Jan Cock Blomhoff (

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, 5 August 1779 –

Amersfoort Amersfoort () is a city and municipality in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands, about 20 km from the city of Utrecht and 40 km south east of Amsterdam. As of 1 December 2021, the municipality had a population of 158,531, making it the secon ...

, 15 August 1853) was director ("

opperhoofd ''Opperhoofd'' is a Dutch word (plural ''opperhoofden'') that literally translates to "upper-head", meaning "supreme headman". The Danish equivalent ''overhoved'', which is derived from a Danish pronunciation of the Dutch or Low German word, is a ...

") of

Dejima , 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, ...

, the Dutch trading colony in the harbour of

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

, Japan, 1817–1824, succeeding Hendrik Doeff. During his first stay on the island (1809–1813) he had an affair with a Japanese woman and the couple had a child, who died in 1813. When he arrived in Dejima for the second time in August 1817 he was accompanied by his wife

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 extr ...

, whom he had married in 1815; his son Johannes;

Petronella Muns Petronella Muns (21 January 1794, The Hague – 13 May 1842, The Hague) was one of the first Western women to set foot in Japan. She was the servant of Titia Bergsma, the wife of Jan Cock Blomhoff, and wet nurse to the Blomhoffs' infant son. Blo ...

, a Dutch wetnurse; and an Indonesian maid. The ladies and the little boy were not allowed to stay. In the short time they stayed there, till December 1817, they were often drawn by artists, who had never seen other than Japanese women, and 500 different prints widely circulated throughout the country. Blomhoff is commemorated in the specific name of an Asiatic pit viper, ''

Gloydius blomhoffii ''Gloydius blomhoffii'', commonly known as the mamushi,Mehrtens JM (1987). ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . Japanese moccasin, Japanese pit viper, Qichun snake, Salmusa or Japanese mamushi,Gumprech ...

''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Blomhoff", p. 28). In Japan he is well known for his support for making the first English dictionary for Japanese, which is '' Angeriagorintaisei''.

Notes

References

*Effert, Rudy. (2008).
''Royal Cabinets and Auxiliary Branches.''
Leiden: Research School CNWS.
OCLC 244247206
*. (1963). ''Historical documents relating to Japan in foreign countries: an inventory of microfilm acquisitions in the library of the Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo.'
OCLC 450710
*Jolien C. Hemmes en Ennius H. Bergsma, Brieven uit Deshima, met het complete, originele verslag over de reis naar Japan van Jan Cock Blomhoff en Titia Bergsma met hun zoontje, plus 100 oude afbeeldingen, eerste druk 2017, tweede druk 2021, © JCH, ISBNnr: 9789090349473, NUR: 691, www.brievenuitdeshima.nl (Publication with the original manuscript about the trip with his wife and son written by the father of Titia, using her letters to her parents.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Blomhoff, Jan Cock 1779 births 1853 deaths 19th-century Dutch businesspeople Businesspeople from Amsterdam Dutch chiefs of factory in Japan

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