Late Tokugawa shogunate
Encyclopedia
, literally "end of the curtain", are the final years of the Edo period
when the Tokugawa shogunate
came to an end. It is characterized by major events occurring between 1853 and 1867 during which Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku
and transitioned from a feudal
shogunate to the Meiji government
. The major ideological/political divide during this period was between the pro-imperialist ishin shishi
(nationalist
patriots
) and the shogun
ate forces, including the elite Shinsengumi
(newly selected corps) swordsmen.
Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of Bakumatsu to seize personal power. Furthermore there were two other main driving forces for dissent: first, growing resentment on the part of the tozama
daimyo (or outside lords), and second, growing anti-western sentiment following the arrival of Matthew C. Perry. The first related to those lords who had fought against Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Sekigahara
(in 1600) and had from that point on been excluded permanently from all powerful positions within the shogunate. The second was to be expressed in the phrase sonnō jōi
, or "revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians". The turning point of the Bakumatsu was during the Boshin War
and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi
when pro-shogunate forces were defeated.
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Various frictions with foreign shipping led Japan to take defensive actions from the beginning of the 19th century. Western ships were increasing their presence around Japan due to whaling
activities and the China
trade, and were hoping for Japan to become a base for supply, or at least a place where shipwrecks could receive assistance. The violent demands made by the British frigate Phaeton in 1808 shocked many in Japan. In 1825, the was issued by the Shogunate, prohibiting any contacts with foreigners, and remained in place until 1842.
Meanwhile Japan endeavoured to learn about foreign sciences through the process of Rangaku
("Western studies"). In order to reinforce Japan's capability to carry on the orders to repel Westerners, some such as the Nagasaki
-based Takashima Shūhan
managed to obtain weapons through the Dutch
at Dejima
, such as field guns, mortar
s and firearms. Various domains sent students to learn from Takashima in Nagasaki, from Satsuma Domain after the intrusion of an American warship in 1837 in Kagoshima Bay
, and from Saga Domain
and Chōshū Domain, all southern domains mostly exposed to Western intrusions. These domains also studied the manufacture of Western weapons, and by 1852 Satsuma and Saga had reverbatory furnaces to produce the iron necessary for firearms.
Following the Morrison Incident
involving the Morrison under Charles W. King
in 1837, Egawa Hidetatsu
was put in charge of establishing the defense of Tokyo Bay
against Western intrusions in 1839. After the victory of the English
over the Chinese in the 1840 Opium War, many Japanese realized that traditional ways would not be sufficient to repel Western intrusions. In order to resist Western military forces, Western guns were studied and demonstrations made in 1841 by Takashima Shūhan
to the Tokugawa Shogunate.
A national debate was already taking place about how to better avoid foreign domination. Some like Egawa claimed that it was necessary to use their own techniques to repel them. Others, such as Torii Yōzō argued that only traditional Japanese methods should be employed and reinforced. Egawa argued that just as Confucianism
and Buddhism
had been introduced from abroad, it made sense to introduce useful Western techniques. A theoretical synthesis of "Western knowledge" and "Eastern morality" would later be accomplished by Sakuma Shōzan
and Yokoi Shōnan, in view of "controlling the barbarians with their own methods".
After 1839 however conservatives tended to prevail, and students of Western sciences were accused of treason (Bansha no goku
) and were put under house arrest (Takashima Shūhan
), forced to commit ritual suicide (Watanabe Kazan
, Takano Chōei
), or even assassinated as in the case of Sakuma Shōzan
.
When Commodore
Matthew C. Perry's four-ship squadron appeared in Edo Bay
(Tokyo Bay) in July 1853, the bakufu (shogun
ate) was thrown into turmoil. Commodore Perry was fully prepared for hostilities if his negotiations with the Japanese failed, and threatened to open fire if the Japanese refused to negotiate. He remitted two white flags to them, telling them to hoist the flags when they wished a bombardment from his fleet to cease and to surrender. To demonstrate his weapons Perry ordered his ships to attack several buildings around the harbor. The ships of Perry were equipped with new Paixhans shell guns
, capable of bringing destruction everywhere a shell landed.
Fortifications were established at Odaiba
in Tokyo Bay
in order to protect Edo from an American incursion. Industrial developments were also soon started in order to build modern cannons. A reverbatory furnace was established by Egawa Hidetatsu
in Nirayama
in order to cast cannons. Attempts were made at building Western-style warships from Dutch textbooks, such as the Shōhei Maru
.
The American fleet again arrived in 1854. The chairman of the senior councillors, Abe Masahiro
(1819–1857), was responsible for dealing with the Americans. Having no precedent to manage this threat to national security
, Abe tried to balance the desires of the senior councillors to compromise with the foreigners, of the emperor who wanted to keep the foreigners out, and of the feudal daimyo
rulers who wanted to go to war. Lacking consensus, Abe decided to compromise by accepting Perry's demands for opening Japan to foreign trade while also making military preparations. In March 1854, the Treaty of Peace and Amity
(or Treaty of Kanagawa) maintained the prohibition on trade but opened three ports (Nagasaki, Shimoda
, Hakodate) to American whaling ships seeking provisions, guaranteed good treatment to shipwrecked American sailors, and allowed a United States consul to take up residence in Shimoda
, a seaport on the Izu Peninsula
, southwest of Edo. In February 1855, the Russians would follow suit, with the Treaty of Shimoda
.
The resulting damage to the bakufu was significant. Debate over government policy was unusual and had engendered public criticism of the bakufu. In the hope of enlisting the support of new allies, Abe, to the consternation of the fudai
, had consulted with the shinpan and tozama daimyo, further undermining the already weakened bakufu.
In the Ansei Reform (1854–1856), Abe then tried to strengthen the regime by ordering Dutch warships and armaments from the Netherlands and building new port defenses. In 1855, with Dutch assistance, the Shogunate acquired its first steam warship, Kankō Maru
, which was used for training, and opened the Nagasaki Naval Training Center
with Dutch instructors, and a Western-style military school was established at Edo. In 1857, it acquired its first screw-driven steam warship, the Kanrin Maru
. Scientific knowledge was quickly expanded from the pre-existing foundation of Western knowledge, or "Rangaku
".
Opposition to Abe increased within fudai circles, which opposed opening bakufu councils to tozama daimyo, and he was replaced in 1855 as chairman of the senior councilors by Hotta Masayoshi
(1810–1864). At the head of the dissident faction was Tokugawa Nariaki
, who had long embraced a militant loyalty to the emperor along with anti-foreign sentiments, and who had been put in charge of national defense in 1854. The Mito school—based on neo-Confucian and Shinto principles—had as its goal the restoration of the imperial institution, the turning back of the West.
in December 1854, with the 1854 Ansei-Nankai earthquake
the following day, and the 1855 Ansei Edo earthquake
in November 1855. An earthquake and tsunami struck Shimoda
on the Izu peninsula
in the December 23 1854 Ansei-Tōkai earthquake
, and because the port had just been designated as the prospective location for a US consulate, some construed the natural disasters as demonstration of the displeasure of the Gods.
Following the nomination of Townsend Harris
as U.S. Consul in 1856 and two years of negotiation, the "Treaty of Amity and Commerce
" was signed in 1858 and put into application from mid-1859. In a major diplomatic coup, Harris had abundantly pointed out the aggressive colonialism of France and Great Britain against China in the current Second Opium War
(1856–1860), suggesting that these countries would not hesitate to go to war against Japan as well, and that the United States offered a peaceful alternative.
The most important points of the Treaty were:
Japan was also forced to apply any further conditions granted to other foreign nations in the future to the United States, under the "most favoured nation" provision. Soon several foreign nations followed suit and obtained treaties with Japan (the Ansei Five-Power Treaties, with the United States (Harris Treaty
) on July 29, 1858, Dutch (Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the Netherlands and Japan) on August 18, Russia (Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Russia and Japan) August 19, UK (Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce
) on August 26, and France (Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan
) on October 9).
Trading houses were quickly set up in the open ports.
Hotta
lost the support of key daimyo, and when Tokugawa Nariaki
opposed the new treaty, Hotta sought imperial sanction. The court officials, perceiving the weakness of the bakufu, rejected Hotta's request which resulted in the resignation of himself, and thus suddenly embroiled Kyoto and the emperor in Japan's internal politics for the first time in many centuries. When the shogun died without an heir, Nariaki appealed to the court for support of his own son, Tokugawa Yoshinobu
(or Keiki), for shogun, a candidate favored by the shinpan and tozama
daimyo. The fudai won the power struggle, however, installing Ii Naosuke
, signing the Ansei Five-Power Treaties thus ending more than 200 years of seclusion without imperial grant (granted in 1865) and arresting Nariaki and Yoshinobu, executing Yoshida Shōin
(1830–1859, a leading sonnō-jōi intellectual who had opposed the American treaty and plotted a revolution against the bakufu) known as Ansei Purge
.
From 1859, the ports of Nagasaki
, Hakodate and Yokohama
became open to foreign traders as a consequence of the Treaties. Great number of foreigners arrived in Yokohama and Kanagawa, giving rise to trouble with the samurai. Violence increased against the foreigners and those who dealt with them. Murders of foreigners and collaborative Japanese soon occurred. On 26 August 1859, a Russian sailor was cut to pieces in the streets of Yokohama. Chinese and native servants of the foreigners were killed. In early 1860, two Dutch captains were slaughtered, also in Yokohama.
The Prime Minister Ii Naosuke
, who had signed the Harris Treaty and tried to eliminate opposition to Westernization with the Ansei Purge
, was murdered in March 1860 in the Sakuradamon incident
. A servant of the French Minister was attacked at the end of 1860. On 14 January 1861, Harry Heusken, Secretary to the American mission, was attacked and murdered. On 5 July 1861, a group of samurai attacked the British Legation, resulting in two deaths. During that period, about one foreigner was killed every month. In September 1862 occurred the Richardson Affair, which would force foreign nations to take decisive action in order to protect foreigners and guarantee the implementation of Treaty provisions. In May 1863, the US legation in Edo was torched.
The opening of Japan to uncontrolled foreign trade brought massive economic instability. While some entrepreneurs prospered, many others went bankrupt. Unemployment
rose, as well as inflation
. Coincidentally, major famines also increased the price of food drastically. Incidents occurred between brash foreigners, qualified as "the scum of the earth" by a contemporary diplomat, and the Japanese.
Japan's monetary system, based on Tokugawa coinage
, also broke down. Traditionally, Japan's exchange rate between silver and gold was 1:5, whereas international rates were of the order of 1:15. This led to massive purchases of gold by foreigners, and ultimately forced the Japanese authorities to devalue their currency. There was a massive outflow of gold from Japan, as foreigners rushed to exchange their silver for "token" silver Japanese coinage and again exchange these against gold, giving a 200% profit to the transaction. In 1860, about 4 million ryō
s thus left Japan, that is about 70 tons of gold. This effectively destroyed Japan's gold standard system, and forced it to return to weight-based system with International rates. The Bakufu instead responded to the crises by debasing the gold content of its coins by two thirds, so as to match foreign gold-silver exchange ratios.
Foreigners also brought cholera
to Japan, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
During the 1860s, peasant uprisings (hyakushō ikki) and urban disturbances (uchikowashi) multiplied. "World renewal" movement appeared (yonaoshi ikki), as well as feverish hysteric movements such as the Eejanaika ("Why Not?").
Several missions were sent abroad by the Bakufu, in order to learn about Western civilization, revise unequal treaties
, and delay the opening of cities and harbour to foreign trade. These efforts towards revision remained largely unsuccessful.
A Japanese Embassy to the United States
was sent in 1860, on board the Kanrin Maru
and the USS Powhattan. A First Japanese Embassy to Europe
was sent in 1862.
Belligerent opposition to Western influence further erupted into open conflict when the Emperor Kōmei
, breaking with centuries of imperial tradition, began to take an active role in matters of state and issued, on March 11 and April 11, 1863, his .
The Shimonoseki-based Chōshū clan, under Lord Mori Takachika
, followed on the Order, and began to take actions to expel all foreigners from the date fixed as a deadline (May 10, Lunar calendar). Openly defying the shogunate, Takachika ordered his forces to fire without warning on all foreign ships traversing Shimonoseki Strait.
Under pressure from the Emperor, the Shogun was also forced to issue a declaration promulgating the end of relations with foreigners. The order was forwarded to foreign legations by Ogasawara Zusho no Kami on June 24, 1863:
Lieutenant-Colonel Neale, head of the British legation, responded on very strong terms, equating the move with a declaration of war:
A Second Japanese Embassy to Europe
would be sent in December 1863, with the mission to obtain European support to reinstate Japan's former closure to foreign trade, and especially stop foreign access to the harbor of Yokohama
. The Embassy ended in total failure as European powers did not see any advantages in yielding to its demands.
(1861–1865) that monopolized all available U.S. resources. This influence would be replaced by that of the British, the Dutch and the French.
The two ringleaders of the opposition to the Bakufu were from the provinces Satsuma (present day Kagoshima prefecture) and Chōshū (present-day Yamaguchi prefecture), two of the strongest tozama anti-shogunate domains in Edo period Japan. Satsuma military leaders Saigō Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi were brought together with Katsura Kogorō (Kido Takayoshi) of Chōshū. As they happened to be directly involved in the murder of Richardson for the former, and the attacks on foreign shipping in Shimonoseki for the latter, and as the Bakufu declared itself unable to placate them, Allied forces decided to mount direct military expeditions.
In the morning of July 16, 1863, under sanction by Minister Pruyn, in an apparent swift response to the attack on the Pembroke, the U.S. frigate USS Wyoming
under Captain McDougal himself sailed into the strait and single-handedly engaged the U.S.-built but poorly manned rebel fleet. For almost two hours before withdrawing, McDougal sank one enemy vessel and severely damaged the other two, along with some forty Japanese casualties, while the Wyoming suffered extensive damage with fourteen crew dead or wounded.
, and 250 men under Captain Benjamin Jaurès
swept into Shimonoseki and destroyed a small town, together with at least one artillery emplacement.
In August 1863, the Bombardment of Kagoshima took place, in retaliation for the Namamugi incident
and the murder of the English trader Richardson. The British Royal Navy
bombarded the town of Kagoshima and destroyed several ships. Satsuma however later negotiated and paid 25,000 pounds, but did not remit Richardson's killers, and in exchange obtained an agreement by Great Britain to supply steam warships to Satsuma. The conflict actually became the starting point of a close relationship between Satsuma and Great Britain, which became major allies in the ensuing Boshin War
. From the start, the Satsuma Province
had generally been in favour of the opening and modernization of Japan. Although the Namamugi Incident was unfortunate, it was not characteristic of Satsuma's policy, and was rather abusively branded as an example of anti-foreign sonnō jōi
sentiment, as a justification to a strong Western show of force.
On 2 May 1864, another rebellion erupted against the power of the Shogunate, the Mito rebellion
. This rebellion also was in the name of the Sonnō Jōi
, the expulsion of the Western "barbarians" and the return to Imperial rule. The Shogunate managed to send an army to quell the revolt, which was ended in blood with the surrender of the rebels on 14 January 1865.
on 20 August 1864, troops from Chōshū Domain attempted to take control of Kyoto and the Imperial Palace in order to pursue the objective of Sonnō Jōi
. This also led to a punitive expedition by the Tokugawa government, the First Chōshū expedition
(長州征討).
Western nations planned an armed retaliation against armed Japanese opposition with the Bombardment of Shimonoseki. The Allied intervention occurred in September 1864, combining the naval forces of Great Britain
, the Netherlands
, France
and the United States
, against the powerful daimyo
Mōri Takachika
of the Chōshū Domain based in Shimonoseki, Japan
. This conflict threatened to involve America, which in 1864, was already torn by civil strife, in a foreign war.
was reinstated, and remnants of the rebellions of 1863–64 as well as the Shishi
movement were brutally suppressed throughout the land.
The military interventions by foreign powers also proved that Japan was no military match against the West, and that expelling foreigners was not a realistic policy. The Sonnō Jōi movement thus lost its initial impetus. The structural weaknesses of the Bakufu however remained an issue, and the focus of opposition would then shift to creating a strong government under a single authority.
As the Bakufu has proved incapable to pay the $3,000,000 indemnity demanded by foreign nations for the intervention at Shimonoseki, foreign nations agreed to reduce the amount in exchange for a ratification of the Harris Treaty by the Emperor, a lowering of customs tariffs to a uniform 5%, and the opening of the harbours of Hyōgo (modern Kōbe
) and Osaka
to foreign trade. In order to press their demands more forcefully, a squadron of four British, one Dutch and three French warships were sent to the harbour of Hyōgo in November 1865. Various incursions were made by foreign forces, until the Emperor finally agreed to change his total opposition to the Treaties, by formally allowing the Shogun to handle negotiations with foreign powers.
These conflicts led to the realization that head-on conflict with Western nations was not a solution for Japan. As the Bakufu continued its modernization efforts, Western daimyos (especially from Satsuma and Chōshū) also continued to modernize intensively in order to build a stronger Japan and to establish a more legitimate government under Imperial power.
managed to negotiate a ceasefire due to the death of the previous Shogun, but the prestige of the Shogunate was nevertheless seriously affected.
This reversal encouraged the Bakufu to take drastic steps towards modernization.
During the last years of the bakufu, or bakumatsu, the bakufu took strong measures to try to reassert its dominance, although its involvement with modernization and foreign powers was to make it a target of anti-Western sentiment throughout the country.
Naval students were sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral Enomoto
. The French naval engineer Léonce Verny
was hired to build naval arsenals, such as Yokosuka and Nagasaki. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy of the shogun
already possessed eight western-style steam warships around the flagship Kaiyō Maru
, which were used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin war
, under the command of Admiral Enomoto
. A French Military Mission to Japan (1867)
was established to help modernize the armies of the Bakufu. Japan sent a delegation and participated to the 1867 World Fair
in Paris.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu
(also known as Keiki) reluctantly became head of the Tokugawa house and shogun following the unexpected death of Tokugawa Iemochi
in mid-1866. In 1867, Emperor Kōmei
died and was succeeded by his second son, Mutsuhito, as Emperor Meiji
. Tokugawa Yoshinobu tried to reorganize the government under the Emperor while preserving the shogun's leadership role, a system known as kōbu gattai. Fearing the growing power of the Satsuma and Chōshū daimyo, other daimyo called for returning the shogun's political power to the emperor and a council of daimyo chaired by the former Tokugawa shogun. With the threat of an imminent Satsuma-Chōshū led military action, Keiki moved pre-emptively by surrendering some of his previous authority.
After Keiki had temporarily avoided the growing conflict, anti-shogunal forces instigated widespread turmoil in the streets of Edo using groups of rōnin. Satsuma and Chōshū forces then moved on Kyoto in force, pressuring the Imperial Court for a conclusive edict demolishing the shogunate. Following a conference of daimyo, the Imperial Court issued such an edict, removing the power of the shogunate in the dying days of 1867. The Satsuma, Chōshū, and other han leaders and radical courtiers, however, rebelled
, seized the imperial palace, and announced their own restoration on January 3, 1868. Keiki nominally accepted the plan, retiring from the Imperial Court to Osaka at the same time as resigning as shogun. Fearing a feigned concession of the shogunal power to consolidate power, the dispute continued until culminating in a military confrontation between Tokugawa and allied domains with Satsuma, Tosa and Chōshū forces, in Fushimi and Toba. With the turning of the battle toward anti-shogunal forces, Keiki then quit Osaka for Edo, essentially ending both the power of the Tokugawa, and the shogunate that had ruled Japan for over 250 years.
Following the Boshin war
(1868–1869), the bakufu was abolished, and Keiki was reduced to the ranks of the common daimyo. Resistance continued in the North throughout 1868, and the bakufu naval forces
under Admiral Enomoto Takeaki
continued to hold out for another six months in Hokkaidō
, where they founded the short-lived Republic of Ezo
. This defiance ended in May 1869 at the Battle of Hakodate
, after one month of fighting.
Less known figures of the time:
Matsudaira Yoshinaga
, Date Munenari
, Yamanouchi Toyoshige
and Shimazu Nariaki are collectively referred to as .
Foreign observers:
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
when the Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
came to an end. It is characterized by major events occurring between 1853 and 1867 during which Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku
Sakoku
was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...
and transitioned from a feudal
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
shogunate to the Meiji government
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
. The major ideological/political divide during this period was between the pro-imperialist ishin shishi
Shishi (organization)
Shishi was a term used to describe Japanese political activists of the late Edo period...
(nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
patriots
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
) and the shogun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
ate forces, including the elite Shinsengumi
Shinsengumi
The were a special police force of the late shogunate period.-Historical background:After Japan opened up to the West following U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's visits in 1853, its political situation gradually became more and more chaotic...
(newly selected corps) swordsmen.
Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of Bakumatsu to seize personal power. Furthermore there were two other main driving forces for dissent: first, growing resentment on the part of the tozama
Tozama
A ' was a daimyo who was considered an outsider by the rulers of Japan. The term came into use in the Kamakura period and continued until the end of the Edo period.-Edo period:...
daimyo (or outside lords), and second, growing anti-western sentiment following the arrival of Matthew C. Perry. The first related to those lords who had fought against Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Sekigahara
Battle of Sekigahara
The , popularly known as the , was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu...
(in 1600) and had from that point on been excluded permanently from all powerful positions within the shogunate. The second was to be expressed in the phrase sonnō jōi
Sonno joi
is a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, during the Bakumatsu period.-Origin:...
, or "revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians". The turning point of the Bakumatsu was during the Boshin War
Boshin War
The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....
and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi
Battle of Toba-Fushimi
The occurred between pro-Imperial and Tokugawa shogunate forces during the Boshin War in Japan. The battle started on 27 January 1868 , when the forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and the allied forces of Chōshū, Satsuma and Tosa domains clashed near Fushimi...
when pro-shogunate forces were defeated.
Foreign frictions
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
activities and the China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
trade, and were hoping for Japan to become a base for supply, or at least a place where shipwrecks could receive assistance. The violent demands made by the British frigate Phaeton in 1808 shocked many in Japan. In 1825, the was issued by the Shogunate, prohibiting any contacts with foreigners, and remained in place until 1842.
Rangaku
Rangaku is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641–1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate’s policy of national...
("Western studies"). In order to reinforce Japan's capability to carry on the orders to repel Westerners, some such as the Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
-based Takashima Shūhan
Takashima Shūhan
was a Japanese samurai and military engineer. He is significant in having started to import flintlock guns from the Netherlands at the end of Japan's period of Seclusion, during the Late Tokugawa Shogunate. Throughout his life Takashima Shūhan was one of those early Japanese reformists who argued...
managed to obtain weapons through the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
at Dejima
Dejima
was a small fan-shaped artificial island built in the bay of Nagasaki in 1634. This island, which was formed by digging a canal through a small peninsula, remained as the single place of direct trade and exchange between Japan and the outside world during the Edo period. Dejima was built to...
, such as field guns, mortar
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
s and firearms. Various domains sent students to learn from Takashima in Nagasaki, from Satsuma Domain after the intrusion of an American warship in 1837 in Kagoshima Bay
Kagoshima Bay
is a deep inlet on the coast of Japan.Kagoshima Bay is on the south coast of the island of Kyūshū. The port city of Kagoshima and its well-protected harbor lie on the bays western coast....
, and from Saga Domain
Saga Domain
Saga Domain was a han, or feudal domain, in Tokugawa period Japan. Largely contiguous with Hizen Province on Kyūshū, the domain was governed from Saga Castle in the capital city of Saga by the Nabeshima clan of tozama daimyō...
and Chōshū Domain, all southern domains mostly exposed to Western intrusions. These domains also studied the manufacture of Western weapons, and by 1852 Satsuma and Saga had reverbatory furnaces to produce the iron necessary for firearms.
Following the Morrison Incident
Morrison Incident
The of 1837 occurred when the American merchant ship, Morrison headed by Charles W. King, was driven away from "sakoku" Japan by cannon fire...
involving the Morrison under Charles W. King
Charles W. King
Charles W. King was an American merchant in Canton, China, who is famous for having tried to open trade with Japan on the pretext of repatriating seven Japanese castaways, among them Otokichi, to their homeland in 1837 in the Morrison Incident....
in 1837, Egawa Hidetatsu
Egawa Hidetatsu
was a Japanese Bakufu intendant of the 19th century. He was Daikan, in charge of the domains of the Tokugawa shogunate in Izu, Sagami and Kai Provinces during the Bakumatsu period...
was put in charge of establishing the defense of Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...
against Western intrusions in 1839. After the victory of the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
over the Chinese in the 1840 Opium War, many Japanese realized that traditional ways would not be sufficient to repel Western intrusions. In order to resist Western military forces, Western guns were studied and demonstrations made in 1841 by Takashima Shūhan
Takashima Shūhan
was a Japanese samurai and military engineer. He is significant in having started to import flintlock guns from the Netherlands at the end of Japan's period of Seclusion, during the Late Tokugawa Shogunate. Throughout his life Takashima Shūhan was one of those early Japanese reformists who argued...
to the Tokugawa Shogunate.
A national debate was already taking place about how to better avoid foreign domination. Some like Egawa claimed that it was necessary to use their own techniques to repel them. Others, such as Torii Yōzō argued that only traditional Japanese methods should be employed and reinforced. Egawa argued that just as Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
and Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
had been introduced from abroad, it made sense to introduce useful Western techniques. A theoretical synthesis of "Western knowledge" and "Eastern morality" would later be accomplished by Sakuma Shōzan
Sakuma Shozan
sometimes called Sakuma Zōzan, was a Japanese politician and scholar of the Edo era. He was the son of a samurai, and a native of Shinshu in today's Nagano-ken.From the age of 23, he went to Edo and for 10 years studied Chinese sciences ....
and Yokoi Shōnan, in view of "controlling the barbarians with their own methods".
After 1839 however conservatives tended to prevail, and students of Western sciences were accused of treason (Bansha no goku
Bansha no goku
The Bansha no goku refers to the 1839 suppression of scholars of Western Studies by the Edo Shogunate government of Japan....
) and were put under house arrest (Takashima Shūhan
Takashima Shūhan
was a Japanese samurai and military engineer. He is significant in having started to import flintlock guns from the Netherlands at the end of Japan's period of Seclusion, during the Late Tokugawa Shogunate. Throughout his life Takashima Shūhan was one of those early Japanese reformists who argued...
), forced to commit ritual suicide (Watanabe Kazan
Watanabe Kazan
was a Japanese painter, scholar and statesman member of the samurai class.- Early life :He was born Watanabe Sadayasu in Edo to a poor samurai family, and his artistic talent was developed from an early age. His family served the lord of the Tahara Domain, located in present day Aichi prefecture....
, Takano Chōei
Takano Choei
was a prominent scholar of Rangaku of the late Edo period.Chōei was born as Gotō Kyōsai, the third son of Gotō Sōsuke who was a middle ranking samurai in Mizusawa Domain of Mutsu Province which is in present-day Iwate Prefecture...
), or even assassinated as in the case of Sakuma Shōzan
Sakuma Shozan
sometimes called Sakuma Zōzan, was a Japanese politician and scholar of the Edo era. He was the son of a samurai, and a native of Shinshu in today's Nagano-ken.From the age of 23, he went to Edo and for 10 years studied Chinese sciences ....
.
Commodore Perry (1853–54)
Commodore (USN)
Commodore was an early title and later a rank in the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard and a current honorary title in the U.S. Navy with an intricate history. Because the U.S. Congress was originally unwilling to authorize more than four ranks until 1862, considerable importance...
Matthew C. Perry's four-ship squadron appeared in Edo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...
(Tokyo Bay) in July 1853, the bakufu (shogun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
ate) was thrown into turmoil. Commodore Perry was fully prepared for hostilities if his negotiations with the Japanese failed, and threatened to open fire if the Japanese refused to negotiate. He remitted two white flags to them, telling them to hoist the flags when they wished a bombardment from his fleet to cease and to surrender. To demonstrate his weapons Perry ordered his ships to attack several buildings around the harbor. The ships of Perry were equipped with new Paixhans shell guns
Paixhans gun
The Paixhans gun was the first naval gun designed to fire explosive shells. It was developed by the French general Henri-Joseph Paixhans in 1822-1823.-Background:...
, capable of bringing destruction everywhere a shell landed.
Fortifications were established at Odaiba
Odaiba
is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. It was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s, dramatically expanded during the late 20th century as a seaport district, and has developed since the 1990s as a major commercial, residential...
in Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...
in order to protect Edo from an American incursion. Industrial developments were also soon started in order to build modern cannons. A reverbatory furnace was established by Egawa Hidetatsu
Egawa Hidetatsu
was a Japanese Bakufu intendant of the 19th century. He was Daikan, in charge of the domains of the Tokugawa shogunate in Izu, Sagami and Kai Provinces during the Bakumatsu period...
in Nirayama
Nirayama, Shizuoka
was a town located in Tagata District, Shizuoka, Japan.On April 1, 2005 Nirayama was merged with the towns of Ōhito and Izunagaoka, both from Tagata District, to form the new city of Izunokuni....
in order to cast cannons. Attempts were made at building Western-style warships from Dutch textbooks, such as the Shōhei Maru
Japanese warship Shohei Maru
Shōhei Maru was Japan's first Western-style warship following the country's period of seclusion. She was ordered in 1852 by the government of the Shogun to the southern fief of Satsuma in the island of Kyūshū, in anticipation of the announced mission of Commodore Perry in 1853.The ship was...
.
The American fleet again arrived in 1854. The chairman of the senior councillors, Abe Masahiro
Abe Masahiro
was the chief senior councillor in the Japanese government at the time of the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry. Against the shogun's wishes, and the wishes of many other government officials, he worked to open Japan to the West, signing the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, and other unequal...
(1819–1857), was responsible for dealing with the Americans. Having no precedent to manage this threat to national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
, Abe tried to balance the desires of the senior councillors to compromise with the foreigners, of the emperor who wanted to keep the foreigners out, and of the feudal daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
rulers who wanted to go to war. Lacking consensus, Abe decided to compromise by accepting Perry's demands for opening Japan to foreign trade while also making military preparations. In March 1854, the Treaty of Peace and Amity
Convention of Kanagawa
On March 31, 1854, the or was concluded between Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the U.S. Navy and the Tokugawa shogunate.-Treaty of Peace and Amity :...
(or Treaty of Kanagawa) maintained the prohibition on trade but opened three ports (Nagasaki, Shimoda
Shimoda, Shizuoka
is a city and port in Shizuoka, Japan.As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 25,054 and a population density of 242 persons per square kilometer...
, Hakodate) to American whaling ships seeking provisions, guaranteed good treatment to shipwrecked American sailors, and allowed a United States consul to take up residence in Shimoda
Shimoda, Shizuoka
is a city and port in Shizuoka, Japan.As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 25,054 and a population density of 242 persons per square kilometer...
, a seaport on the Izu Peninsula
Izu Peninsula
The is a large mountainous peninsula with deeply indented coasts to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshū, Japan. Formerly the eponymous Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture...
, southwest of Edo. In February 1855, the Russians would follow suit, with the Treaty of Shimoda
Treaty of Shimoda
The Treaty of Shimoda of 1855, formally Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Japan and Russia , was signed between the Russian Vice-Admiral Euphimy Vasil'evich Putiatin and Toshiakira Kawaji of Japan in the city of Shimoda, Izu Province, Japan, on February 7, 1855...
.
Political troubles and modernization
Fudai
was a class of daimyo who were hereditary vassals of the Tokugawa in Edo period Japan. It was primarily the fudai who filled the ranks of the Tokugawa administration.-Origins:...
, had consulted with the shinpan and tozama daimyo, further undermining the already weakened bakufu.
In the Ansei Reform (1854–1856), Abe then tried to strengthen the regime by ordering Dutch warships and armaments from the Netherlands and building new port defenses. In 1855, with Dutch assistance, the Shogunate acquired its first steam warship, Kankō Maru
Kanko Maru
The was Japan's first steam warship. The ship was a 3-masted top sail schooner , with an auxiliary coal-fired steam engine turning a side paddlewheel...
, which was used for training, and opened the Nagasaki Naval Training Center
Nagasaki Naval Training Center
The was a naval training institute, between 1855 when it was established by the government of the Tokugawa shogunate, until 1859, when it was transferred to Tsukiji in Edo....
with Dutch instructors, and a Western-style military school was established at Edo. In 1857, it acquired its first screw-driven steam warship, the Kanrin Maru
Japanese warship Kanrin Maru
Kanrin Maru was Japan's first sail and screw-driven steam corvette . She was ordered in 1853 from the Netherlands, the only Western country with which Japan had diplomatic relations throughout its period of sakoku , by the Shogun's government, the Bakufu...
. Scientific knowledge was quickly expanded from the pre-existing foundation of Western knowledge, or "Rangaku
Rangaku
Rangaku is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641–1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate’s policy of national...
".
Opposition to Abe increased within fudai circles, which opposed opening bakufu councils to tozama daimyo, and he was replaced in 1855 as chairman of the senior councilors by Hotta Masayoshi
Hotta Masayoshi
was a Japanese daimyo in the Edo period; and he was a prominent figure in the Tokugawa shogunate.-Rōjū:the Shogun's advisor from 1837 to 1843, and again from 1855 to 1858...
(1810–1864). At the head of the dissident faction was Tokugawa Nariaki
Tokugawa Nariaki
Tokugawa Nariaki was a prominent Japanese daimyo who ruled the Mito domain and contributed to the rise of nationalism and the Meiji restoration.- Clan leader :...
, who had long embraced a militant loyalty to the emperor along with anti-foreign sentiments, and who had been put in charge of national defense in 1854. The Mito school—based on neo-Confucian and Shinto principles—had as its goal the restoration of the imperial institution, the turning back of the West.
Earthquakes
The period saw a dramatic series of earthquakes, the Ansei Great Earthquakes, including the 1854 Ansei-Tōkai earthquake1854 Ansei-Tōkai earthquake
The 1854 Ansei-Tōkai earthquake was the first of the Ansei Great Earthquakes . It occurred at about 09:00 local time on 23 December, 1854. It had a magnitude of 8.4 and caused a damaging tsunami...
in December 1854, with the 1854 Ansei-Nankai earthquake
1854 Ansei-Nankai earthquake
The 1854 Ansei-Nankai earthquake occurred at about 16:00 local time on 24 December, 1854. It had a magnitude of 8.4 and caused a damaging tsunami...
the following day, and the 1855 Ansei Edo earthquake
1855 Ansei Edo earthquake
The , also known as the Great Ansei Earthquake, was one of the major disasters of the late-Edo period. The earthquake occurred at 22:00 local time on 11 November. It had an epicenter close to Edo , causing considerable damage in the Kantō region from the shaking and subsequent fires, with a death...
in November 1855. An earthquake and tsunami struck Shimoda
Shimoda
Shimoda can mean:* Places in Japan:** Shimoda, Shizuoka, a city in Shizuoka Prefecture** Shimoda, Aomori, a town in Aomori Prefecture* Treaty of Shimoda , between Japan and Russia* Shimoda Toyomatsu, an early Japanese Scouting notable...
on the Izu peninsula
Izu Peninsula
The is a large mountainous peninsula with deeply indented coasts to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshū, Japan. Formerly the eponymous Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture...
in the December 23 1854 Ansei-Tōkai earthquake
1854 Ansei-Tōkai earthquake
The 1854 Ansei-Tōkai earthquake was the first of the Ansei Great Earthquakes . It occurred at about 09:00 local time on 23 December, 1854. It had a magnitude of 8.4 and caused a damaging tsunami...
, and because the port had just been designated as the prospective location for a US consulate, some construed the natural disasters as demonstration of the displeasure of the Gods.
Treaties of Amity and Commerce (1858)
Townsend Harris
Townsend Harris was a successful New York City merchant and minor politician, and the first United States Consul General to Japan...
as U.S. Consul in 1856 and two years of negotiation, the "Treaty of Amity and Commerce
Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States-Japan)
The , also called Harris Treaty, between the United States and Japan was signed at the Ryōsen-ji in Shimoda on July 29, 1858. It opened the ports of Yokohama and four other Japanese cities to American trade and granted extraterritoriality to foreigners, among other stipulations.-The Treaty:The...
" was signed in 1858 and put into application from mid-1859. In a major diplomatic coup, Harris had abundantly pointed out the aggressive colonialism of France and Great Britain against China in the current Second Opium War
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War, the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the Second French Empire against the Qing Dynasty of China, lasting from 1856 to 1860...
(1856–1860), suggesting that these countries would not hesitate to go to war against Japan as well, and that the United States offered a peaceful alternative.
The most important points of the Treaty were:
- exchange of diplomatic agents.
- EdoEdo, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...
, KobeKobe, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, Nagasaki, NiigataNiigata, Niigatais the capital and the most populous city of Niigata Prefecture, Japan. It lies on the northwest coast of Honshu, the largest island of Japan, and faces the Sea of Japan and Sado Island....
, and YokohamaYokohamais the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
’s opening to foreign trade as ports. - ability of United States citizens to live and trade at will in those ports (only opiumOpiumOpium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
trade was prohibited). - a system of extraterritorialityExtraterritorialityExtraterritoriality is the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Extraterritoriality can also be applied to physical places, such as military bases of foreign countries, or offices of the United Nations...
that provided for the subjugation of foreign residents to the laws of their own consular courts instead of the Japanese law system. - fixed low import-export duties, subject to international control
- ability for Japan to purchase American shipping and weapons (three American steamships were delivered to Japan in 1862).
Japan was also forced to apply any further conditions granted to other foreign nations in the future to the United States, under the "most favoured nation" provision. Soon several foreign nations followed suit and obtained treaties with Japan (the Ansei Five-Power Treaties, with the United States (Harris Treaty
Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States-Japan)
The , also called Harris Treaty, between the United States and Japan was signed at the Ryōsen-ji in Shimoda on July 29, 1858. It opened the ports of Yokohama and four other Japanese cities to American trade and granted extraterritoriality to foreigners, among other stipulations.-The Treaty:The...
) on July 29, 1858, Dutch (Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the Netherlands and Japan) on August 18, Russia (Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Russia and Japan) August 19, UK (Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce
Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce
The was signed on August 26, 1858 by Lord Elgin and the then representatives of the Japanese government . This was an unequal treaty, that gave Japan semi-colonial status.The concessions which Japan made were threefold:...
) on August 26, and France (Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan
Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan
The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan was signed in Edo on October 9, 1858, by Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros, the commander of the French expedition in China, assisted by Charles de Chassiron and Alfred de Moges, opening diplomatic relations between the two countries...
) on October 9).
Trading houses were quickly set up in the open ports.
Political crisis
Hotta Masayoshi
was a Japanese daimyo in the Edo period; and he was a prominent figure in the Tokugawa shogunate.-Rōjū:the Shogun's advisor from 1837 to 1843, and again from 1855 to 1858...
lost the support of key daimyo, and when Tokugawa Nariaki
Tokugawa Nariaki
Tokugawa Nariaki was a prominent Japanese daimyo who ruled the Mito domain and contributed to the rise of nationalism and the Meiji restoration.- Clan leader :...
opposed the new treaty, Hotta sought imperial sanction. The court officials, perceiving the weakness of the bakufu, rejected Hotta's request which resulted in the resignation of himself, and thus suddenly embroiled Kyoto and the emperor in Japan's internal politics for the first time in many centuries. When the shogun died without an heir, Nariaki appealed to the court for support of his own son, Tokugawa Yoshinobu
Tokugawa Yoshinobu
was the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful...
(or Keiki), for shogun, a candidate favored by the shinpan and tozama
Tozama
A ' was a daimyo who was considered an outsider by the rulers of Japan. The term came into use in the Kamakura period and continued until the end of the Edo period.-Edo period:...
daimyo. The fudai won the power struggle, however, installing Ii Naosuke
Ii Naosuke
was daimyo of Hikone and also Tairō of Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan, a position he held from April 23, 1858 until his death on March 24, 1860. He is most famous for signing the Harris Treaty with the United States, granting access to ports for trade to American merchants and seamen and...
, signing the Ansei Five-Power Treaties thus ending more than 200 years of seclusion without imperial grant (granted in 1865) and arresting Nariaki and Yoshinobu, executing Yoshida Shōin
Yoshida Shoin
Yoshida Shōin was one of the most distinguished intellectuals in the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate...
(1830–1859, a leading sonnō-jōi intellectual who had opposed the American treaty and plotted a revolution against the bakufu) known as Ansei Purge
Ansei Purge
The Ansei Purge was a purge, in 1858 and 1859, of over 100 people from the bakufu, various han, and the Japanese Imperial court...
.
Attacks on foreigners and their supporters
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
, Hakodate and Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
became open to foreign traders as a consequence of the Treaties. Great number of foreigners arrived in Yokohama and Kanagawa, giving rise to trouble with the samurai. Violence increased against the foreigners and those who dealt with them. Murders of foreigners and collaborative Japanese soon occurred. On 26 August 1859, a Russian sailor was cut to pieces in the streets of Yokohama. Chinese and native servants of the foreigners were killed. In early 1860, two Dutch captains were slaughtered, also in Yokohama.
The Prime Minister Ii Naosuke
Ii Naosuke
was daimyo of Hikone and also Tairō of Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan, a position he held from April 23, 1858 until his death on March 24, 1860. He is most famous for signing the Harris Treaty with the United States, granting access to ports for trade to American merchants and seamen and...
, who had signed the Harris Treaty and tried to eliminate opposition to Westernization with the Ansei Purge
Ansei Purge
The Ansei Purge was a purge, in 1858 and 1859, of over 100 people from the bakufu, various han, and the Japanese Imperial court...
, was murdered in March 1860 in the Sakuradamon incident
Sakuradamon incident (1860)
The on 24 March 1860 was the assassination of Japanese Chief Minister Ii Naosuke , by rōnin samurai of the Mito Domain, outside the Sakuradamon gate of Edo Castle.-Context:...
. A servant of the French Minister was attacked at the end of 1860. On 14 January 1861, Harry Heusken, Secretary to the American mission, was attacked and murdered. On 5 July 1861, a group of samurai attacked the British Legation, resulting in two deaths. During that period, about one foreigner was killed every month. In September 1862 occurred the Richardson Affair, which would force foreign nations to take decisive action in order to protect foreigners and guarantee the implementation of Treaty provisions. In May 1863, the US legation in Edo was torched.
Economic and social crisis
| Japanese foreign trade (1860–1865, in Mexican dollars) |
||
| 1860 | 1865 | |
| Exports | 4.7 million | 17 million |
| Imports | 1.66 million | 15 million |
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
rose, as well as inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
. Coincidentally, major famines also increased the price of food drastically. Incidents occurred between brash foreigners, qualified as "the scum of the earth" by a contemporary diplomat, and the Japanese.
Japan's monetary system, based on Tokugawa coinage
Tokugawa coinage
Tokugawa coinage was a unitary and independent metallic monetary system established by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1601 in Japan, and which lasted throughout the Tokugawa period until its end in 1867.-History:...
, also broke down. Traditionally, Japan's exchange rate between silver and gold was 1:5, whereas international rates were of the order of 1:15. This led to massive purchases of gold by foreigners, and ultimately forced the Japanese authorities to devalue their currency. There was a massive outflow of gold from Japan, as foreigners rushed to exchange their silver for "token" silver Japanese coinage and again exchange these against gold, giving a 200% profit to the transaction. In 1860, about 4 million ryō
Ryo
Ryo may refer to:* The Japanese kana digraph ryo, ryō, or ryoh * Ryō , a gold piece in pre-Meiji era Japan worth about sixty monme or four kan...
s thus left Japan, that is about 70 tons of gold. This effectively destroyed Japan's gold standard system, and forced it to return to weight-based system with International rates. The Bakufu instead responded to the crises by debasing the gold content of its coins by two thirds, so as to match foreign gold-silver exchange ratios.
Foreigners also brought cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
to Japan, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Several missions were sent abroad by the Bakufu, in order to learn about Western civilization, revise unequal treaties
Unequal Treaties
“Unequal treaty” is a term used in specific reference to a number of treaties imposed by Western powers, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, on Qing Dynasty China and late Tokugawa Japan...
, and delay the opening of cities and harbour to foreign trade. These efforts towards revision remained largely unsuccessful.
A Japanese Embassy to the United States
Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860)
The was dispatched in 1860 by the Tokugawa shogunate . Its objective was to ratify the new Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation between the United States and Japan, in addition to being Japan’s first diplomatic mission to the United States since the 1854 opening of Japan by Commodore...
was sent in 1860, on board the Kanrin Maru
Japanese warship Kanrin Maru
Kanrin Maru was Japan's first sail and screw-driven steam corvette . She was ordered in 1853 from the Netherlands, the only Western country with which Japan had diplomatic relations throughout its period of sakoku , by the Shogun's government, the Bakufu...
and the USS Powhattan. A First Japanese Embassy to Europe
First Japanese Embassy to Europe (1862)
The First Japanese Embassy to Europe was sent to Europe by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1862. The head of the mission was Takenouchi Yasunori, governor of Shimotsuke Province . The head of the mission staff was Shibata Sadataro. Fukuzawa Yukichi was a member of the mission, acting as one of the two...
was sent in 1862.
Imperial "Order to expel barbarians" (1863)
Emperor Komei
was the 121st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōmei's reign spanned the years from 1846 through 1867.-Genealogy:Before Kōmei's accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name was ;, his title was ....
, breaking with centuries of imperial tradition, began to take an active role in matters of state and issued, on March 11 and April 11, 1863, his .
Mōri Takachika
was the 14th daimyo of Chōshū Domain. He was later allowed to use a character from the name of shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi and changed his name to Yoshichika...
, followed on the Order, and began to take actions to expel all foreigners from the date fixed as a deadline (May 10, Lunar calendar). Openly defying the shogunate, Takachika ordered his forces to fire without warning on all foreign ships traversing Shimonoseki Strait.
Under pressure from the Emperor, the Shogun was also forced to issue a declaration promulgating the end of relations with foreigners. The order was forwarded to foreign legations by Ogasawara Zusho no Kami on June 24, 1863:
Lieutenant-Colonel Neale, head of the British legation, responded on very strong terms, equating the move with a declaration of war:
A Second Japanese Embassy to Europe
Second Japanese Embassy to Europe (1863)
The Second Japanese Embassy to Europe , also called the Ikeda Mission, was sent on December 29 1863 by the Tokugawa shogunate. The head of the mission was Ikeda Nagaoki, governor of small villages of Ibara, Bitchū Province...
would be sent in December 1863, with the mission to obtain European support to reinstate Japan's former closure to foreign trade, and especially stop foreign access to the harbor of Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
. The Embassy ended in total failure as European powers did not see any advantages in yielding to its demands.
Military interventions against Sonnō Jōi (1863–1865)
American influence, so important in the beginning, waned after 1861 due to the advent of the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
(1861–1865) that monopolized all available U.S. resources. This influence would be replaced by that of the British, the Dutch and the French.
The two ringleaders of the opposition to the Bakufu were from the provinces Satsuma (present day Kagoshima prefecture) and Chōshū (present-day Yamaguchi prefecture), two of the strongest tozama anti-shogunate domains in Edo period Japan. Satsuma military leaders Saigō Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi were brought together with Katsura Kogorō (Kido Takayoshi) of Chōshū. As they happened to be directly involved in the murder of Richardson for the former, and the attacks on foreign shipping in Shimonoseki for the latter, and as the Bakufu declared itself unable to placate them, Allied forces decided to mount direct military expeditions.
American intervention (July 1863)
In the morning of July 16, 1863, under sanction by Minister Pruyn, in an apparent swift response to the attack on the Pembroke, the U.S. frigate USS Wyoming
USS Wyoming (1859)
The first USS Wyoming of the United States Navy was a wooden-hulled screw sloop that fought on the Union side during the American Civil War. Sent to the Pacific Ocean to search for the CSS Alabama, Wyoming eventually came upon the shores of Japan and engaged Japanese land and sea forces...
under Captain McDougal himself sailed into the strait and single-handedly engaged the U.S.-built but poorly manned rebel fleet. For almost two hours before withdrawing, McDougal sank one enemy vessel and severely damaged the other two, along with some forty Japanese casualties, while the Wyoming suffered extensive damage with fourteen crew dead or wounded.
French intervention (August 1863)
On the heels of McDougal's engagement, two weeks later a French landing force of two warships, the Tancrède and the DupleixFS Dupleix (1861)
The Dupleix was a steam and sail corvette of the French Marine Nationale. She was the first French vessel named after the 18th Century Governor of Pondichéry and Gouverneur Général of the French possessions in India marquess Joseph François Dupleix.After her commissioning, the Dupleix was sent to...
, and 250 men under Captain Benjamin Jaurès
Benjamin Jaurès
Constant Louis Jean Benjamin Jaurès was a 19th-century French Admiral and Senator, who was active in Japan during the Bombardment of Shimonoseki and the Boshin war ....
swept into Shimonoseki and destroyed a small town, together with at least one artillery emplacement.
British bombardment of Kagoshima (August 1863)
In August 1863, the Bombardment of Kagoshima took place, in retaliation for the Namamugi incident
Namamugi Incident
The was a samurai assault on foreign nationals in Japan on September 14, 1862, which resulted in the August 1863 bombardment of Kagoshima, during the Late Tokugawa shogunate...
and the murder of the English trader Richardson. The British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
bombarded the town of Kagoshima and destroyed several ships. Satsuma however later negotiated and paid 25,000 pounds, but did not remit Richardson's killers, and in exchange obtained an agreement by Great Britain to supply steam warships to Satsuma. The conflict actually became the starting point of a close relationship between Satsuma and Great Britain, which became major allies in the ensuing Boshin War
Boshin War
The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....
. From the start, the Satsuma Province
Satsuma Province
was an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Its abbreviation is Sasshū .During the Sengoku Period, Satsuma was a fief of the Shimazu daimyo, who ruled much of southern Kyūshū from their castle at Kagoshima city.In 1871, with the...
had generally been in favour of the opening and modernization of Japan. Although the Namamugi Incident was unfortunate, it was not characteristic of Satsuma's policy, and was rather abusively branded as an example of anti-foreign sonnō jōi
Sonno joi
is a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, during the Bakumatsu period.-Origin:...
sentiment, as a justification to a strong Western show of force.
Repression of the Mito rebellion (May 1864)
Mito rebellion
The , also called the Kantō Insurrection or the , is a civil war that occurred in the area of Mito Domain in Japan between May 1864 and January 1865...
. This rebellion also was in the name of the Sonnō Jōi
Sonno joi
is a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, during the Bakumatsu period.-Origin:...
, the expulsion of the Western "barbarians" and the return to Imperial rule. The Shogunate managed to send an army to quell the revolt, which was ended in blood with the surrender of the rebels on 14 January 1865.
Chōshū rebellion
In the Hamaguri rebellionHamaguri rebellion
The rebellion at the Hamaguri Gate of the Imperial Palace in Kyōto took place on August 20, 1864 and reflected the discontent of pro-imperial and anti-alien groups...
on 20 August 1864, troops from Chōshū Domain attempted to take control of Kyoto and the Imperial Palace in order to pursue the objective of Sonnō Jōi
Sonno joi
is a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, during the Bakumatsu period.-Origin:...
. This also led to a punitive expedition by the Tokugawa government, the First Chōshū expedition
First Chōshū expedition
The First Chōshū expedition was a punitive military expedition led by the Tokugawa Shogunate against the Chōshū Domain in retaliation for the attack of Chōshū on the Imperial Palace in the Hamaguri rebellion. The First Chōshū expedition was launched on 1 September 1864.The conflict finally led to...
(長州征討).
Allied bombardment of Shimonoseki (September 1864)
Western nations planned an armed retaliation against armed Japanese opposition with the Bombardment of Shimonoseki. The Allied intervention occurred in September 1864, combining the naval forces of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, against the powerful daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
Mōri Takachika
Mōri Takachika
was the 14th daimyo of Chōshū Domain. He was later allowed to use a character from the name of shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi and changed his name to Yoshichika...
of the Chōshū Domain based in Shimonoseki, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. This conflict threatened to involve America, which in 1864, was already torn by civil strife, in a foreign war.
Conservative reaffirmation
Following these successes against the imperial movement in Japan, the Shogunate was able to reassert a certain level of primacy at the end of 1864. The traditional policy of sankin kōtaiSankin kotai
was a policy of the shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. The purpose was to control the daimyo. In adopting the policy, the shogunate was continuing and refining similar policies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1635, a law required sankin kōtai, which was already an established...
was reinstated, and remnants of the rebellions of 1863–64 as well as the Shishi
Shishi (organization)
Shishi was a term used to describe Japanese political activists of the late Edo period...
movement were brutally suppressed throughout the land.
The military interventions by foreign powers also proved that Japan was no military match against the West, and that expelling foreigners was not a realistic policy. The Sonnō Jōi movement thus lost its initial impetus. The structural weaknesses of the Bakufu however remained an issue, and the focus of opposition would then shift to creating a strong government under a single authority.
Hyōgo naval expedition (November 1865)
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
) and Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
to foreign trade. In order to press their demands more forcefully, a squadron of four British, one Dutch and three French warships were sent to the harbour of Hyōgo in November 1865. Various incursions were made by foreign forces, until the Emperor finally agreed to change his total opposition to the Treaties, by formally allowing the Shogun to handle negotiations with foreign powers.
These conflicts led to the realization that head-on conflict with Western nations was not a solution for Japan. As the Bakufu continued its modernization efforts, Western daimyos (especially from Satsuma and Chōshū) also continued to modernize intensively in order to build a stronger Japan and to establish a more legitimate government under Imperial power.
Second Chōshū expedition (June 1866)
The Shogunate led a second punitive expedition against Chōshū from June 1866, but the Shogunate was actually defeated by the more modern and better organized troops of Chōshū. The new Shogun Tokugawa YoshinobuTokugawa Yoshinobu
was the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful...
managed to negotiate a ceasefire due to the death of the previous Shogun, but the prestige of the Shogunate was nevertheless seriously affected.
This reversal encouraged the Bakufu to take drastic steps towards modernization.
Renewal and modernization
Naval students were sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral Enomoto
Enomoto Takeaki
Viscount was a samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate who fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War...
. The French naval engineer Léonce Verny
Léonce Verny
François Léonce Verny, was a French officer and naval engineer who directed the construction of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in Japan, as well as many related modern infrastructure projects from 1865 to 1876, thus helping jump-start Japan's modernization.-Early life:Léonce Verny was born in Aubenas,...
was hired to build naval arsenals, such as Yokosuka and Nagasaki. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy of the shogun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
already possessed eight western-style steam warships around the flagship Kaiyō Maru
Japanese battleship Kaiyo Maru
Kaiyō Maru was one of Japan's first modern warships, powered by both sails and steam.-Construction:She was ordered in the Netherlands in 1863 by the Bakufu, the government of the Shogun, the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij acting as agents. The ship was built at the yard of Cornelis Gips and...
, which were used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin war
Boshin War
The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....
, under the command of Admiral Enomoto
Enomoto Takeaki
Viscount was a samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate who fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War...
. A French Military Mission to Japan (1867)
French Military Mission to Japan (1867)
The French Military Mission to Japan of 1867-68 was the first foreign military training mission to Japan. The mission was formed by Napoléon III, following a request of the Japanese Shogunate in the person of its emissary to Europe, Shibata Takenaka .Shibata was already negotiating the final...
was established to help modernize the armies of the Bakufu. Japan sent a delegation and participated to the 1867 World Fair
Exposition Universelle (1867)
The Exposition Universelle of 1867 was a World Exposition held in Paris, France, in 1867.-Conception:In 1864, Emperor Napoleon III decreed that an international exposition should be held in Paris in 1867. A commission was appointed with Prince Jerome Napoleon as president, under whose direction...
in Paris.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu
Tokugawa Yoshinobu
was the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful...
(also known as Keiki) reluctantly became head of the Tokugawa house and shogun following the unexpected death of Tokugawa Iemochi
Tokugawa Iemochi
was the 14th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who held office 1858 to 1866. During his reign there was much internal turmoil as a result of Japan's first major contact with the United States, which occurred under Commodore Perry in 1853 and 1854, and of the subsequent "re-opening" of...
in mid-1866. In 1867, Emperor Kōmei
Emperor Komei
was the 121st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kōmei's reign spanned the years from 1846 through 1867.-Genealogy:Before Kōmei's accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name was ;, his title was ....
died and was succeeded by his second son, Mutsuhito, as Emperor Meiji
Emperor Meiji
The or was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death...
. Tokugawa Yoshinobu tried to reorganize the government under the Emperor while preserving the shogun's leadership role, a system known as kōbu gattai. Fearing the growing power of the Satsuma and Chōshū daimyo, other daimyo called for returning the shogun's political power to the emperor and a council of daimyo chaired by the former Tokugawa shogun. With the threat of an imminent Satsuma-Chōshū led military action, Keiki moved pre-emptively by surrendering some of his previous authority.
Boshin war
After Keiki had temporarily avoided the growing conflict, anti-shogunal forces instigated widespread turmoil in the streets of Edo using groups of rōnin. Satsuma and Chōshū forces then moved on Kyoto in force, pressuring the Imperial Court for a conclusive edict demolishing the shogunate. Following a conference of daimyo, the Imperial Court issued such an edict, removing the power of the shogunate in the dying days of 1867. The Satsuma, Chōshū, and other han leaders and radical courtiers, however, rebelled
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
, seized the imperial palace, and announced their own restoration on January 3, 1868. Keiki nominally accepted the plan, retiring from the Imperial Court to Osaka at the same time as resigning as shogun. Fearing a feigned concession of the shogunal power to consolidate power, the dispute continued until culminating in a military confrontation between Tokugawa and allied domains with Satsuma, Tosa and Chōshū forces, in Fushimi and Toba. With the turning of the battle toward anti-shogunal forces, Keiki then quit Osaka for Edo, essentially ending both the power of the Tokugawa, and the shogunate that had ruled Japan for over 250 years.
Following the Boshin war
Boshin War
The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....
(1868–1869), the bakufu was abolished, and Keiki was reduced to the ranks of the common daimyo. Resistance continued in the North throughout 1868, and the bakufu naval forces
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
under Admiral Enomoto Takeaki
Enomoto Takeaki
Viscount was a samurai and admiral of the Tokugawa navy of Bakumatsu period Japan, who remained faithful to the Tokugawa shogunate who fought against the new Meiji government until the end of the Boshin War...
continued to hold out for another six months in Hokkaidō
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
, where they founded the short-lived Republic of Ezo
Republic of Ezo
The ' was a short-lived state established by former Tokugawa retainers in what is now known as Hokkaidō, the large but sparsely populated northernmost island in modern Japan.-Background:...
. This defiance ended in May 1869 at the Battle of Hakodate
Battle of Hakodate
The was fought in Japan from October 20, 1868 to May 17, 1869, between the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate army, consolidated into the armed forces of the rebel Ezo Republic, and the armies of the newly formed Imperial government...
, after one month of fighting.
Prominent figures
- Ōmura MasujirōOmura Masujiro-External links:* * * http://www.jstor.org/view/03636917/di973569/97p0119n/0...
- Sakamoto RyomaSakamoto Ryomawas a leader of the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate during the Bakumatsu period in Japan. Ryōma used the alias .- Early life :Ryōma was born in Kōchi, of Tosa han . By the Japanese calendar, this was the sixth year of Tenpō...
- Kondo IsamiKondo Isamiwas a Japanese swordsman and official of the late Edo Period, famed for his role as commander of the Shinsengumi.-Background:Isami, who was first known as Katsugorō, was born to Miyagawa Hisajirō, a farmer residing in Kami-Ishihara village in Musashi Province, now in the city of Chōfu in Western...
- Hijikata ToshizoHijikata Toshizowas the vice-commander of Shinsengumi, a great swordsman and a talented Japanese military leader who resisted the Meiji Restoration.-Background:...
- Takasugi ShinsakuTakasugi Shinsakuwas a samurai from the Chōshū Domain of Japan who contributed significantly to the Meiji Restoration.He used the alias to hide his activities from the shogunate.-Early life:...
- Matsudaira KatamoriMatsudaira Katamoriwas a samurai who lived in the last days of the Edo period and the early to mid Meiji period. He was the 9th daimyo of the Aizu han and the Military Commissioner of Kyoto during the Bakumatsu period. During the Boshin War, Katamori and the Aizu han fought against the Meiji Government armies, but...
- Saigo TakamoriSaigo Takamoriwas one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history, living during the late Edo Period and early Meiji Era. He has been dubbed the last true samurai.-Early life:...
- Tokugawa YoshinobuTokugawa Yoshinobuwas the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful...
- Yoshida ShoinYoshida ShoinYoshida Shōin was one of the most distinguished intellectuals in the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate...
- Katsura Kogoro
- Nomura Motoni
- Matthew C. Perry
Less known figures of the time:
- Hayashi Daigaku no kami (Lord Rector, Confucianist)
- Ido Tsushima no kami (Governor of Yedo, former Gov. of Nagasaki)
- Izawa Mimasaka no kami (Gov. of Uraga, former Gov of Nagasaki)
- Kawakami GensaiKawakami Gensaiwas a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period. A highly skilled swordsman, he was one of the four most notable assassins of the Bakumatsu period. Gensai's high-speed sword discipline was in the Shiranui-ryū.- Birth and Early Life :...
(Greatest of 4 hitokiri, active in assassinations during this time period) - Takano ChōeiTakano Choeiwas a prominent scholar of Rangaku of the late Edo period.Chōei was born as Gotō Kyōsai, the third son of Gotō Sōsuke who was a middle ranking samurai in Mizusawa Domain of Mutsu Province which is in present-day Iwate Prefecture...
– RangakuRangakuRangaku is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641–1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate’s policy of national...
scholar
Matsudaira Yoshinaga
Matsudaira Yoshinaga
, also known as Matsudaira Keiei, was the 14th head of Fukui Domain during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and politician of the Meiji era. "Yoshinaga" is his imina and "Shungaku" is his gō...
, Date Munenari
Date Munenari
Marquis was the eighth head of the Uwajima Domain during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and a politician of the early Meiji era.-Early life:Munenari was born in Edo, the 4th son of the hatamoto Yamaguchi Naokatsu...
, Yamanouchi Toyoshige
Yamanouchi Toyoshige
thumb|right|Yamauchi Toyoshige was a prominent daimyo in Japan during the late Edo period. He is also known by his gō . As the 15th head of the Tosa Domain of the Shikoku region, he conducted reforms along with Yoshida Toyo. At the Ansei Purge he was put on probation and later retirement. In 1862...
and Shimazu Nariaki are collectively referred to as .
Foreign observers:
- Ernest SatowErnest Mason SatowSir Ernest Mason Satow PC, GCMG, , known in Japan as "" , known in China as "薩道義" or "萨道义", was a British scholar, diplomat and Japanologist....
in Japan 1862–69 - Edward and Henry SchnellEdward and Henry SchnellEdward and Henry Schnell were two brothers of Dutch extraction and German arms-dealers active in Japan. After the enforced opening of Yokohama to foreign trade, Edward, who in the 1850s had served in the Prussian Army and spoke Malay, must have arrived in Japan not later than 1862, as he had a 7...
- Robert Bruce Van Valkenburgh, American Minister-Resident
International relations
- Gaikoku bugyōGaikoku bugyowere the commissioners or "magistrates of foreign affairs" appointed at the end of the Edo era by the Tokugawa shogunate to oversee trade and diplomatic relations with foreign countries...
- Franco-Japanese relationsFranco-Japanese relationsFrance-Japan relations refers to bilateral relations between France and Japan. The history of goes back to the early 17th century, when a Japanese samurai and ambassador on his way to Rome landed for a few days in Southern France, creating a sensation...
- Anglo-Japanese relationsAnglo-Japanese relationsThe history of the relationship between Britain and Japan began in 1600 with the arrival of William Adams on the shores of Kyūshū at Usuki in Ōita Prefecture...
- German-Japanese relationsGerman-Japanese relationsFrom the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603, Japan isolated itself from the outside world until the Meiji Restoration of 1867, when it began to accept contact with Western nations. German–Japanese relations were established in 1860 with the first ambassadorial visit to Japan from Prussia...
External links
- Languages and the Diplomatic Contacts in the Late Tokugawa Shogunate
- http://www.webkohbo.com/info3/bakumatu_menu/bakutop.html