Titia Bergsma was a Dutch woman who visited Dejima

Dejima

was a small fan-shaped artificial island built in the bay of Nagasaki in 1634. This island, which was formed by digging a canal through a small peninsula, remained as the single place of direct trade and exchange between Japan and the outside world during the Edo period. Dejima was built to...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in August 1817 with her husband, Jan Cock Blomhoff

Jan Cock Blomhoff

Jan Cock Blomhoff was director of Dejima, the Dutch trading colony in the harbour of Nagasaki, Japan, 1817 - 1824, succeeding Hendrik Doeff....

.

Under the Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

's sakoku

Sakoku

was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...

policy Japan was extremely secluded. Only the Dutch and Chinese were allowed to visit the country, but for trade, and no women. The governor of Nagasaki allowed Titia to enter the island. Five weeks later when the shogun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

 Tokugawa Ienari

Tokugawa Ienari

Tokugawa Ienari; 徳川 家斉 was the eleventh and longest serving shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who held office from 1787 to 1837.-First wife:...

 came to know, he ordered that Titia, the wetnurse and a maid had to leave. In December the women went back to Batavia and Holland and Titia never saw her husband again.

In the meanwhile, Japanese painters and sculptors had made 500 images of Titia Bergsma. Her images had such popularity in Japan that they outsold all other prints in 19th century Japan. Images can be found all over Japan. There are companies which specialise entirely in Titia Bergsma images. It is said her face can be seen on four million pieces of Japanese porcelain.

A Japanese anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

has been made on the life of Titia.

External links

• http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/DVN/lemmata/data/BERGSMA1
• http://www.historischcentrumleeuwarden.nl/html/nl/1031/Titia_Bergsma_-_East_meets_west