Four hundred years ago, in spring 1600, a Dutch ship made landfall in Kyushu, the sole survivor of five that had set out on the hazardous journey from Rotterdam two years before.

To celebrate this special anniversary, over 200 treasures from the Dutch royal palaces, archives and museums are now on display at the Tokyo National Museum.

Opening up this royal "cabinet of curiosities" reveals superb silverware, family portraits and historical documents as well as crafts of the highest quality from Japan and Indonesia. Many personal possessions are also on display, affording a glimpse of the people behind the history of the House of Orange.

The first gallery introduces the dynasty in portraits, from the founder Willem the Silent to a freely painted portrait of the reigning Queen Beatrix. In the 16th century, Willem, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau, was stadholder (governor) of several provinces in the Low Countries under the vast Holy Roman Empire, under Spanish rule. He clashed with Philip II of Spain over the persecution of Protestants, and from 1568 to 1581 led the Dutch wars of independence. Three years later he was assassinated, but his martial sons Maurits and Frederik Hendrik continued the struggle, finally achieving autonomy.

Frederik Hendrik's son Willem II married Mary Henrietta Stuart, daughter of Charles I of England, embroiling the family deeply in English politics. Her son Willem III married his cousin, another of the many Mary Stuarts, and when her father James II became intolerable to his subjects they invited William and Mary to become king and queen of England, a partnership which proved fruitful for both Britain and the Netherlands. The portrait of Willem III shows him wearing armor, with lace jabot, fur cuffs and wig, while his wife and cousin, Mary II, is painted against a riotous rococo background of cupids, parrots and urns.

During the golden age of Dutch trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, the prince-stadholders extended their palaces and art collections until, in 1795, a Dutch republican movement, with French assistance, evicted Willem V, who fled to England, taking the family's extensive collection of miniatures with him. The Batavian Republic then established lasted 11 years before Napoleon put an end to it. Napoleon asked the exiled prince-stadholder for a portrait of Willem III, but Willem V no doubt thought the upstart from Corsica had seized enough, and replied he had "very few family portraits."

Among the exquisite, bejeweled miniatures on display are fine paintings of Prince Willem II and Henrietta Maria, King Charles I of England's French queen, by the French master Petitot. There is also a portrait of Willem the Silent's intelligent adversary, Philip II of Spain.

Upon the final defeat of Napoleon, Willem VI of Orange re-established the Netherlands as a kingdom. His son, afterwards Willem II, had led Dutch troops to help defeat Napoleon at Waterloo. He became engaged to Princess Charlotte of England, but much to everyone's disgust, she fell in love with another prince, and Willem married Anna Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of Russia and sister of Tsar Alexander I, instead.

Her portrait shows a petite woman with a pretty but determined mouth. According to Eelco Elzenga, deputy director of Het Loo Palace National Museum, it was a happy marriage, although Anna often stamped her little foot!

Anna brought her own priest and a fabulous collection of jewelry from Russia, and here we can see her golden chalice and a diminutive silver-gilt tea service for one. It is easy to imagine her using the Russian paper knife and inkwells in rich green malachite and slipping a note into the mouth of her delightful golden messenger, a Borzoi dog. She must have brought an exotic note to court life: note the troika prancing along the drive in the painting of Het Loo palace (exhibit 91).

Her granddaughter, Wilhelmina, came to the throne at the age of 10, although the child's mother, Queen Emma, acted as regent. In the first gallery of the exhibition there is an attractive portrait of Wilhelmina, in a grassy garden, scattered with symbols of hope. The young queen wears a white dress, with simple daisies in her hat: a painting full of the freshness of spring.

She married in 1901 at the age of 21, and although her silver-threaded wedding dress has tarnished, it is a fine example of French couture. Nearby is her mother's parasol with a Faberge handle and Chantilly lace, distinctive for its soft gray luster. The hefty Bible from the chapel at Het Loo was presented to her father, Willem III, in 1861, in gratitude for his assistance following disastrous floods. The silver mounting depicts a bird braving stormy seas to feed its young, its orange and blue feathers symbolizing Orange and Nassau, and the motto of Willem the Silent, "saevus tranquillus in undis (calm amid waves)."

Among the palace furniture on display, two cabinets are most eye-catching. The first is an art collector's cabinet of mid-17th-century date bought by Queen Wilhelmina, inset with small Renaissance paintings that contrast beautifully with the dark wood. The queen used to open the cabinet when welcome guests were expected; less popular visitors had to make do with the cover (which is nevertheless superb stump-work embroidery).

The second is an art nouveau cabinet in honey-colored maple, which opens to reveal 116 charming watercolors of The Hague school. This might sound de trop, but the cabinet exhibits a rare and graceful harmony between furniture and art.

Japanese visitors have been impressed with the quality of Edo Period swords, bows and arrows, preserved with every cord and binding in perfect condition. During Japan's era of isolation, the Dutch alone were allowed to trade via Dejima, and the House of Orange had one of the best collections of Oriental arts and crafts in Europe. Several rooms in Huis ten Bosch palace were decorated in Oriental style in the 18th century, with Chinese wallpaper imported by the Dutch East India Company and woodwork varnished to mimic black and gold lacquer.

Examples of blue and white Arita porcelain and colorful Imari ware, greatly prized by fashionable Europeans, are also on show. The first Japanese envoys to Holland, photographed in 1862, must have been amazed to see their native porcelain embellished with ormolu brackets and glowing with candles!

The Dutch royal archives are not normally open to the public, but there are several rare documents here, including the score of an aria from Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte," and a letter from Voltaire to his patron, Frederick the Great of Prussia.

The map of Japan, dated 1607, brings us back to the earliest contacts between Holland and Japan and the age of discovery. It was several years before Prince Maurits received a reply to his request for a trading permit, but the shogun's favorable response is still preserved in its lacquer box in The Hague. He thanks the prince for his "highly esteemed letter that, although sent from afar, seemed as though written by a nearby friend."