Background
Imamura Eisei was born in Nagasaki on 6 December 1671.
Imamura Eisei was born in Nagasaki on 6 December 1671.
At the age of twenty- four Eisei passed the Dutch language examination and began a career as interpreter that lasted for forty-two years until his death. In 1707 he was promoted to the rank of senior interpreter.
In 1708, when the Italian missionary Giovanni Battista Sidotti came to Japan, Eisei acted as interpreter for him, and the following year, when Sidotti was taken to Edo and the scholar and statesman Arai Hakuseki was ordered to cross-examine him, Eisei once again served as interpreter.
In 1727 Eisei also interpreted for a Dutch horse-trainer named H. J. Keijser, who was invited to serve in Edo by Shogun Yoshimune. In addition to his duties as an interpreter, he was ordered by the shogunatc to translate Dutch works on botany, horsemanship, the treatment of ailments in horses, and animal raising.