Johan Willem de Stürler

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. 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.

Biography Johan Willem de Sturler was born into the Dutch nobility of the De Stürler family from Switzerland, 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 an artillery captain. The travel from Dejima to Edo lasted almost two months. They were carried in palanquins for the most part over land. De Sturler visited the Shogun at his palace in Edo in May 1826. In August 1826 he left the island and went back to Batavia. He died in Paris in 1855 and was buried at the Montmartre Cemetery.

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. The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris still retains this collection. At first Siebold did not want to pay Hokusai the full agreed price, but Stürler protested and paid in full.

Literature Page 70 scan on J.W. de Stürler, page 71 continued scan.