Rangaku (蘭学) or Dutch Learning was the method by which Japan kept abreast of Westerntechnology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641-1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of national isolation (sakoku).
The Dutch traders at Dejima in Nagasaki were the only foreigners tolerated during the period, and their movements were carefully watched and strictly controlled.
Rangaku became obsolete when Japan opened up in the Bakumatsu period, 1853-1867. Students were sent abroad, and foreign employees (o-yatoi gaikokujin) came to Japan to teach and advise in large numbers, leading to an unprecedentedly rapid modernization of the country.
Through Rangaku Japan learnt many aspects of the scientific and technological revolution occurring in Europe at that time, helping the country build up the beginnings of a theoretical and technological scientific base, which help explain Japan's success in her radical and speedy modernization following the opening of the country to foreign trade in 1854.
In a rather rare case of "reverse Rangaku", a 1803 treatise on the raising of silk worms and manufacture of silk "Secret treatise on the silk worm" (養蚕秘録) was even brought to Europe by Siebold and translated into French and Italian in 1848, contributing to the development of the silk industry in Europe.
As these Rangaku scholars usually took a pro-Western stance, in line with the policy of the Bakufu, but against anti-foreign imperialistic movements, several were assassinated, such as Sakuma Shozan in 1864 or Sakamoto Ryoma in 1867.
Rangaku (蘭学) or Dutch Learning was the method by which Japan kept abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641-1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of national isolation (sakoku).
The Dutch traders at Dejima in Nagasaki were the only foreigners tolerated during the period, and their movements were carefully watched and strictly controlled.
Rangaku became obsolete when Japan opened up in the Bakumatsu period, 1853-1867.
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