Johan Willem de Stürler

Johan Willem de Stürler (also Johan Wilhelm de Sturler, Jean Guillaume de Sturler and Jean Guillaume de Stürler, Sittard, 7 December 1774 - Paris, 9 January 1855) was a Dutch colonel and director of the Dutch trading post at Dejima, Nagasaki, Japan.^[1][2]

Johan Willem de Stürler
Kawahara Keiga: Trading post director Johan Willem de Stürler, 8 October 1825. Detail from "Big party".
Other name(s)	Johan Willem de Sturler
Born	(1774-12-07)December 7, 1774 Sittard
Died	January 9, 1855(1855-01-09) (aged 80) Paris
Commands	Director of the Dutch trading post at Dejima, Nagasaki, Japan

Kawahara Keiga: "Big party". Trading post director Johan Willem de Stürler (center) and company in his residence at Desjima, Nagasaki, Japan, 8 October 1825, as a delayed celebration of the birthday of King William I. Philipp Franz von Siebold is sitting center left. The young westerner in front is Johan Willem's son, Jacques Edouard (Eduard) de Stürler.

Biography

Johan Willem de Sturler was born into the Dutch nobility of the De Stürler family from Switzerland,^[3] as a son of Johan Rudolf de Stürler (1723-1823) and Agnes Suzanne Soeterik (1746-1823). He had been a tax inspector before entering military service in the Dutch army as a artillery captain.^[1] In 1797 de Sturler married Sybille Elisabeth van Biesen (1774-1807) at Tiel, the Netherlands, who gave him four children.^[2]

From 20 November 1823 up to 5 August 1826 he was director (Dutch: opperhoofd) of the Dutch trading post on the island Dejima at Nagasaki, Japan, as a successor to Jan Cock Blomhoff. Accompanied by the physician Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), he visited the Shogun at his palace in Edo in 1826. He passed away in Paris in 1855.

Role in art history

Katsushika Hokusai: Tôkaidô gojûsan tsugi, before 1827. Sturler Collection, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Sturler was instrumental in bringing work by Japanese painter Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) to Europe which had been commissioned by Jan Cock Blomhoff.^[4][5] The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris still retains this collection.^[6] At first Siebold did not want to pay Hokusai the full agreed price, but Stürler protested and paid in full.^[7]

Literature

• de Stürler, Adam Emanuel Carolus (1863). Généalogische aanteekeningen van de familie de Stürler (in Dutch). Roermond: J.J. Romen. OCLC 82525440. Page 70 scan on J.W. de Stürler, page 71 continued scan.