The Coming of the West: Japan

I. Japan's Experience with the West
A. Portugese traders/missionaries arrived off Kyushu in mid-16th century
1. introduced Christianity and arquebus (early rifle)

2. arquebus sales linked to conversion--samurai targeted

3. 1550's-1590's, Christian explosion among samurai & their domains

B. Spanish control of Philippines made samurai distrustful of missionaries
1. 1590's-1640's, increasing suppression/persecution of Christianity

2. Tokugawa (1600-1868) regime established so-called "sakoku" policy

3. Dutch allowed to trade at Deshima (Dejima), Nagasaki

a. Dutch vowed not to bring missionaries for conversion

b. Dutch intermediaries in trade between Japan and China

c. Rise of Rangaku "Dutch Studies" in Tokugawa period

II. The Dislocation of the Tokugawa Balance of Power
A. Peace, prosperity, and urbanization led to rise of merchants, decline of samurai

B. Industrial revolution in the West led to increasing hegemony of Britain

    1. Tea/Opium trade with India & China

    2. Opium War 1839-1842

    3. Treaty of Nanjing, Treaty of Tianjing, Convention of Beijing

    4. Unequal treaties, "gunboat diplomacy," and a century of humiliation for China

C. California Gold Rush (1849) led to intensification of U.S. interest in the Pacific

    1. Commodore Matthew Perry commissioned to negotiate US-Japan Treaty

    2. Russian efforts at "opening" Japan preceded Perry

    3. 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa

    4. 1858 Harris Treaty (Townshend Harris)

    5. bakufu inability to enforce sakoku soon evident to all major vassals

D. Anti-Tokugawa Rivals (Choshu, Satsuma, Tosa, and others) exploited the predicament

    1. rise of shishi "men of determination" loyalist radicals

    2. sonno joi "expel the barbarian and revere the emperor"

    3. fukoku kyohei "enrich the country and strengthen it militarily"

E. Ii Naosuke's Ansei Purge (1858-1860) revealed bakufu weakness

III. The Bakumatsu "Final Days of the Bakufu" Era

        A. Various attempts at "court-bakufu unity" (kobu gattai)

        B. Choshu (tozama: modern Yamaguchi Prefecture) challenged the bakufu (1864)

       C. Choshu-Satsuma alliance (1866) left bakufu unable to maintain its power

        D. Tosa Proposal of 1867 enticed Tokugawa Yoshinobu to resign

        E. December 1867-January 1868 Choshu, Satsuma, and Tosa seize Kyoto

        F. Coup d'etat masked as "imperial restoration" (ossei isshin)

        G. Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito) served as a manipulable pawn in the unfolding revolution

        H. Meiji, Taisho, early-Showa history largely an attempt to undue unequal treaties