Japanmuseum SieboldHuis

To further express the long and historically unique ties between the Netherlands and Japan, in 1999 the SieboldHuis Foundation was established. The aim of this foundation was to reopen the SieboldHuis as a museum to house the collection that Siebold himself had once exhibited here. Franz Philipp von Siebold (1796-1866) lived in this house and displayed his collection of Japanese objects and artefacts to a captivated public. Today, after more than 150 years, his former residence is now the first official Japan centre in the Netherlands. The return of the SieboldHuis in 2005 was generously supported by the Japanese and Dutch Governments, corporate commitment from both countries as well as the JCC (Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and the city of Leiden. The Leiden Volkenkunde Museum (National Museum of Ethnology) and Naturalis (the National Museum of Natural History) both participate(d) in the realization and conservation of the SieboldHuis museum on the basis of their leading Japanese collections. The 19th century Japanese objects in these two museums are unique. Leiden University cooperates closely with the SieboldHuis and has strong ties with Japan. The university has a Japanese language and culture department and in addition houses important Japanese collections at several academic institutions. The majority of these collections were originally brought to Leiden by Siebold or were compiled by him later. The ethnographic objects in Japan Museum SieboldHuis all come from the National Museum for Ethnology in Leiden. The collection from this museum has been digitalized and is on its website. The Flora and Fauna objects are from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center. This (national) collection has grown to over 40 million objects and forms the basis for worldwide research on biodiversity and geology. The Naturalis collection is one of the top 5 natural history collections in the world.