Strange Tidings from around the Seas: the Sendai castaways in Russia
A 1807 record of Japanese sailors who crossed Siberia to St Petersburg and came home by sea, 1793 to 1804.
Full title Strange Tidings from around the Seas (1807): account of the castaways carried to the Aleutians, Kamchatka, Siberia and St Petersburg and returned with the Rezanov embassy (1793-1804)
環海異聞
Ōtsuki Gentaku and Shimura Hiroyuki, from the testimony of the Sendai castaways Tsudayū and companions
Ōtsuki Gentaku and Shimura Hiroyuki, scholars of Dutch learning, questioned castaways from Sendai led by Tsudayū. The men had been carried to the Aleutians and Kamchatka, crossed Siberia to St Petersburg, and went home with the Rezanov embassy, returning by sea round the world. The preface is dated 1807. The book covers the native peoples of Siberia and Russian administration. The atlas does not hold the text: the copies named on the card are hand-copied manuscripts (at Waseda and Kyoto Universities, one dated 1844), and the corpus has no page text for any of them.
- How they knew
- Part eyewitness
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded. The card lists Kamchadals, Aleuts, Yakuts, Buryats and Tungus but no Tatars by name, so this profile does not say who, if anyone, the text calls Tatar.
- Why read it
- A second Japanese eyewitness record of Siberia and Russia, with independent informants, that can be set beside the 1794 account by Kōdayū (W159).
- Watch out
- The copies vary in their illustrations, and the Kyoto copy is an 1844 transcription. The atlas has no page text, so no passages are quoted.
What it says
No quotes from this one yet. Its text is out of reach for now, or the scan could not be read.
The fine print
How we know
informant testimony Written down from what informants reported.
informant testimony of castaways who crossed Siberia to St Petersburg and returned by sea around the world (1793-1804), recorded by Dutch-learning scholars
Research notes
- Manuscript tradition only until modern printing; copies vary in illustrations. Kyoto copy is an 1844 transcription. Other copies: Waseda bunko08 a0202 and c0006; Meiji University LI00000588; Doshisha (manifest 403 from this environment).
Why it matters
Second major Japanese eyewitness of Siberia and Russia (1790s-1804), including descriptions of Siberian native peoples and Russian administration; a counterpart to Hokusa bunryaku with independent informants.
Places named
Aleutian Islands; Kamchatka; Okhotsk; Yakutsk; Irkutsk; Siberia; St Petersburg; circumnavigation route
Peoples named
Russians; Kamchadals; Aleuts; Yakuts; Buryats; Tungus; Japanese castaways