Rangaku 窶披?毒?w: Dutch Learning during the 212 yrs of Isolation

How much did rangaku prepare Japan for the opening of ports in 1853 and the subesquent reformation of the Meiji ?
Rangaku

Rangaku (Japanese: 窶披?毒?w or "Dutch Learning") was the method by which Japan kept abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641-1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of national isolation (sakoku).

The Dutch traders at Dejima in Nagasaki were the only foreigners tolerated during the period, and their movements were carefully watched and strictly controlled.

Rangaku became obsolete when Japan opened up in the Bakumatsu period 窶凪?ｹ窶凪?? 1853-1867. Students were sent abroad, and foreign employees (o-yatoi gaikokujin) came to Japan to teach and advise in large numbers, leading to an unprecedentedly rapid modernization of the country.

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i recomment laura joh rowlands "shinju" (sano ichiros 1st adventure... or something)- which takes place in that period (1689).
it may be trivial literature but in that book the protagonist is confronted with this topic. he is a yoriki (kind of upper policeman) in edo and tries to solve a crime, but it is only possible with opening the corpse. so, he meets a doctor who was practising this dutch learning, and both, policeman and doctor has to work now underground. it is full of tension but also filled with facts! there are more books but i only read "shinju" and "bundori".

i hope i could help you a little.

lexico said:

How much did rangaku prepare Japan for the opening of ports in 1853 and the subesquent reformation of the Meiji ?

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I would argue that it might, in Marius B. Jansen's words, Rangagku "added important strands to the rich tapestry of Tokugawa intellectual history" but I do not think it was the deciding factor in Japan's modernization - not by a long shot. Jasen also notes that the first generation (by which he means 1730's) of Dutch scholars did not overturn tradition (of Japan's intellectual establishment). Most often the books Japanese scholars were working with were out of date by the time they were translated. Also translations were quite random and far from scientific. Was rangaku a factor in preping Japan for modernization? To an extent, but it was not the magic bullet (not that I think there is one) that allowed Japan to become the first Asian nation to modernize.