The Keti Koti path
8. Burgemeester Brouwerplantsoen
(3811 LM Amersfoort)
Not far from the two bronze chairs, there are a few gravestones in the public garden. These gravestones no longer contain any human remains but simply refer to the earlier General Citizens’ Cemetery (Algemene Burgerlijke Begraafplaats). This cemetery was located here until Amersfoort’s town hall was built in 1971.
The text on one of the gravestones reads: ‘Here lies Jan Cock Blomhoff, former chief in Decima, born 5 Augustus 1779, died 13 October 1853. With his wife.
(Text continues below the photo)
From 1817 to 1823, Jan Cock Blomhoff (1779-1853) was the ‘chief’ and leader of the Dutch trading post ‘Deshima’. This island was a Dutch trading post from 1641 until 1859 and was the only contact between the Western world and the largely closed-off Japan. After 1823, Blomhoff based himself in Amersfoort and built the Birkhoven house. He died in 1853 in Amersfoort and was buried at the ‘Achter Davidshof’ cemetery, where the town hall is now located.
Image; Archief Eemland, Dirk Steenbeek
