Petronella Muns

Petronella Muns (21 January 1794, The Hague – 13 May 1842, The Hague) was together with Titia Bergsma the first Western woman to have set foot in Japan. She was the servant of Titia Bergsma, spouse of Jan Cock Blomhoff, governor of the Dutch trade station on Deshima (in Nagasaki), who took the two women there in August 1817 despite the ban of western women. They were forced to leave after five weeks, but they aroused considerable attention and was portrayed in Japanese art: statues and images of them are still sold within the Japanese tourist industry, where they are remembered as the first western women in Japan.

References

• Muns, Petronella (1794-1842) - Historici.nl