Prisoners from Nambu: Reality and Make-Believe in 17th-Century Japanese Diplomacy

A Note on Titles and Name

A Note on Titles and Names TITLES On numerous occasions I have quoted directly from Dutch and Japanese sources. In the Dutch texts, the shogun is referred to as Japan’s “emperor” (keizer). This was not, as is often thought, because the Dutch were ignorant of the existence of the demi-god living in Kyoto (he is called “dairi” in the Dutch sources), but because they were translating from the Portuguese used by the interpreters. The latter used the term “imperador” (lit., “he who commands”), which accurately conveys the shogun’s function in Japan. I have not changed this usage in my direct quotations, but refer in the main text only to the shogun. Similarly I have distinguished between castles and the Castle in Japan. The latter designation (with a capital C) always refers to the shogun’s abode, Chiyoda Castle in the center of Edo. Japanese sources refer to the Dutch opperhoofd (chief factor) by the word “kapitan,” also derived from Portuguese. To preserve some of this flavor I have retained this spelling in my translations of Japanese sources, and even substituted this word in some of the translations of Dutch sources whenever I came upon a direct address by a Japanese official to the chief factor. NAMES As with the spelling of all words, names were not standardized in the seventeenth-century Dutch sources. Often, we find the record keepers xii A Note on Titles and Names of the Dutch East India Company using idiosyncratic spellings for their own names. For example, whereas we find the surname Bijlevelt in the Alkmaar Municipal Archive, the Junior Merchant of that name signed himself always as Wilhem Bijlvelt. Governor General Anthonie Van Diemen “iberialized” his given name to Antonio, as did the merchant Anthonie Van Brouckhorst. I have chosen to unify the spelling of all the Dutch names taking the person’s autograph signature as my standard. A Note on Titles and Names xiii ...