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Hendrik Doeff (2 December 1777 – 19 October 1835) was the Dutch commissioner in the Dejima trading post in Nagasaki, Japan, during the first years of the 19th century.
Doeff wrote a Dutch-Japanese dictionary, and a memoir of his experiences in Japan, titled Recollections of Japan. He was notable for his strong activity in maintaining the Dutch trade monopoly in Japan. He is the first Western world known to have written haiku, two of which have been found in Japanese publications from the period of his stay in Japan. Max Verhart, "Haiku in the Netherlands and Flanders" , German Haiku Society websiteOtterspeer, W. Leiden Oriental Connections, 1850-1940, Volume 5 of Studies in the History of Leiden University, Brill, 1989, . p 360 One of his haiku:
The Phaeton entered the harbour on 14 October surreptitiously under a Dutch flag. As was the custom, Dutch representatives from Dejima rowed out to welcome the visiting ship, but as they approached, Phaeton lowered a tender to capture the Dutch representatives, while their Japanese escorts jumped into the sea and swam back to land. The Phaeton, holding the Dutch representatives hostage, demanded that supplies (water, food, fuel) be delivered to her in exchange for their return. Because the harbor cannon defenses were both old and poorly maintained, the meager Japanese forces in Nagasaki were seriously outgunned and unable to intervene.
At the time, it was the Saga Domain turn to uphold the policy of sakoku in Nagasaki, but they had economized by stationing only 100 troops there, instead of the 1,000 men officially required for the station. The Nagasaki Magistrate, Matsudaira Genpei, immediately ordered troops from Kyūshū. The Japanese mobilized a force of 8,000 samurai and 40 ships to confront the Phaeton, but it would take them a few days to arrive. In the meantime, the Nagasaki Magistrate provided supplies to the British, and the Dutch representatives were released.
The Phaeton left two days later on 17 October, before the arrival of Japanese reinforcements, and after the crew had learned that the Dutch trading ships would not be coming that year. They also left a letter for Doeff. The Nagasaki Magistrate, Matsudaira, took responsibility by committing suicide by seppuku. Following Phaetons visit, the Bakufu reinforced coastal defenses and promulgated a law prohibiting foreigners coming ashore, on pain of death (1825-1842, Muninen-uchikowashi-rei). The Bakufu also requested that official interpreters learn English and Russian, departing from their prior focus on Dutch studies. In 1814, the Dutch interpreter Motoki Shozaemon produced the first English-Japanese dictionary (6,000 words).
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