Meiji Restoration

1. Meiji Restoration Pyle Chapter 5

2. Closed Country • 鎖国 “seclusion” or “closed country” • English narratives written from European perspective • Very limited contact with Europe, therefore Japan closed • Dutch at Dejima 出島 Nagasaki • Acceptable because did not push Christianity • Helped at Shimabara to put down Christian peasant rebellion

3. Closed Country • Japan NOT closed from Asian perspective • Extensive trade with Korea and China • Trade with South East Asia via Ryukyu Kingdom 琉球 (now 沖縄県 Okinawa Prefecture) through Satsuma Fief 薩摩藩

4. “Dutch Learning” • Holland leading European intellectual center in 17th and 18th century, especially medicine • Dutch and other European books could be imported if they did not deal with Christianity • Scholars of Dutch Learning – Rangakusha 蘭学者 • Fukuzawa Yukichi 福沢諭吉 • Private academies devoted to “Dutch Learning” 蘭学者 • Donald Keene, The Japanese Discovery of Europe

5. Foreign Crisis • Traditional narrative stresses Commodore (aka “Admiral”) Matthew Perry and “Black Ships” 黒船 for opening Japan with Treaty of Kanagawa 神奈川条約 1854.

6. Foreign Crisis • Perry not first, only most successful • Russia 1790s-1813 • Some writers took as basis for muted proposals for opening • 1839-1842 Opium War アヘン戦争 that gave Britain Hong Kong and “treaty ports” • Greater sense of crisis • Dutch advised opening before forced

7. Why “open” Japan? • Japan not seen as particularly interesting in the context of 19th European imperialism • Britain lost interest after gaining access to Chinese markets • US interests somewhat commercial • Perry brought various manufacturing samples including a miniature train • Primary interest in coal • Mixed mode ships (coal and sail) could not make it to China with commercial payload without refueling • Humane treatment of ship wrecked sailors from US whaling operations

8. Black Ships 黒船

9. Black Ships 黒船

10. Resource Poor Japan • National mythology • Japan lacks natural resources • Japan has few natural resources • Used as a justification (aka excuse) for trade policies that have been seen as predatory and exclusionary in the 20th century (貿易摩擦 or trade friction)

11. Resource Poor Japan • In 19th and early 20th century terms, Japan was NOT resource poor • Coal • Copper • Gold • Timber • “Falling water” (potential hydro electric sites) • Some petroleum, natural gas • Geothermal (yet to be exploited)

12. Realist School • Scholar activists who favored conditional opening of Japan • Sakuma Shozan 佐久間象山 • Famous for “Eastern ethics, Western technology” (東洋道徳、西洋芸術) formula • Polymath (博学者 博識家) • Gunnery • Electricity • Build telegraph

13. Polymath (博学者 博識家) • Pattern common in bakumatsu scholar activists • Broad intellectual curiosity • Military • Noted by members of Perry’s mission • Contrast with Chinese • Science and technology • Law and politics • Risks • “House arrest” by bakufu (Sakuma 9 years) • Assassination by exclusion 攘夷 joi advocates • See fear in Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi

14. Joi 攘夷 • “Expel the barbarians” • Initially injunction to the bakufu to live up to 征夷大将軍 role • Later coupled to “revere the emperor” (and expel the barbarians) 尊王攘夷 sonno joi • Meaning of joi 攘夷 changed to “control the barbarians” (deal with them on a basis of parity)

15. Aizawa Seishisai • Mitogaku 水戸学 scholar know for 1825 New Thesis 新論 advocating expulsion • (Pyle quote) “The Western barbarians … all believe in the same religion, which they use to annex territories.” • Political significance of Christianity as in early Tokugawa suppression • Later to be advocated by some such as Nakamura Masanao中村 正直 as source of Western strength and power (40 years before Max Weber, Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism.)

16. Unequal Treaties • Perry demand for treaty relations in 1853 • Bakufu actually being run by Abe Masahiro 阿部正弘 • Sought consensus by consulting with daimyo • Received wildly divergent responses • Demonstrated that the shogun as an individual or institution was no longer a Great Barbarian Subduing Generalissimo giving orders

17. “Harris Treaty” 1858 • Treaty of Kanagawa 神奈川条約 “opened” Japan (1854) • “Harris Treaty” (1858) negotiated by Townsend Harris more important – model for others -日米修好通商条約, Nichibei Shūkō Tsūshō Jōyaku

18. “Harris Treaty”

19. Unequal Treaties • 不平等條約 Fubyodo joyaku • NOT Japan specific term • First unequal treaty南京條約Nanking Joyaku between Britain and China 1842 • Harris Treaty • “Treaty ports” – Edo, Kobe, Nagasaki, Niigata, and Yokohama • Japanese tariffs set at low levels by foreign treaty powers • Extraterritoriality

20. Tarrifs • Low rates • Most favored nation • Could not be used as a significant source of revenue (Tokugawa) • Could not be used to protect “infant industries” (Meiji)

21. Extraterritoriality • 治外法権（ちがいほうけん）とは、一国の国内であって、その国の三権が完全には及ばない特権であり、外部の法によって治めることができる権利。 • Extraterritoriality is the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations.

22. Extraterritoriality • Ended in Japan when Britain gave up claims in 1894 with Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation (日英通商航海条約, Nichi-Ei Tsūshō Kōkai Jōyaku) • Foreigners who committed crimes in Japan handed over to national embassies for trials in own country • Near de facto immunity from conviction

23. Balance of Power • Tokugawa power sharing system • Tozama daimyo least trusted • Advantage of tozama • Remote • Well defined domains • High proportion of samurai • Rural samurai • Carried out fiscal reforms

24. Balance of Power • Four domains responsible for overthrow of bakufu • Choshu 長州　（山口県） • Satsuma 薩摩　(鹿児島県 宮崎県 沖縄県) • Tosa 土佐　（高知県） • Hizen 肥前　（佐賀県・長崎県） • Periphery drove center

25. Samurai Activists • “Class character” of Meiji Restoration extremely important to Marxist historians • Stage theory of history • Feudal (Tokugawa) -> Bourgeois, capitalist (Meiji) • Where was bourgeosie? • Merchants 商人, townspeople 町人 little role in Meiji restoration • Merchant lending to both sides but no evidence of ideological background

26. Samurai Activists • “Lower samurai” stressed by E. H. Norman in Japan’s Emergence as a Modern State. • Marxist background (CP member while at Cambridge) • “Lower” never defined • Extremely hierarchical system • Most samurai “lower” • Anything done by “samurai” would inherently involve more “lower” than “upper.”

27. “Service Intelligentsia” • Thomas M. Huber, The Revolutionary Origins of Modern Japan. • “Samurai” who worked within the system tended to come from the administrative ranks of fiefs (middle, lower middle). • “Samurai” who became terrorists 志士 (shishi, men of purpose) tended to come from lowest ranks • “Service intelligentsia” samurai had • Rank and connections that would let them work within the system • Could see a future for themselves in a future regime

28. Ambiguity • Class character of individuals vague • Individual positions shifted • Yoshida Shoin 吉田松陰 • Charismatic teacher of Meiji leaders • Intellectual • Linked to assassination plot • Executed by bakufu

29. Read Backward to Find Class Character • Better to impute class character from Meiji reforms • Created a educational system and bureaucracy based on “merit” • Primary beneficiaries “service intelligentsia” • Meiji Restoration was first “technocratic revolution” • Marxist model largely ignored “middle classes” • Development of bureaucracy • Capitalists vs workers

30. Limits of Reform • Motivation for reform • Demonstrate modernity, parity with major Western powers -> renegotiate unequal treaties • National strength 富国強兵 – fukoku kyohei – wealthy country and strong military • Significance • Extreme proposals • Abandoned when seen as irrelevant to goals

31. Limits of Reform • Extreme proposals • Abandon Japanese language to ease learning of Western technology • Emperor to convert to Christianity as model, people follow – to gain spiritual basis of Western power • Contractual marriage • Actually a commoner custom in Tokugawa • Preach one thing, practice another • Carmen Blacker, Japanese Enlightenment: A Study of the Writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi.

32. Iwakura Mission • Iwakura Mission or Iwakura Embassy (岩倉使節団, Iwakura Shisetsudan) • 1871-1873 • Renegotiate treaties (failed) • Gather information (2000-plus page report) • Place students (60 taken along) • Included 7 women • 津田梅子 founder of 津田塾 Tsuda Juku

33. Limits of Reform • Eating beef as a quasi-religious sacrament • Modern • Western diet -> western strength, western brain • Western buildings for Western education • Soon abandoned because of cost • 鹿鳴館 Deer Cry Pavillion • Western entertainment • Bored diplomats • Show how “western” the Japanese were

34. Iwakura Mission • Included top government officials • Secure enough to leave Japan • Personal intellectual curiosity

35. Education • Tokugawa • No “public” education • No central control • No government licensing • Indigenous or “Chinese” content except for “Dutch Learning”

36. Education • Meiji • Primarily public, grudging toleration of private • Gradually extended central control • Government regulation of ALL education • Draft exemption used to keep private higher education in line • Direct control over content • Textbooks vetted, later written by the government • Content • Basically Western except for “morals” 道徳 education

37. スライド終了 • Course Web Page for Slides and Readings • www2.gol.com/users/ehk/waseda/history4 • ehk.servebeer.com/waseda/history4 • Office Hour • None at Waseda • Last 20-30 minutes of 5th period • Mail Address • ehk@gol.com • ehkuso@gmail.com