1. What was the relationship between Japan and other nations before 1853?

Curious Japanese watching Dutchmen lodging in the Nagasakiya Inn in Edo. During the Edo period, the chief of the Dutch trading post Dejim had to travel to Edo to express the gratitude of the Dutch East India Company at the court of the shogun. During their stay in Edo they lodged in an inn called Nagasakiya in the quarter Hongokuchō.

One of the key control measures that had been set up by the founders of the Tokugawa system was strict management of foreign relations; this involved limited contact with the outside world. In 1637, the Shogun ordered that no Japanese person should ever leave the country and foreigners were banned from entering Japan.  However, this did not initially involve total isolation. There was trading and contact with the Dutch in the port of Nagasaki and trade with China, the Ryukyus and Korea. All of this allowed the Shogunate to gain news of the outside world. In the 18th Century Western books circulated in Japan and 'Dutch scholars' were familiar with western science and technology. Thus by 1850, there were iron works in the Choshu and Satsuma domains, factories making guns in Mito and Satsuma, textile mills and other innovations which had come from Japanese contacts with the Dutch.

Task One

ATL: Thinking skills

However, with the increasing encroachment of western powers into the Far East in the 19th Century, the seclusion policy became more restrictive and more xenophobic with the bakufu announcing that Westerners would be expelled by force. In its Expulsion Edict of 1825, the bakufu declared that Western barbarians 'have become steadily more unruly, and moreover, seem to be propagating their wicked religion among our people...Henceforth whenever a foreign ship is sighted approaching any point on our coast, all persons on hand should fired on and drive it off.'

2. What was the impact of Commodore Perry's expedition on Japan's seclusion policy?

Starter:

What impact had the West had in China by 1850? What was likely to be the reaction of the Japanese to such events?

What international factors threatened the isolation and stability of Japan by the middle of the 19th Century?

Although it was Britain that had forced China to open up to trade, it was in fact not Britain that became a threat to the bafuku's policies by the middle of the 19th Century, but rather the US.

The Americans were interested in Japan for two reasons:

• As they expanded their territories westwards, and Oregon and California became part of the USA in 1848, the Pacific Ocean became a sphere of interest
• US ships needed a place where they could take on fresh provisions for ships trading between China and San Francisco across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean.

The video below gives another reason as well.

Task One

ATL: Thinking skills

Task Two

ATL: Thinking skills

When Perry returned in 1854 with twice as many ships, the bakufu agreed to negotiate. As a result the Treaty of Kanagawa was signed. In this Treaty, the Japanese agree to:

• open up the isolated ports of Hakodate and Shimoda to ships from the USA
• allow Americans to station a consul in Shimoda
• treat shipwrecked sailors well
• give the USA 'most favoured nation' status'

This treaty was quickly followed by other treaties with Britain, Russia and Holland. The Shogun believed that he had prevented the full-scale opening up of Japan for trade. However, in the succeeding years, pressure was put on Japan to open up fully and grant more concessions. The American consul, Townsend Harris played a leading role in this and the result was the Harris Treaty of 1858; this became the model for similar treaties signed in the following weeks with Britain, France, Holland and Russia:

• Edo, Kobe, Nagasaki, Niigata, and Yokohama were opened to foreign trade
• Japanese tariffs were placed under international control and import duties were fixed at low levels
• a system of extra territoriality was established, which provided that foreign residents would be subject to their own consular courts rather than to Japanese law

Task Three

ATL: Thinking skills

3. Why did Perry's arrival cause a crisis in Japanese domestic politics?

Task One

ATL: Thinking skills

As you will have seen from the video, there were two responses to Perry's demands: the kaikoku (open country) school and the sonnō jōi (revere the emperor and expel the barbarian) school. The former was linked with the 'Dutch learning' (see previous page) and saw opening up Japan as an opportunity to gain Western weapons and technology and thus to ultimately create a strong and independent japan. The sonnō jōi, however, believed that opening up Japan would bring political and cultural disaster; it was inspired by the Mito School (see previous page) which had a zealous commitment to the imperial institution as the mystic embodiment of the Japanese nation and was also intensely xenophobic.

Perry's arrival opened up this debate. It also brought the discontent of the samurai (discussed on the previous page) to the fore; the argument for promoting men of talent now became more relevant than ever and in many domains, young samurai now became involved in politics. Many of these lower rank activists became known as 'shishi' (men of spirit).

After the signing of the Harris Treaty, rage that had originally been directed against foreigners was now vented against the Shogun and the bakufu and a determination to get rid of the incompetent and 'evil' officials. There now followed 14 years of conflict in Japan dominated by the actions of the Chōshū and Satsuma clans.

Both the Chōshū and Satsuma clans came from outer domains and had been excluded from central government and generally distrusted by the shogunate. They thus had a history of hostility towards the shogunate. In addition, however they were strong, financially solvent domains where the morale of the samurai remained strong. Their financial strength enabled them to buy rifles, cannons and ships in the 1860s.

Task Two

ATL: Thinking and research skills

At first the two clans were rivals with different views of how to solve the crisis, though both were anti-foreigners. However, both experienced foreign military might in separate local conflicts with Britain and with a combined international force in 1863–64. This brought the painful realization that simply “expelling” the foreigners was impossible. To prevent Japan becoming a colony, it was necessary to rapidly construct a modern state and to prevent the reassertion of Tokugawa supremacy.  In 1866, the former rival domains secretly formed the Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance.

The Shogun sent an army against them but was defeated thus weakening his position further. A year later, in 1868, the two domains openly joined forces; they seized the imperial palace on January 3, 1868 and had the boy Emperor, Mutsuhito (later known as the Meiji Emperor) proclaim the end of the Tokugawa regime and the restoration of imperial rule. The ensuing battle with the bakufu army (the Boshin War), saw the Shogun's forces surrender thus ending Tokugawa rule.

Task One

ATL: Thinking skills

In January 1868 the daimyo were summoned to Kyoto where they were told that political power had been restored to the Emperor. The next year, the capital was moved to Edo, which was then renamed Tokyo. From this time on, the building of a modern state, Meiji Japan, began.

Task Three

ATL: Thinking skills

4. What was the significance of the Meiji restoration?

Meiji emperor moving from Kyoto to Tokyo

There has been much discussion among historians on the causes, nature and significance of the Meiji Restoration.

Task One

ATL: Thinking and communication skills

Task Two

ATL: Thinking skills

Task Three

ATL: Thinking and communication skills