1 Willman, Olof Eriksson, Een kort Beskriffningh På een Reesa till Ostindien och förbeskreffne Japan Then een Swänsk Mann och SkepsCapiteen Oloff Erichsson Willman benembdh giordt hafwer (Visingsborg, 1667) 229. Hereafter referred to as Reesa till Ostindien. In my English translation of Willman's text I have tried to preserve some of its original flavour by adhering fairly closely to his syntax as well as retaining his varying spelling of foreign names. Joan Bochelijon later returned toJapan three times, as head of the Dutch Factory at Deshima, in 1655–1656, 1657–1658, and 1659–1660Google Scholar. See Michel, Wolfgang, ‘Zacharias Wagner und Japan (I) - Ein Auszug aus dem Journal des “Donnermanns”-’, Doku-Futsu Bungaku Kenkyu Heft 37 (1987) 94–95. The old Swedish mile was 36,000 feet, i.e. 10,688.5 metresGoogle Scholar

2 Reesa, till Ostindien, 185Google Scholar

3 His father's original name was Erik Mansson, from Björksta in the province of Västman-land. Clergy and commoners holding public office customarily Latinised their names in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Sweden. According to the register containing the personal histories of the diocesan clergy Ericus Magni held the office of Rector from 1614 to 1654. He was ‘on record as a careless and useless clergyman, who neglected his work because of his care for victuals and hard agricultural labour, so that the people forgot the catechism, of which he himself also had scant knowledge’, and was dismissed for reasons of age and infirmity. Westerås Stiffs Herdaminne III (edited by Muncktell, Joh. Fr., Upsala 1846) 200Google Scholar

4 The standard monthly wage in the Dutch East India Company was nine guilders during the nearly two centuries of the VOC's existence. See Boxer, Charles, Jan Compagnie in War and Peace, 1602-1799 (Hong Kong 1979) preface. Willman joined as ‘Adelsburst’, i.e. Adelborst, the second lowest rank, comparable to that of ensign, at a slightly higher wage. As Willman himself pointed out, all dates in his travel diary were given according t o the Gregorian calendar used by the Dutch. Sweden retained the ‘old style’ Julian calendar unti l 1753Google Scholar

5 Reesa till Ostindien, 198

6 Ibid., 200

7 One of the few Swedes whom Willman mentioned by name was Fredrik Coyet, ‘Friederic Cojet’, the last Governor of Formosa, who in 1662 had the bitter task of surrendering Fort Zeelandia to the infamous pirate Koxinga (Chêng Ch'eng-kung). His grandfather, Julius Coyet, a Protestant goldsmidi from Brabant, had fled the religious persecutions of the 1550s and settled in Sweden, where the family prospered. Fredrik Coyet and his brother Peter were ennobled in 1649, when Fredrik had already spent some years as a merchant in Batavia, where he met and married the sister of François Caron's wife. Coyet was twice head of the Factory at Deshima, in 1647-1648 and 1652-1653, before going to Formosa. Willman also mentioned ‘Johan Schedler’, Juriaen Schedel, ‘later Artillery Major here in Stockholm’, an expert on grenades and other explosives attached to the Dutch Embassy to Edo in 1649-1650 headed by Andreas Frisius. While serving in the fortress Friesland Willman became acquainted with another countryman, the later ship's captain Berg, Johan Olofson, ‘when he served in India as a Boatswain’. Op. cit., 199Google Scholar

8 Forsell, Arne, ‘Till historien om Nils Mattsson Kiöping och Olof Eriksson Willmans reseskildringar’, Festskrift till Herbert Jacobsson (1948) 49–51Google Scholar.

9 Caron's book was first published in 1645. The resounding full title of Willman's work begins: Nu fölier een kort Berattelse om Kongarijketjapan, Thess Keysarn och Regemente […] and may be translated: Now follows a brief Account of the Kingdom of Japan, Its Emperor and Regiment, also what Time and how long the Portuguese have traded there and are finally expelled. And also how the Dutch have arrived there, pretending not to be Christians, like the Portuguese, in that they under such Pretence could drive out the Portuguese and Japanese Christians, Through which it happened that the King, or as they now call the Emperor of Jappon, has pitifully murdered and with the cruellest unheard of Pains and Martyrdom entirely exterminated all Portuguese and Catholic Christian Japanese, to some Hundred Thousand Men, Women and Children, who did not want to deny Christ but who remained firm in the Faith and just Martyrs, Described by Oloff Willman, His Royal Majesty's in Sweden Ship's Captain, Printed at Wiisingsborgh byjohann Kankel, Anno 1667. Hereafter referred to as ‘Kongarijket Japan’

10 The full tide in translation is: Hereupon follows a brief Description of a Journey to East India and previously described Japan, Which a Swedish Man and Ship's Captain Called Oloff Erichsson Willman has made. Printed at Wijsingsborgh byjohann Kankel, In the Year after the Birth of Christ MDCLXVII

11 Stockholms Stadsarkiv (Stockholm City Archive), BOU 1675, 387, ff

12 Västerås Stifts Herdaninne II/1, 1600-talet (edited by Västeras, Gunnar Ekström 1971) 268Google Scholar.

13 Västerås Stifts Herdaminne III (edited by Muncktell, Joh. Fr., Uppsala 1846) 200. The Swedish verb ‘villa’, and adjectives derived from it, e.g. ‘vilsen’, ‘villande’, means ‘go astray’, ‘get lost’, ‘lose one's bearings’, etcGoogle Scholar

14 Reesa till Ostindien, 210

15 Ibid., 217

16 Ibid., 219. For a discussion of tooth-blackening, see Blomberg, Catharina, ‘“A Strange White Smile”: A Survey of Tooth-Blackening and Other Dental Practices in Japan’, Japan Forum 2/2 (10 1990) 243–251CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Reesa till Ostindien, 210

18 Ibid., 215-216. The gold coin called koban was indeed elliptical in shape. The Swedish ‘daler’ is derived from the German ‘Thaler’. The ‘young Japanese’ who poured the sake was in fact a woman, henc e the appellation nesan, ‘older sister’, in Willman's time the usual manner of addressing the female staff of a Japanese inn. The task of serving sake o t the namban, ‘foreign barbarians’, may have been performed by a very junio r waitress, otherwise it is difficult to understand why Willman should have mistaken her for a boy.

19 Ibid., 210. For a reference to Nishi Kichibe see Michel, Wolfgang, ‘Caspar Schambergers Reisen nach Edo’, Doku-Futsu Bungaku Kenkyu 42, (1992) 23. Concerning the punishments for Christians in Japan seeGoogle ScholarBoxer, Charles, The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650 (Cambridge University Press 1951) 341Google Scholar

20 ‘Kongarijket Japan’, 140

21 Reesa till Ostindien, 234-235

22 According to the Kirishito-ki, a confidential memorandum drawn up by the Kirishitan-bugyō, Inoue Chikugo no kami Masashige, for his successor in 1658, two or three European missionaries were executed in the Kirishitan-yashiki in Edo between 1643 and 1658. Boxer, , The Christian Century, 392Google Scholar.

23 ‘Kongarijket Japan’, 160

24 Ibid., 166

25 Reesa till Ostindien, 208

26 Ibid., 209

27 Ibid., 214-215

28 Ibid., 214

29 Ibid., 221. The fact that the corpse had been left lying in the road reflects the Shinto abhorrence of pollution, e.g. through contact with illness or death

30 Ibid., 219

31 ‘Kongarijket Japan’, 166. In their exorcisms the yamabushi use Buddhist sutras as well as spells and incantations consisting of meaningless combinations of syllables

32 Starr, Frederick, ‘The Nosatsu Kai’, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan XLV/Pt.l (Tokyo 1917) 1–23Google Scholar.

33 Reesa till Ostindien, 221-222. Mount Fuji is one of the sacred places of the Shugendo school, and a popular goal for pilgrimages. Like other sacred spots inJapan it also attracts those intent on committing suicide, hence Willman's cryptic reference to human sacrifice

34 Ibid., 222

35 The suffix ‘donne’ was Willman's rendering of the honorific tono or dono, i.e. ‘his lordship’

36 Reesa till Ostindien, 234

37 Ibid., 226

38 Ibid., 226-227

39 Ibid., 227. ‘Bonsios’ is Willman's rendering of a term used by the Portuguese and the Dutch to denote the Japanese guards, Banshu, attached to the Deshima Factory as well as to the Nagasakiya, the official guest-house in Edo. The spelling of this word varied greatly, e.g. ‘Bongeois’, ‘Bonjois’, and in English it generally came to be written ‘Banjos’. See Michel, , ‘Caspar Schambergers’, 20, passimGoogle Scholar

40 Reesa till Ostindien, 227

41 For details about Padre Ferreira, see Boxer, , The Christian Century, 391–394. I am grateful to Dr Wolfgang Michel for his intriguing suggestion concerning the provenance of the volume shown to Willman, communicated in a private letter. I take the liberty of translating the famous Latin quotation from Terentianus Maurus thus: ‘According to the nature of the reader books also have their fates’Google Scholar

42 Reesa till Ostindim, 228

43 ‘Kongarijket Japan’, 160

44 Silk garments, especially kosode, were among the standard gifts in polite society at the time. The Tairö presided over the three or four members of the Röju, Senior Council, but was outranked by the Genrö, who was considered his senior

45 Reesa till Ostindien, 226. Willman's ‘Sam’ is the honorific suffix sama, which when used as a form of address would be equivalent to ‘sir’

46 Ibid., 221

47 One fathom was 6 feet, i.e. 1.80 metre. The present great hall (Hondo) is a reconstruction of the one destroyed in World War II

48 Reesa till Ostindien, 229-230. The ‘Turnery Box’ may have been a carved or fretwork wooden screen. An account of the excavations of the Zöjöji tombs is to be found in Suzuki, H., Yajima, K. and Yamanobe, T., Studies on the Graves, Coffin Contents and Skeletal Remains of the Tokugawa Shoguns and Their Families at the Zojoji Temple (in Japanese, University of Tokyo Press 1967)Google Scholar

49 Ibid., 230. Many mediaeval churches in Sweden were built without towers and have a separate belfry, often a wooden construction

50 Ibid., 232. A Swedish span was 14.8 centimetres, as compared to the English span of 9 inches, i.e. 22.5 centimetres

51 Ibid., 231-232. The three large grave mounds at Old Upsala, some three kilometres from the modern city centre, date from the sixth century A.D. They are some sixty metres in circumference and about ten metres tall. This mention of Upsala may probably be ascribed to Willman's lingering feelings of pride in his former seat of learning

52 Ibid., 232-233

53 Ibid., 237

54 ‘Kongarijket Japan’, 182

55 Ibid., 156.