ASDP Japanese History and
Culture (II)
Peter Nosco - May 22, 2013
Compare these observations of Japan
in the 1570s (left) and 1620 (right)
• “[The people] rebel
against [their rulers]
whenever they have a
chance, either usurping
them or joining up with
their enemies…. The
chief root of the evil is the
fact that … Japan was
divided up among so
many usurping barons
that there are always
wars among them….”
Alessandro Valignano, SJ
• “The government of
Japan may well be
accounted the greatest
and most powerful
Tyranny that was ever
heard of in the world, for
all the rest are as Slaves
to the … great
commander as they call
him….” Richard Cocks
Oda Nobunaga (1533-1582)
• Succeeds remarkably in bringing about 35% of Japan
(including Kyoto) under his control
• Abolished toll barriers that the Ashikaga Bakufu and many
daimyo and temples had established
• “free markets” and “free guilds”
• Removes taxes on merchants
• Establishes an office for the oversight of temples and
shrines
• Fixes exchange rates for gold-silver-copper
• Orders repairs to roads and bridges
• Friendly to Christians
• Betrayed by a former ally
Toyotomi Hideyoshi 1536-1598
• By avenging Nobunaga’s death, Hideyoshi
becomes the great rags-to-riches story.
• Three extraordinary policies:
– 1) 1590 Census recording population by household
and after 1592 organization of the society into mutual
responsibility groups
– 2) 1583-1598 A complete land (cadastral) survey of
each province
– 1588 Sword hunt: Disarmament by confiscation,
resulting in 1591 separation of warriors and farmers
• And one disaster: the 1592 invasion of Korea
Hideyoshi’s concern over an heir
• After years of frustration, in 1593 Hideyoshi finally has
a son named Toyotomi Hideyori, who in 1596 is
installed as Hideyoshi’s 3-year-old successor
• Increasing evidence of Hideyoshi’s mental instability
• In 1598 Hideyoshi’s health begins to fail seriously and
quickly deteriorates
• Sets up a council of regency for Hideyori comprised of
the five leading families in Japan and headed by
Tokugawa Ieyasu of Mikawa
• They promise their loyalty to Hideyoshi’s heir but the
result is predictable once Hideyoshi dies in 1598.
The Battle of Sekigahara and its
aftermath
• 1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu’s (1543-1616) decisive victory at
Battle of Sekigahara
– 1/3rd of the world’s muskets used
• Political capital (Bakufu) moved to Edo (today’s Tokyo)
– Grows from a sleepy fishing village to a city of a million in
100 years
• 1603 Ieyasu takes and redefines the title of seii
taishōgun
– Title had been vacant for thirty years
• 1605 Ieyasu passes title of Shogun to his son Hidetada
(d. 1632) while controlling matters himself for another
ten years
Again, compare these observations of
Japan from the 1570s and 1620
• “[The people] rebel
against [their rulers]
whenever they have a
chance, either usurping
them or joining up with
their enemies…. The
chief root of the evil is the
fact that … Japan was
divided up among so
many usurping barons
that there are always
wars among them….”
Alessandro Valignano, SJ
• “The government of
Japan may well be
accounted the greatest
and most powerful
Tyranny that was ever
heard of in the world, for
all the rest are as Slaves
to the … great
commander as they call
him….” Richard Cocks
Sakoku (“Closing the Country”)
edicts 1633-1635
• Forbid Japanese from traveling abroad
• Forbid Japanese living abroad from returning
to Japan
• Forbid Europeans in Japan other than the
Dutch on Deshima (Dejima) in Nagasaki
Harbor
• Decisively prohibit Christianity (with bounties
for informants) and execute clergy
• Remains the law of the land until the 1850s
What is now there in 1640 and what is
still needed for “early modernity”?
• Yes - The capacity for major resource mobilization
• Getting there - An urbanized and literate society with
meaningful surplus wealth distributed broadly
• Getting there - A developed communications and
transportation infrastrure
• A half-century away – a self-sustaining popular culture
• 100 years away – An increasing sense of collective
identity
• 150 years away – a proto-scientific outlook grounded in
rationalistic and humanistic perspectives.
Japan’s place in the early modern world
c. 1600: The Clash of Civilizations
Europe
China
Japan
Korea
Religion /
Philosophy
LateRenaissance
Christianity /
Neo-Platonism
Late-Ming NeoConfucianism &
Buddhism
Early-Tokugawa
Buddhism,
turning to
Confucianism
Mid-Choson Neo-Confucianism,
shamanism
Government
Early modern
monarchies
Imperial state
Shogunate
(Bakufu)
Kings (tribute)
Power
Expansionist and Expansionist but Limited imperial, Isolationist
maritime
land-based
turning to
isolationist
Degree of early
modernity:
collective
identity and
resource
mobilization
Strong in both
Strong in both
Still weak in
collective
identity but
strong in
resource
mobilization
Weak in both
The Confucian concept of four classes
in Tokugawa Japan (1600-1867):
• Note the great range within each class though limited
mobility between classes
–
–
–
–
Samurai士
Agriculturalists農
Artisans工
Merchants商
• An organic (organism-like) view of society
• Outliers: Entertainers, priests, physicians, diviners, and
so on
• The outcastes or burakumin engaged in problematic
occupations like morticians, butchers, tanners, and so
on
The effects of the epistemological shift
from Buddhism to Neo-Confucianism
•
•
•
•
•
Fundamental rationalism
Humanism
Historical mindedness
Ethnocentrism
Confidence in self-cultivation and the
perfectibility of people.
• One effect with implications for civil society:
The rise of public and private academies
A revolution in Confucian thought:
Ogyū Sorai 1666-1728 and the issue of
nature v. invention
• The Confucian Way = The Way of the Former Kings, and
not the Way of Heaven
• The Confucian Way 道 = comprehensive term
comprised of the policies, music, rituals, laws and
punishments of the past
• The Confucian sages 聖人 are just men who are special
because of what they invented
• The Confucian Way is to be found through texts and in
history, and not in nature.
– It thus must be modified if it is to be applied successfully in
another time and place
The Genroku period and popular
culture
• Formally 1688-1704, but more commonly
used to refer to reign of 5th Tokugawa Shogun
Tokugawa Tsyunayoshi (r. 1680-1709)
– Grandson of a Kyoto greengrocer
– The “dog shogun”
• The rise of the chōnin 町人 or urban
townsman (non-samurai commoner)
• Popular culture as culture that pays for itself
Five requisites for a self-sustaining
popular culture: 1) Urbanization
Cities concentrate consumers of popular culture
– 10% of Japan’s population in 1700 lived in
communities with 10,000+ populations
– This urban/semi-urban population grows tenfold in
Japan in 100 years
– 5-7% live in Japan live in 100K+ cities, compared with
2-3% in Europe
– Populations of Nagoya and Kanazawa at 100K each are
like Rome and Amsterdam; Osaka at 350K is like Paris;
Kyoto at is 400K like London; Edo at 1M may be
world’s largest city
2) Surplus wealth
• Surplus wealth necessary for consumers of
popular culture
• Agricultural yield increases by 40% in 1600s
• Benefits experienced differently by urban
samurai, merchants, artisans, and even rich
agriculturalists
• Prominence of economic themes in the
popular culture (bill paying, etc.)
3) Literacy
• Woodblock printing technology reduces cost
– Rejection of movable type
• By end of Tokugawa period (c. 1850) male
literacy of 40-50% and female literacy at 2025% (compare with England-Wales/Holland)
• Question of how so many learned to read?
• Consider Ihara Saikaku’s story of the pawned
love letter
• Print culture and creating of community
4) Communications and transportation
infrastructure
• Introduction of movable print technology,
initially by Jesuits and also from Korea (recall
invasion of 1590s)
• The “Five Highways” (Gokaidō)
– Post stations
– Engelbert Kaempfer’s observations on Tōkaidō
linking Kyoto to Edo: number of travels “scarce
credible” and “on some days more crowded than
the public streets” of Europe’s largest cities
5) Cultural liberality
• Promotion of diversity and appreciation for
the diverse possibilities of life (Charles
Frankel)
• Little interest in censorship except where
peace/security might be threatened
• Creation of licensed pleasure quarters in
major metropolises
– Shimabara in Kyoto and Yoshiwara in Edo
Legacy of this popular culture
• It was now realistically possible for someone to
make a living and a reputation through various
forms of cultural production.
• It was essential that one neither satirize the
government or challenge the status quo.
• It is originally during the Genroku an urban
phenomenon, but by the end of the Tokugawa all
of its features will have reached through
networks into semi-urban regions—part of a long
process of nationalization of Japanese culture.
“Dutch” (Western) Learning
• Tokugawa Yoshimune’s relaxation of the ban on
European books
• Western Learning called Rangaku (Oranda =
Holland; gaku = learning)
• Two main strains:
– Medicine (including botany, pharmacy, mining,
chemistry and physics),
– and astronomy (including calendrical science,
cartography and geography)
• Different reasons than why we study foreign
languages and cultures today
The autopsy of 1771
• Conducted by Sugita Genpaku (1713-1787) who
came from a family trained for generations in
Chinese medicine
• With Maeno Ryōtaku, witnessed the autopsy by
an eta of a 50-year old woman from Kyoto,
comparing what they saw with charts in a Dutch
translation of the German Anatomische tabellen
by Johan Kalmus (d. 1745)
• They translated Kalmus’ book into Japanese as “A
New Book of Anatomy”
The significance
• A European book on anatomy could be more accurate
than a Chinese book
• Dutch learning might be in some areas superior to
Japanese learning
• There is the physical basis for a universal humanity
• Consider the relationship between Rangaku (Western
Learning) and Kokugaku (National Leaning)—1771 as a
remarkable year
• Effect on painting and European style realism
• A new way of seeing the world
Painting c. 1783 by Shiba Kōkan: “A
View of Mimeguri” in Eastern Edo
In nativism there is
Motoori Norinaga 1730-1801
• Born and lived most of his
life in Matsusaka
• Family of cotton
merchants
• Norinaga was only
interested in studies
• Sent by his mother to
study medicine in Kyoto
1752-57
• Returns to Matsusaka and
starts a medical practice
Themes in Norinaga’s thought
• His work on Tale of Genji and notion of mono
no aware (the pathos of things) as the essence
of Japanese literature and poetry
• A defense of the emotional
• His sense of the wondrous qualities of life
• His lifelong work on Kojiki of 712
• The 1763 “evening in Matsusaka” and his sole
meeting with Kamo no Mabuchi
1771 “Rectifying Spirit” (Naobi no
mitama)
• The ancient Way of Japan is the Way of the kami, (kami no michi or Shinto
神道)
– Neither natural nor man-made, it is a Way created by kami, not humans
• Owing to the introduction of Chinese language and ways of doing things,
there was a Fall from an ancient state of grace when Japanese lived in
total harmony with the kami.
• No separation between the past and present
– Kami still control everything
• Amaterasu, ancestress of the imperial family, is both the sun goddess and
the sun itself
• Japanese deities, and hence Japan itself is the ancestral country of the rest
of the world.
• The Way to cleanse oneself of the “Chinese heart” (Karagokoro) and
foreign contamination is to turn to the Rectifying Deities
• One can thereby reanimate one’s true “Japanese heart” and
Construction of identity: Who are you?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Orientating oneself in time and space
The creation of a heritage (patrimony)
Who are we not, as much as who are we?
A deep nostalgia and an idealized past
A sense of a shared destination
Touching the sacred in everyday life
Collective identity (“we Japanese”) vs.
individual identity (“I”)
1844 King William of Holland sends a
letter to the shogun via Nagasaki
• It warns Japan that the rest of the world is being knit
together by trade
• “The process is irresistible, and it draws all people
together. Distance is overcome by the steamship, and
any nation that holds itself aloof from this process risks
the enmity of others…. When ancient laws by strict
construction threaten the peace, wisdom directs that
they be softened.”
• The Bakufu through replies that the suggestion is
impossible and asks that the King not write again
• The central government simply does not know how to
respond.
Biddle Mission
• 1846 Captain James Biddle from the U.S. arrives
in Edo Bay with two ships hoping to open
relations with Japan.
• He was told that foreign relations could only take
place in Nagasaki, and lacking authorization to
use force, he withdraws.
• The Bakufu again interprets this as validation of
its policies
• The U.S. interprets this as proof that a stronger
approach is needed
The Perry Mission of 1853
• Aware of the Biddle Mission’s failure, Commodore
Matthew C. Perry prepares carefully, insisting that he
have enough military force to guarantee his mission’s
success
• He arrives in Edo Bay on July 2 1853 with four “Black
Ships” mounting 61 guns and carrying 967 men
• His demands include protection of seamen and
permission to obtain supplies and to trade, justifying
these demands as the “law of nations.”
• After a formal ceremony on shore, Perry departs
announcing that he will return in April or May 1854—
he instead returns in February.
Perry and one of his “black ships”
(kurobune)
The 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa
• 1853 Abe Masahiro, head of the Council of Elders, circulates Perry’s
demands to all the Daimyō soliciting their opinions (there is no consensus)
and informs the imperial court as well
• It can be said that Perry thus “opens” Japanese politics as well as its ports!
• Upon Perry’s return, Japan is represented in the negotiations by Hayashi,
head of the Bakufu’s Shōheikō Neo-Confucian academy
• Japan agrees to open two harbors at Shimoda and Hakodate where US
ships could receive supplies and coal (but not actually trade)
• Japan also agrees to open a consulate at Shimoda
• Both sides felt that they had prevailed in the negotiations.
• 1856 Townsend Harris arrives in Shimoda as the first US Consul
• This first consulate is soon followed by diplomatic missions from the
British and Russians
• Harris meets the Shogun in 1857 and in 1858 concludes a treaty opening
five ports including Edo to trade and residency for US vessels and citizens
1863-1868 Four struggles for control
• 1) For control of domainal politics in Satsuma,
Chōshū and Tosa, i.e., the domains that will
lead the coup d’etat
• 2) For control over the Court and its nobles in
Kyoto, as well as the person of the Emperor
• 3) For control over the Bakufu’s own policies
and politics
• 4) (Among the foreign powers) competition
for the best possible deal with Japan.
The last days: Once intense rivals,
Satsuma and Chōshū acting together
• 1866 Satsuma and Chōshū now form an anti-Bakufu alliance
– Both shogun Iemochi and emperor Kōmei die in the same year
– Hitotsubashi Keiki becomes the last Tokugawa shogun, reigning less than one
year, and Meiji (b. 1852) becomes emperor
– Ee ja nai ka (ain’t it grand?) movement of spontaneous reverie erupts in cities
– Bakufu launches reform movement with French assistance (the final Tokugawa
rally)
• The writing on the wall becomes clear that the Bakufu might be able to
resist one or another of the domains, but that it cannot withstand the
joint military opposition of both Satsuma and Chōshū
• 1867 The Shogun in Kyoto resigns his office
• January 1868 A “restoration” (ishin維新) of imperial rule is proclaimed by
the Court, resulting in a successful coup d’etat led mostly by Satsuma and
Chōshū, and with support from Mito, Tosa and Echizen
– This coup and the new government have profoundly conservative leadership
– The last pro-Bakufu naval units don’t surrender until Spring 1869.
Immediate issues
• The open ports
– Extraterritoriality and loss of control of tariffs vs.
– Windows of opportunity through trade and
development of navy
• Experiencing the West
– After 1853 an explosion of interest in Western studies
– The 1860 mission to the States to ratify Townsend
Harris’ treaty
• The strangeness of North America and Europe to even highly
educated and accomplished Japanese
– There were five more similar missions by the end of
1867
A study in contrasts
Fukuzawa Yukichi 1835-1901
Meiji Emperor 1852-1912
Emp. Meiji 1852-1912
• Becomes emperor in February 1867
• The missing presence in the Meiji Restoration
• The intense competition among the leaders of
the “restoration” to control his person
• Nov. 1868 moves by palanquin to Edo which is
renamed Tōkyō (Eastern Capital 東京)
• The open question of his own agency or
power
– His return visit by train to Kyoto years later
Fukuzawa Yukichi 1835-1901
• Studied Dutch in Osaka
• Enters Bakufu service in the new Institute for the Study
of Barbarian Books
• Was the interpreter for the first two Bakufu embassies
to the States and Europe in 1860 and 1862
• Was principally responsible for popular knowledge in
Japan of the West
– Focused on explaining everyday things like hospitals,
banks, political institutions, etc.
– Modernization and Westernization
• 1868 Founds a private academy that later becomes
Keio University
The Charter Oath of April 1868—
The Search for Consensus
“By this oath we set up as our aim the establishment of the national
weal on a broad basis and the framing of a constitution and laws.
• 1. Deliberative assemblies shall be widely established and all
matters decided by public discussion.
• 2. All classes, high and low, shall unite in vigorously carrying out the
administration of affairs of state.
• 3. The common people, no less than the civil and military officials,
shall each be allowed to pursue his own calling so that there may be
no discontent.
• 4. Evil customs of the past shall be broken off and everything based
upon the just laws of Nature.
• 5. Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to
strengthen the foundations of imperial rule.”
The new times
• 1871 Intermarriage between commoners and samurai
allowed and class distinctions eliminated
– Tokugawa domains replaced by prefectures
• 1872 Compulsory elementary public education begins
• 1872-73 Universal male military conscription requiring
four years of service
– Farmers receive legal title to the land they cultivate
• 1876 Samurai banned from wearing their swords
• 1877 The failed Satsuma rebellion led by Saigō
Takamori
Changing times
Early modernity
• Collective identity
– Literacy
•
•
•
•
Resource mobilization
Urbanization
Subject political culture
Loyalties to village and
feudal lord
• Centralized feudalism
Modernity
• Participant political culture
• Widespread use of
inanimate sources of energy
• Technologically advanced
forms of communication
and transportation
• National armies and navies
• Public education
• Independent judiciary
Some additional key dates
in the late-Meiji Period
• 1889
• 1890
Meiji Constitution
First Diet
Imperial Rescript on Education
• 1894-95 Victory in Sino-Japanese War
• 1902
Anglo-Japanese Alliance
• 1904-05 Victory in Russo-Japanese War
• 1910
Annexation of Korea
• 1912
Death of Meiji, suicide of Gen. Nogi
“The Japanese Miracle”
• As recently as fifty years ago, Japan was the
only Asian country universally agreed to have
achieved “modernity”.
• The manner in which this came about was
perceived by many to be a kind of miracle.
• This launched a quest to duplicate the
accomplishment elsewhere.
• But was it a “miracle” and could it be
reproduced?