To further express the long and special ties between the Netherlands and Japan, a number of parties established the SieboldHuis Foundation with the aim of reopening the SieboldHuis. Siebold lived in this house and as early as in 1837 it was in this location that Siebold showed his collection of Japanese objects and artefacts to an interested public. Today, after more than 150 years, his former house is the first official Japan centre in the Netherlands.
The reinstatement of the SieboldHuis has been generously supported by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Dutch and Japanese companies including the JCC, and the City of Leiden.
The Leiden Volkenkunde museum (national ethnology museum) and Naturalis (the National Museum of Natural History) both participate(d) in the realization and conservation of the SieboldHuis museum on the basis of their leading Japanese collections. The 19th century Japanese objects in these two museums are unique.
Leiden University cooperates closely with the SieboldHuis and has strong ties with Japan. The university has a Japanese langage and culture department and in addition houses important Japanese collections at several academic institutions. The majority of these collections were originally brought to Leiden by Siebold or were compiled by him later.
