Heinrich von Siebold

Heinrich ( Henry) Philipp von Siebold, from 1889 Freiherr von Siebold ( born July 21, 1852 in Boppard, † August 11, 1908 at Schloss Freudenstein in Appiano) led parts of the researches of his father and is next to Edward S. Morse as one of the founder of archeology in Japan.

Youth and trip to Japan

Heinrich von Siebold was after Alexander von Siebold (1846-1911), the second son of Japan and naturalist Philipp Franz von Siebold. He was born in Boppard on the Rhine and spent the youth in Bonn and Würzburg. When his brother, who had come in 1867 with a Japanese delegation to Europe, in 1869 again left for Japan, he decided to along on the trip. In Tokyo made ​​him the Austro-Hungarian embassy as a translator one, but without formal education remained Siebold the higher ranks of the diplomatic service life failed. More importantly, it was the completion of his father's work. The circumstances of the time facilitated the collection considerably. Japan experienced a violent upheaval. As a result of the strengthening of Shinto and its separation from Buddhism ( Shinbutsu - Bunri ) many temples were closed between the early 1870s, others fell for financial reasons. Buddhist paintings, sculptures, ritual objects, inter alia, were destroyed, thrown away or sold cheaply. Like many other foreigners also collected Heinrich von Siebold with care and expertise.

Archaeological research

In the footsteps of his father, he worked intensively with the prehistory and early history. In Vienna he met the English Urgeschichtler Jens Jacob Asmussen know Worsaae, in which he aneigenet the necessary expertise. The into the country caused by the Japanese government geologist Edmund Naumann made ​​Siebold on a beach line near the Ueno station in Tokyo, which, he should look a bit more detail.

As von Siebold took the 10-15 m thick shell deposits in inspection, appeared Edward Sylvester Morse, who worked as a lecturer in archeology at the young University of Tokyo, were up an excavation permit. However, since the middens lay on a plot of the Ministry of Finance presented the state railway, was allowed to von Siebold begin excavations. In this now-famous mollusk from Omori found by Siebold residential pits, pottery fragments and human bones.

Both opponents published their findings almost simultaneously and gave hard battles for the honor of the first discovery. Morse published his findings under the title "Shell mounts of Oomori " in the Memoirs of the Science Department of the University of Tokyo. Siebold closed his results in the journal " Notes on Japanese Archaeology" (1879 ). In 1879 also printed Japanese version Koko setsuryaku he coined the term kōkogaku (考古学, archeology).

Morse was of the opinion it was stated that the occupants of the housing pits around the remains of the Japanese indigenous people ( Ainu ) who had lived there as cannibals. The Japanese and Siebold resisted this view. Siebold pointed out that in the Ainu neither ceramic nor cannibalism occurred. In his view, the remains were from an ethnic group that lived there before the Ainu. In search of answers to this question, he made more trips and found in 1878 in Hokkaidō various ceramics. On the basis of 3000 and 1200 broken stone tools he distinguished three groups of forms:

Siebold's thesis that it is the Ainu to Caucasians, is, has been accepted by some well-known contemporaries such as the active at the Tokyo University internist and anthropologist Erwin Bälz.

Collector and patron

Since the Vienna World Exhibition of 1873, where he worked as an interpreter of the Japanese delegation, Siebold had excellent contacts with the Viennese museums. Since he was familiar with the Japanese market, he also acquired on behalf of German museums ethnographic objects in Japan. 1883 took place at the instigation had his first exhibition of his collection in Vienna, which he then tried to sell the Austrian State. After his offer was rejected, he left the Austrian Trade Museum a part of the exhibits as a gift. At the Vienna World Exposition 1873 Siebold learned, among other things the Grand Duke Carl Alexander (Sachsen -Weimar -Eisenach ), to whom he gave 242 Japanese and Chinese coins. In 1885 he sent another 820 objects after Weimar, the Grand Duke also incorporated his coin collection (now Oriental Coin Cabinet Jena).

From Siebold another two decades lived in Japan, where he mainly ran the buying and selling of objects. In 1888, he bequeathed 5,315 objects to the Natural History Court Museum in Vienna ( now the Museum of Ethnology ). In gratitude for this spectacular gift he was as Imperial and Royal Applicable Secretary of Legation in Tokyo on 11 April 1889 in Budapest in a baron and thus appointed to the Austrian citizen. The Baron diploma was issued on March 3, 1891 in Vienna.

Henry was in 1896 with his older brother Alexander on the occasion of the 100th birthday of her father whose work " Nippon - Archive of Japan" in a small format, supplemented in some places new edition out. Although lost the strongly reduced the spread, which never reached the parts sukkzessiv published edition. At the same time Henry turned on the premises of the former Katzenwicker court in Würzburg ( Maxstr. 4) " Japanese - Chinese Collection ", which was very well attended.

Marriage and late years

Due to illness he asked in 1899, only 46 years old, around the " time retirement". The year before, he had married Euphemia Carpenter, the widow of a British major. She bought the Freudenstein Castle in Appiano to Bolzano, where the two spent the last years of prosperity surrounded by a still rich collection. Heinrich von Siebold was still a sought-after consultant in issues concerning East Asia, and acted as guide and interpreter during visits from Japan and China.

On August 11, 1908, he died at Schloss Freudenstein, his widow followed him soon after. The collection was sold in March 1909 in Vienna at " Au Mikado " and " scattered to the winds ."

Writings

• Heinrich von Siebold: Something about the Tsutschi Ningio. Releases of the German Society for Nature and People of Eastern Asia, Volume I (1873-1876), No. 7, pp. 13-14.
• Heinrich von Siebold: The Harakiri. Releases of the German Society for Nature and People of Eastern Asia, Volume I (1873-1876), No. 10, pp. 26-28.
• Kito Teijiro ( trans. ) Heinrich Philipp Siebold: Keizai sōsho 2 Ōkurashō, Tōkyō 1878 (バロン·ヘンリー·フォン·シーボルト 述,鬼头 悌 次郎 訳(大 蔵 省 翻 訳 课), 「経 済 丛书 第2号」明治11年)
• Maeda, Toshiki ( trans. ) Heinrich Philipp Siebold: Rizai Yoshi 1 Ōkurashō, Tōkyō 1879 (バロン·ヘンリー·フォン·シーボルト 述,前 田 利器 訳(大 蔵 省 翻 訳 课) ,明治12年「理财 要旨 卷1辑. 」 )
• Henry von Siebold: Notes on Japanese Archaeology with Especial Reference to the Stone Age. Yokohama: C. Lévy 1879 ( digitized (Google Books) )
• Henry von Siebold: Kōkosetsu Ryaku. Tokyo, 1879 (考古 说 略). ( Digital copy in the library of Waseda University, Tokyo)
• Ethnological studies on the Aino on the island of Yezo. Journal of Ethnology / organ of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory, Suppl, P. Parey, 1881. ( Digitized Berlin State Library )
• Matsumi Onojirō ( trans. ): Henry von Siebold, Bahitsu Kairyo setsu. Dainippon Nōkai, Tokyo 1887 (ヘンリー· ·フォンシーボルト 著,松 见 斧 次郎 訳「马匹 改良 说」大 日本 农 会digitized National Diet Library, Tokyo)
• Arcadio swath, Hans A. Dettmer, Viktoria Eschbach- Szabo (ed.): Letters from the family archive of Brandenstein. The circle around Alexander and Heinrich von Siebold. O. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1991. ( Acta sieboldiana, 4)