ABSTRACT
As a result of the work of the interpreters in the latter half of the seventeenth century and of the research of Arai Hakuseki in the first decades of the eighteenth century the fact that information of a practical and valuable nature might be obtained from the Hollanders was better understood. With the diffusion of this knowledge at Nagasaki and Edo, the curiosity of an increasing number of scholars was being aroused about foreign systems, products and customs. Although his exact motives are not entirely clear, it may be presumed that the eighth Shogun Yoshimune (1684–1751), shogun from 1716 to 1745, decided to lend Bakufu support to further investigations along these lines because of his own inquisitive nature and his desire to see certain practical benefits accrue to the government. It is highly unlikely that Yoshimune acted in response to any scholarly pressures.
