A Historical Romantic Episode Relating To Japanese Hydrangeas

As I introduced previously on June 6th, Ajisai(Hydrangea) is a native plant in Japan. There are varied flower shapes/colors even among the wild types. Also this plant has been improved as a popular gardening flower since old times and got farther more variety as in the photos.

Historically, Japanese Ajisai(Hydrangea) was introduced to Europe in 19th century by a German medical doctor, Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold, and There is a well-known episode relating to him and Japanese Ajisai(Hydrangea).

Apparently Dr. Siebold was very interested in the Oriental countries and botany and he wanted to visit to Japan. However, there was a serious obstacle at that time because it was during Tokugawa Shogunate era and  Japan closed the country to outsiders. Japanese Shogunate government strictly shut out all foreigners except Chinese and Dutch people. Therefore when he arrived at Japan in 1823 he pretended to be a Dutchman. 

Although Japanese immigration control officers had suspicion about his nationality, he somehow succeeded to land Japan safely. It didn't take long until his medical knowledge attracted Japanese doctors and scholars, and many people asked him to teach his Western science knowledge. Eventually he was exceptionally allowed to open a private school in Nagasaki prefecture. 

Old records tells he was loved by his students and he blended very well into Japanese community. After a while he fell in love with a Japanese woman named Otaki. They couldn't get married formally but they had a baby girl and lived happily. Of course he didn't forget his initial interest in Japanese nature, and he was studying and collecting Japanese plants, animals and geographical information as he was teaching his students sincerely.

  

However, his study about Japan caused a serious problem when he tried to go back his country just for a while. He was arrested because he was carrying a detailed map of whole Japanese islands, which was a top secret of Japanese Shogunate government at that time. He got an expulsion order immediately and had to abandon Otaki and his daughter. 

After he went back to Europe he stayed in the Netherlands and published books about Japan and reported many of Japanese plants and animals as new species. Thus many of those study names have sieboldi or sieboldii to tell his contribution. He reported Japanese Hydrangea as a new plant, too, and named it "Hydrangea Otaksa".

Today, people are guessing it was named after his beloved woman, Otaki-san ("san" is a Japanese general honorific). Unfortunately the name wasn’t accepted as the study name since the same family plant was already reported. Perhaps he tried to keep her name someway in history with his memory. Although he couldn't make it, his daughter became the first woman gynecologist in Japan and her name was engraved into Japanese history as their daughter.