The article deals with the problem of revealing the exact composition of one of the earliest Japanese collections of the Kunstkamera museum and the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts - namely, the collection acquired by Dr. Johan Arnold Stützer, a Swedish doctor in the service of the Dutch East India Company, who stayed in Japan in 1787-1788. J.A. Stützer, a graduate of the University of Uppsala, was a student of Professor Carl Peter Thunberg, who largely determined his interests both as a researcher and a collector of Asian rarities, and these interests were reflected in the composition of his collection. In 1794, Stützer sent a part of his collection to St. Petersburg, addressing it to the name of Empress Catherine II. The Empress ordered to transfer the collection to the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts in St. Petersburg. The collection by J.A. Stützer was viewed as extremely valuable for the Russian academic and museum Japanese studies, for it provided unique materials on the Japanese culture of the l