This revision of Professor Goodman's earlier work, The Dutch Impact on Japan, originally published in 1967, was brought up-to-date with much new information in 1986 in response to renewed interest in the Dutch influence on Japan during the so-called 'closed centuries' between 1640 and 1853. Professor Goodman explains the circumstances of the Dutch in Japan during the seventeenth century, and the historical and intellectual milieu within which 'Dutch studies' were nurtured. He traces the initial interest of the Shogun government in European astronomy and medicine, and the gradual...