SieboldHuis

Door marker at the SieboldHuis Museum.

The second place I stopped in Leiden was at the SieboldHuis museum.  Philip Franz von Siebold was a German physician who, during the 19th century, served as a Dutch liason and diplomat, in Japan.  He was chosen because of his exemplary service in the Dutch East India Company.  Since Japan had just barely begun to open up to western visitors, and only to Dutch traders at that, Siebold had an unprecidented opportunity to study Japan and its plants and animals.  While he was in Japan he had a Japenese "wife".  Westerners were not allowed to marry Japanese citizens but, apparently, were allowed to live with them.  Seibold named a variety of hydrangea after his Japanese wife (there was a dried specimen of this hydrangea at the museum but hydrangeas are not one of the kinds of flowers that dries well) and his daughter became the first female Japanese doctor (at least according to Dutch Wikipedia).


Siebold got kicked out of Japan during "the Siebold Affair." (It is always bad when international relations disasters get named after you.)  Apparently, among other things, Siebold collected Japanese maps, which it was illegal for Westerners to own because of the Japanese fear of spying.  The contraband was found when servants were unpacking Siebold's luggage, which he had had sent ahead of him on a trip somewhere.  I wasn't sure if he knew he shouldn't have the maps and it was just one of those little flukes that he got caught or if he was really unaware and wasn't secretive because he wasn't worried.  The Museum plaques did not elaborate on that.  Siebold was accused of spying for the Russians, placed under house arrested and ordered to inform on the folks who had drawn the maps for him.  He refused (and apparently the Japanese thought this was honorable) and he was eventually sent home to the Netherlands.  The Japanese have not held a grudge, though.  One of the exhibits on display was a special vase that the president (I think) of Japan and his wife brought over when they visited the museum in 2000.

Bust of Siebold in the small garden at
the SieboldHuis museum.

The museum is eclectic.  Siebold's faithful dog is there, all stuffed.  It is not an attractive looking animal.  There are other stuffed animal specimens as well, including some birds that are now extinct.  Also, there are several jars of poisonous-looking snakes in alcohol.  There is a room full of weapons and armor and toys.  There is, ironically enough, a map room, full of old Japanese maps--I don't know if Siebold had managed to hang on to some of these when he was kicked out or if they were just obtained later, once it was permitted, but they are super detailed, with important cultural monuments written out in red on a predominantly black ink map and they are all hand drawn.  They were pretty incredible.  The map room has a large file with lots of wide shallow drawers that you can pull out, so there is a lot of stuff available to look at.  There are also some very pretty drawings and things in that room.

There was also another series of rooms that wasn't actually part of the museum but which you were allowed to look at.  Part of one of the floors was used by an art dealer who sells Japanese art work.  He lent me a catalog to look through so that I could see the provenance and date and price of the different pieces.  There were some really beautiful paintings and they were all incredibly expensive.  I guess that, when you go to a museum, you figure that there is valuable stuff there and you should be careful but when you actually see that many zeros next to something you really try not to even breath hard next to them.

What the really big draw is, right now, is the Hello Kitty exhibit.  The whole top floor of the museum, and all of the hall ways, and the gift shop, and the tea room, and the kids play area downstairs were all done up in pink Hello Kitty stuff.  Actually, Hello Kitty is pretty cute with her little Dutch flag bow and her little Dutch bonnet.  But it was still an awful lot of pink.

If you look here, you can see the English language homepage for the Siebold House which includes a lot of Hello Kitty.  The museum had a lot of stuff set up for kids.  There were little activity areas including one little table with hello kitty stools and little chopsticks and little fake sushis so that little kids could practice their chopstick skills





The evidence of the Japanese influence on the Netherlands isn't limited just to the museum.  This fountain in front of the Leiden Stadhuis (City Hall) has a very Japanese flavor to it, what with the dragons/fish and the tiling.












There is also a section of the large Botanical Garden maintained by the University of Leiden which is maintained with Japanese plants in a Japenese style called the Von Siebold Memorial Garden.

Even the walls that surround that part of the garden look like they have a Japanese influence.  I think that the light bulbs are supposed to create a "lantern" feel but I guess they needed something that would stand up to a little wind.