Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716) and his observations on Japan: a study of its impact and influence in Spain during the Enlightenment

Abstract

Despite the isolationist measures decreed by the Japanese government during the first decades of the 17th century, some Dutch East India Company workers were allowed to visit the archipelago during the Edo period. One of the most famous was the German physician Engelbert Kaempfer, author of The History of Japan, one of the most significant and popular European descriptions of Japan published during the Early Modern Period. This title was of great importance on Western writers and was an important reference for anyone interested in the Land of the Rising Sun. But beyond that, it was also a very relevant reference for different authors of the French, English, and German Enlightenment. This paper aims to study the influence that the German doctor’s descriptions may also have had in our country during the Enlightenment, a task that has not been tackled until now.