Editing Philipp Franz von Siebold (section)

===Arrival in Japan===
On 28 June 1823, after only a few months in the Dutch East Indies, Von Siebold was posted as resident [[physician]] and [[scientist]] to [[Dejima]], a small artificial island and trading post at [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]], and arrived there on 11 August 1823.<ref name="Binsbergen"/> During an eventful voyage to Japan he only just escaped drowning during a [[typhoon]] in the [[East China Sea]].<ref name="Binsbergen"/> As only a very small number of Dutch personnel were allowed to live on this island, the posts of physician and scientist had to be combined. Dejima had been in the possession of the [[Dutch East India Company]] (known as the VOC) since the 17th century, but the Company had gone bankrupt in 1798, after which a trading post was operated there by the Dutch state for political considerations, with notable benefits to the Japanese.

The European tradition of sending doctors with botanical training to Japan was a long one. Sent on a mission by the Dutch East India Company, [[Engelbert Kaempfer]] (1651–1716), a German physician and botanist who lived in Japan from 1690 until 1692, ushered in this tradition of a combination of physician and botanist. The Dutch East India Company did not, however, actually employ the Swedish botanist and physician [[Carl Peter Thunberg]] (1743–1828), who had arrived in Japan in 1775.