Rangaku (蘭学) 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, 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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