothing else, but given that Siebold was terrified of catching syphilis and specifically requested a virgin, Taki may not have been one in practice. they met when Taki was 16 and Siebold is 27. these are Ine's parents, though she would not be born for another four years, in 1827.
Siebold looks through a telescope, accompanied by his family. Taki is in blue and baby Ine is on her back.
the many crimes of Philipp Siebold.
the incident.
what became of Ine.
the education of Ine Kusumoto.
Soken's betrayal.
Siebold's return.
Ine's career.
Tada and Shuzo.
conclusion
Nagasaki as depicted in Siebold's Nippon.