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Paper short abstract:

What is the significance of the collection of Japanese artifacts made by William Bramsen (1850-1881) of Copenhagen during a residence in Japan of nine years and preserved in the National Museum of Denmark? Why did he focus on coins and why is he worth remembering now as a pioneering Japanologist?

Paper long abstract:

During his short life-time, William Bramsen (1850-1881), a Dane who lived in Japan from 1871 to 1880, collected over 1200 Japanese coins and amassed a collection of books and manuscripts relating to the numismatic history of Japan. In addition, he engaged in vigorous debate with Ernest Satow and others in the Asiatic Society of Japan, and in the English-language press of Japan, on the romanization of Japanese and other matters and he published meticulously researched contributions to the study of Japanese coinage, chronology, and weights and measures. Thanks to the recent discovery of his papers, which are preserved along with his books and manuscripts at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, it is now possible to trace the origins and growth of his collection of old Japanese coins and his attempts to extend his knowledge through association with the leading numismatists in Japan at the time. Like Engelbert Kaempfer, Isaac Titsingh, Carl Peter Thunberg and Philipp Franz von Siebold during the Edo period, he saw the long history of the usage of coins in Japan, which goes back to the Nara period, as valuable evidence of economic activity and technological progress, but he took his studies much further than any of them. Amongst his papers are the plans for the book he was planning to write and details of the illustrations he wanted to include.

In 1880 he moved to London, for in 1875 he had joined the fledgling Mitsubishi company and in recognition of his talents Mitsubishi decided to send him and a Japanese colleague to the Middle Temple to obtain qualifications in law. In November 1881 he gave a paper at the Royal Numismatical Society but shortly thereafter he died of peritonitis. Had he lived, his name would surely be as familiar to us as that of Satow. In this paper we will assess the full range of his contributions to the study of Japan in the 1870s and explore the intellectual underpinnings of his researches.