Petronella Muns (21 January 1794,

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

– 13 May 1842, The Hague) was one of the first Western women to set foot in Japan. She was the servant of

Titia Bergsma Titia Bergsma (Leeuwarden, February 13, 1786 – The Hague, April 2, 1821) was a Dutch woman who visited Dejima Island, Japan, in August 1817 with her husband, Jan Cock Blomhoff. Under the Tokugawa shogunate's ''sakoku'' policy Japan was extre ...

, the wife of

Jan Cock Blomhoff Jan Cock Blomhoff (Amsterdam, 5 August 1779 – Amersfoort, 15 August 1853) was director ("opperhoofd") of Dejima, the Dutch trading colony in the harbour of Nagasaki, Japan, 1817–1824, succeeding Hendrik Doeff. During his first stay on the ...

, and

wet nurse A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, or if she is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblings", and in some cu ...

to the Blomhoffs' infant son. Blomhoff was appointed governor of the Dutch trade station on

Deshima , in the 17th century also called Tsukishima ( 築島, "built island"), was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1854). For 220 years, it ...

(in

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

) and took the two women there despite a Japanese ban on the presence of western women. Bergsma and Muns arrived on 16 August 1817 and were forced to leave after five weeks. On the return journey to the Netherlands, Muns gave birth to a daughter. Muns and Bergsma had aroused considerable attention during their short stay and were portrayed by Japanese artists. Statues and images of them are still sold in the Japanese tourist industry, where they are remembered as the first western women in Japan.

References

Muns, Petronella (1794-1842) - Historici.nl
1794 births 1842 deaths 19th-century Dutch women Dutch expatriates in Japan People from The Hague Wet nurses 19th-century people of the Dutch Empire {{Netherlands-politician-stub