"In 1902, he was appointed personal physician-in-waiting to Emperor Meiji and the Imperial household of Japan."
There we have it in a nutshell. Why were there Japanese artefacts in Bietigheimer, because he was the doctor for the emperor. Spending 27 years of his life in Japan and doing what all good men of his time did, collecting goodies in the way of a hoarder.
I remember going into the room dedicated to Balz in the museum in Bietigheimer and seeing a photograph on the wall with a very 'English dog' in front of the cart that he was sitting on. The Emperor Mejii was riddled with ill health, all down to interbreeding and his family suffered in the same way. Interbreeding has always been a problem with royalty, you don't marry a commoner, you marry into the elite who may consist of cousins. Listening to the radio the other day and Cleopatra married two of her brothers before she had affairs with the Roman Caesar and Alexandra. It is an interesting subject consult the Kennel Club on breeding outwards;)
The emperor had a consanguineous marriage, which translated means a 'cousins marriage'
A cousin marriage is a marriage where the partners are cousins (i.e. people with common grandparents or people who share other fairly recent ancestors). The practice was common in earlier times, and continues to be common in some societies today, though in some jurisdictions such marriages are prohibited Worldwide, more than 10% of marriages are between first or second cousins Cousin marriage is an important topic in anthropology and alliance theory.
The emperor fathered 15 children, most of whom died as infants, his brothers also had early deaths, and as a side note, apparently Charles Darwin and his wife were first cousins, which I find surprising of a man who studied the natural order so much.
So a brief exploration has bought some interesting facts up, the rather hideous scrolls of gods and lesser beings have been on journeys of their own, taken from their own land of Japan, found a home in Germany, been restored in England and now reside in Bietigheimer museum and there are also other Japanese treasures in a museum in Stuttgart. The magpie instinct of Balz echoes the magpie bird, who just loves a bit of glitter in his nest.
With the help of one of those computer gadgets you can whizz round the room here in the museum.
When I was young I remember various folk marrying cousins and it was much frowned upon in the village where I lived. When I taught in the Midlands it was fairly common amongst the Sikh community. Is it still legal? I rather think so.
ReplyDeleteIt probably accounts for some of the illnesses that are seen, now of course, we move on and there is less need to marry your cousin.
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