Herbalism and Mineralogy in Edo Period Based on the Mineral Collection and Related Documents by Philip Franz von Siebold

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Japanese mineral specimens collected during the first half of the nineteenth century are stored in the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden, the Netherlands. A German medical doctor, Philipp Franz von Siebold, collected these specimens as a Dutch surgeon of Dutch East India Army. These specimens are highly unique in terms of modern Japanese mineralogy. Before Siebold, mineralogy was not considered as a field of science in Japan but a part of herbalism. Siebold's mineral collection is important to the historical investigation of science in Japan during the first half of the nineteenth century. Tracing each specimen, we could uncover how modern mineralogy was introduced to Japanese people as science. The mineralogical investigations of specimens along with historical investigation of Siebold's collecting and labeling show how Siebold and Burger collected and sorted out the collection as well as some aspects of mineralogy of Europe and Japan at that time. This collection was the original resource for his book "Lapidographia Japonica."