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Document Details :

Title: De Japanse watten van Constantijn Huygens
Author(s): KUITERT, Wybe
Journal: Spiegel der Letteren
Volume: 56    Issue: 4   Date: 2014   
Pages: 539-550
DOI: 10.2143/SDL.56.4.1000004

Abstract :
The versatile and complex works of poet and state adviser Constantijn Huygens show a few instances of perceptions of Japan. Intriguing is his epigram ‘Iaponsche Trijn’ [Japanese Kitty] that at a closer look indicates how well-informed he actually was about this far away country on the other side of the globe. The poem is also one of the first sources that contain a new Dutch word watten for cotton wool and leads, within a wider context of the Dutch and Paris’ circles around Huygens, to clear evidence of the Japanese origin of the word watten itself.

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