 In 1636, Guillaume Courtet, a French Dominican priest, penetrated into Japan clandestinely, against the 1613 interdiction of Christianity.He was caught, tortured, and died in Nagasaki on September 29, 1637.During its period of self-imposed isolation (Sakoku), Japan acquired a tremendous amount of scientific knowledge from the West, through the process of Rangaku, in the 18th and especially the 19th century.