Information AboutRangaku |
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Rangaku (Japanese: 蘭学 or "Dutch Learning") was the method by which Japan kept abreast of Western Technology and Medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641 – 1853 , because of the Tokugawa Shogunate 's policy of national isolation ( Sakoku ). The Dutch traders at Dejima in Nagasaki were the only foreigners tolerated during the period, and their movements were carefully watched and strictly controlled. They became instrumental however in transmitting to Japan some knowledge of the Industrial and Scientific Revolution that was occuring in the West: the Japanese purchased and translated numerous scientific books from the Dutch, obtained from them Western curiosities and manufactures (such as clocks), and received demonstrations of various Western innovations (such as the demonstrations of electric phenomena, and the flight of a hot air balloon in the early 18th century). , developed through Rangaku. Tokyo National Science Museum.]] (1776), developed through Rangaku. Static Electricity was produced through the friction of a glass tube with a gold-plated stick. The experiments thus obtained were very popular in Edo. Tokyo National Science Museum .]] Rangaku became obsolete when Japan opened up in the Bakumatsu period, 1853 – 1867 . Students were sent abroad, and foreign employees ( O-yatoi Gaikokujin ) came to Japan to teach and advise in large numbers, leading to an unprecedentedly rapid modernization of the country. It is often argued that Rangaku allowed Japan not to be totally cut from the critical phase of Western scientific advancement during the 18th and 19th century, allowing her to build up the beginnings of a a theoretical and technological scientific base, which might explain Japan's success in her radical and speedy modernization following the opening of the country to foreign trade in 1854 . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |