ABSTRACT
On a number of occasions representatives of the Verenige Oost-Indische Compagnie were told to leave Japan because their knowledge of Japanese was becoming too good. On formal occasions, Japanese etiquette excluded direct communication of Japanese and foreigners alike with high officers of state. In Dejima the interpreters had an office: the Dutch were never free from a Japanese presence on the island. A degree of informality was part of the contact with the Dutch in Edo in a way for which there was no parallel in Nagasaki. In the wake of the Laxman visit to Ezo, a geographer in a group of shogunal doctors, and geographers visiting the Dutch at their inn, showed maps of Japan he had been given by some of the officers on Laxman's vessel. Two men, Titsingh and Doeff, are both unique in different ways and having a major impact on the history of the factory and its place in Japanese society.
