Specialized Agencies - Harvard Model United Nations
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Shogunate Council of<br />
Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
Table of Contents<br />
Japanese Terminology 5<br />
Introduction 5<br />
Structure and Function of the Council 6<br />
Topic Area 7<br />
Historical Background7<br />
Current Situation 17<br />
Timeline of Significant Events18<br />
Major Questions19<br />
Questions A Position Paper Must Answer20<br />
Suggestions for Further Research 20<br />
Position Paper Requirements21<br />
Closing Remarks21<br />
Endnotes21<br />
Bibliography23<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
<strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong> <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong> 2013<br />
A Letter From the Secretary-General<br />
Dear Delegates of HMUN 2013,<br />
Stephen Ethan Lyle<br />
Secretary-General<br />
Ainsley E. Faux<br />
Director-General<br />
Miranda M. Ravicz<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Administration<br />
Da-Bin Ryu<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Business<br />
Alexandra M. Harsacky<br />
Comptroller<br />
William R. Gorman<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Innovation and Technology<br />
Julia A. Solomon-Strauss<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
General Assembly<br />
Lisa L. Wang<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Economic and Social Council<br />
Samuel H. Leiter<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
It is my distinct honor and high privilege to welcome you to the Sixtieth Session of <strong>Harvard</strong><br />
<strong>Model</strong> <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong>. Our entire staff of 215 <strong>Harvard</strong> undergraduates is eager to join with you<br />
this January at the Sheraton Boston for an exciting weekend of debate, diplomacy, and cultural<br />
exchange. You and your 3,200 fellow delegates join a long legacy of individuals passionate about<br />
international affairs as well as the pressing issues confronting our world.<br />
Founded in 1927 as <strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong> League of <strong>Nations</strong>, our organization has evolved into one<br />
of America’s oldest, largest, and most international <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong> simulations. Drawing from<br />
this rich history, <strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong> <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong> has strived to emphasize and promote the<br />
unique impact of the UN and its mandates in the eradication of humanity’s greatest problems.<br />
The <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong> is truly a global body with representation from 193 member states and is<br />
the closest the world has ever achieved to a “Parliament of Man.”<br />
HMUN 2013 is ambitious in its scope: our committees will jump from the Iroquois Confederacy<br />
in 1775 to the dawn of the year 2015 and the complex problems it will bring for the world<br />
economy. Our committees are diverse not only in time, but also in topics, with discussions on<br />
international security, human rights, development, managing a world-reknowned corporation,<br />
technology, and many pressing regional issues just to name a few. At HMUN, we also strive to<br />
emphasize international diversity within our community. To that end, HMUN 2013 is proud to<br />
welcome students from over 40 countries to share in this incredible experience.<br />
At <strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong> <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong>, we set out to tackle meaningful issues that world leaders<br />
have struggled mightily to resolve. Our challenge is considerable. And yet, HMUN 2013 will be<br />
one of the fondest memories we will come to share. Meeting friends—old and new—hailing<br />
from different cities, states, and continents is a profound experience. I wish you the best of luck<br />
in your preparations for HMUN, and please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions<br />
or concerns you may have along the way. Opening Ceremonies will be here before you know it.<br />
Get ready.<br />
Sincerely,<br />
Ethan Lyle<br />
Secretary-General<br />
<strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong> <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong> 2013<br />
59 Shepard Street, Box 205<br />
Cambridge, MA 02138<br />
Voice: 617-398-0772<br />
Fax: 617-588-0285<br />
Email: info@harvardmun.org<br />
www.harvardmun.org<br />
2 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
<strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong> <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong> 2013<br />
A Letter From the Under-Secretary-General<br />
Dear Delegates,<br />
Stephen Ethan Lyle<br />
Secretary-General<br />
Ainsley E. Faux<br />
Director-General<br />
Miranda M. Ravicz<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Administration<br />
Da-Bin Ryu<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Business<br />
Alexandra M. Harsacky<br />
Comptroller<br />
William R. Gorman<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Innovation and Technology<br />
Julia A. Solomon-Strauss<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
General Assembly<br />
Lisa L. Wang<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Economic and Social Council<br />
Samuel H. Leiter<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
Welcome to the <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>! My name is Samuel Leiter and I am honored to serve as<br />
your Under-Secretary-General at this sixtieth session of <strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong> <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong>. Ours is<br />
truly an elite organ, united in excellence by a love for rigorous debate, inspiring diplomacy, and<br />
thrilling crises. For several decades, we have built our reputation on the fact that no two iterations<br />
of the <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong> are alike: new committee offerings are introduced, standard offerings<br />
are revisited in new ways, and crises evolve in their sophistication, novelty, and realism. In this<br />
sixtieth session, we aim not to break the benchmarks set in 2012, but rather to shatter them.<br />
As you embark on your journey toward HMUN, I strongly encourage you to go beyond this<br />
study guide in your research and preparation. The sources cited and recommended by your<br />
director are excellent jumping-off points, but they are just that. Your school or public library<br />
and reputable websites will also serve you well as your prepare to assume the role of a country<br />
or person with whom you may be unfamiliar. In committee, you must be prepared to take risks<br />
(without wandering off policy) and be bold (but willing to compromise)! HMUN 2013 is an<br />
opportunity: seize it.<br />
Only with your active participation will your committee be a success. Delegates of the <strong>Specialized</strong><br />
<strong>Agencies</strong> are not granted the luxury of passivity. You will represent some of the most powerful<br />
individuals that the world has ever known, you will negotiate with Presidents and Prime Ministers,<br />
and you will decide matters of peace and war and life and death. The formalities of parliamentary<br />
procedure and resolutions will be left behind as the world reacts to your decisions and you too<br />
react to a changing world, perhaps even late into the night as other delegates sleep soundly…<br />
Personally, I cannot wait to see what you will accomplish! I hope that you are as excited as I am<br />
to change the world forever – or at least for four days – and if you have any questions at all,<br />
please do not hesitate to contact me. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you in Boston in just<br />
a few short months.<br />
Until then,<br />
59 Shepard Street, Box 205<br />
Cambridge, MA 02138<br />
Voice: 617-398-0772<br />
Fax: 617-588-0285<br />
Email: info@harvardmun.org<br />
www.harvardmun.org<br />
Samuel H. Leiter<br />
Under-Secretary-General for the <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
<strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong> <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong> 2013<br />
sa@harvardmun.org<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
3
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
<strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong> <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong> 2013<br />
A Letter From the Director<br />
Dear Delegates,<br />
Stephen Ethan Lyle<br />
Secretary-General<br />
Ainsley E. Faux<br />
Director-General<br />
Miranda M. Ravicz<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Administration<br />
Da-Bin Ryu<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Business<br />
Alexandra M. Harsacky<br />
Comptroller<br />
William R. Gorman<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Innovation and Technology<br />
Julia A. Solomon-Strauss<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
General Assembly<br />
Lisa L. Wang<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
Economic and Social Council<br />
Samuel H. Leiter<br />
Under-Secretary-General<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
It is with the utmost pleasure that I welcome you to the Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi. I look<br />
very much forward to bringing my fascination with Japanese history and politics to life at <strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong><br />
<strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong> 2013. I expect many aspects of Early Modern Japan to be new to most of you, and I<br />
hope to have you all catch the same feverish interest for this time period that I have developed. I chose<br />
this topic as a director for exactly this reason – people everywhere find ancient samurai, ninja, geishas, and<br />
shoguns to be exotic and thrilling, but they know little of their lives, their society, and how it all changed<br />
in fewer than two decades. In delving into this far-off world, I hope to give you the MUN experience of<br />
your lives (and mine). Instead of usual MUN thesis-length resolutions, we’ll have fast-paced directives that<br />
react to continual crises that will affect the Japanese state. Instead of national governments with bickering<br />
diplomats, we’ll have local daimyo lords. And instead of NGO testimonies we’ll take advice and garner<br />
information from castaways, prostitutes, and the shogun’s network of ninja spies.<br />
For one weekend in January 2013, you will be transported into the most critical period of Japanese history.<br />
The Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi is a simulation of the bakumatsu period of Japan, where 250<br />
years of peace, stability, and isolation abruptly shattered and a government and social system desperately<br />
attempted to evolve in order to survive. The council, headed by (yours truly as) shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi,<br />
has the opportunity to alter the course of history at this watershed moment with swift and clever action.<br />
What route will you choose for Japan to take into the uncertain future?<br />
At <strong>Harvard</strong>, I’m a sophomore in Adams House majoring in History with a minor in French Literature. I’m<br />
from here in Boston but have spent extensive time in France and Italy. Like with most kids, my interest in<br />
Japanese history and society started with cartoons on the TV. From there I explored deeper into the lives<br />
of samurai, my interest leading me to take a course on Early Modern and Meiji Japan last year. Outside<br />
of MUN, at <strong>Harvard</strong> I am President of the fencing club, an editor for the history journal and the satire<br />
magazine, and an active member of the Half-Asian club (yes, such a thing exists here, and yes, it is awesome).<br />
Do not hesitate to contact me at any point if you have questions about preparing for committee or if you<br />
just want to introduce yourself. I cannot wait to begin this committee and I am already plotting dastardly<br />
schemes and diabolical machinations to thwart your best-laid plans with my trusty sidekick, high school<br />
buddy, and Crisis Director, Michael Chilazi. I hope you all arrive with original, creative, and bold ideas…<br />
because you’ll need them to survive what we have in store. Looking forward to meeting all of you!<br />
Sincerely,<br />
59 Shepard Street, Box 205<br />
Cambridge, MA 02138<br />
Voice: 617-398-0772<br />
Fax: 617-588-0285<br />
Email: info@harvardmun.org<br />
www.harvardmun.org<br />
Stefan Poltorzycki<br />
Director, Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
<strong>Harvard</strong> <strong>Model</strong> <strong>United</strong> <strong>Nations</strong> 2013<br />
shogunate@harvardmun.org<br />
4 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
Japanese Terminology<br />
Note about Japanese Names: Unlike in the West, in Japan the family name is<br />
placed first. Thus, with Tokugawa Ieyoshi, Tokugawa is the family name while<br />
Ieyoshi is the given name. Throughout the guide, unless referencing a member<br />
of the Tokugawa dynasty, family (i.e. first) names are used as references. Hence<br />
Oshio Heihachiro will be referred to as Oshio, while Tokugawa Ieyoshi will be<br />
referred to as Ieyoshi. For the sake of simplicity, I have omitted all macrons from<br />
names and terms.<br />
Shogun: “Barbarian-subduing generalissimo,” the head of a warrior<br />
government. Current shogun is Tokugawa Ieyoshi.<br />
Daimyo: Regional lord. Types of daimyo are tozama, fudai, and shimpan.<br />
Samurai: The warrior class of pre-modern Japan.<br />
Ronin: A samurai without a lord.<br />
Bushido: The way of the warrior, or the samurai code.<br />
Junshi: To follow one’s lord in death. Part of bushido.<br />
Seppuku: Ritualized and honorable samurai suicide.<br />
Shishi: “Men of high purpose.” Radical samurai who follow sonno joi.<br />
Eta/Hinen: Outcastes<br />
Kakure Kirishitan: “Hidden Christians.” Driven underground by 17 th<br />
century ban.<br />
Bakufu/Shogunate: Interchangeable terms meaning the centralized<br />
government under a shogun. Bakufu literally means “tent government.”<br />
Koku: The amount of rice one man can be expected to consume in<br />
a year. Peasants are taxed based on expected rice yield in koku and<br />
samurai are paid in koku.<br />
Sankin kotai: “Alternate attendance.” A control placed on daimyo by<br />
the shogunate.<br />
Shinto: The native Japanese belief system.<br />
Kokutai: The “national essence” that the Emperor is said to embody<br />
by Mitogaku.<br />
Kokugaku: “National learning.” The set of uniquely Japanese rituals,<br />
customs, and beliefs.<br />
Rangaku: Dutch studies in Japan.<br />
Mitogaku: Learning that comes out of the Mito domain.<br />
Sonno joi: Philosophy espoused by radical shishi. Sonno (Revere the<br />
Emperor) + joi (Expel the barbarian).<br />
Sekigahara: Battle in 1600 that established the supremacy of the<br />
Tokugawa clan.<br />
Sakoku: “Closed country.” The prevailing philosophy during the years<br />
1825-1842.<br />
Tempo era: Era of “Heavenly Protection.” 1830-1842.<br />
Bakumatsu: “End of the shogunate.” The period of Japanese history<br />
from 1853 to 1868.<br />
Yukaku: The red-light districts of Japanese cities.<br />
Yonaoshi: World renewal gods created by peasants during Tempo crisis.<br />
Okage Mairi: Mass pilgrimages by peasants to the Ise shrine.<br />
Ee ja nai ka: “What the?!” Tumultuous, spontaneous, and sometimes<br />
violent peasant dance parties.<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
Introduction<br />
The territory of Japan consists of a 1,200-mile long island chain one<br />
hundred miles from the Korean peninsula and five hundred miles from<br />
China. The four main islands of Japan are Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu,<br />
and Ezo. Honshu, the largest island, contains the capitol city of Edo,<br />
the imperial city of Kyoto, and the merchant city of Osaka. Shikoku<br />
contains the powerful Choshu domain, while Kyushu contains both<br />
the large Satsuma domain and the port city of Nagasaki. Ezo, to the<br />
north, is sparsely populated by Japanese and contains many of the<br />
indigenous Ainu. Other important islands include Tsushima near<br />
Korea and the Ryukyu islands, which are controlled by the Ryukyu<br />
Kingdom, a vassal state of the Satsuma domain. 1<br />
Since the introduction of Buddhism and Confucianism from China<br />
more than a millennium ago, Japan has existed in relative isolation. The<br />
last attempted invasions of Japan occurred in the 1200s by the Mongol<br />
chief Kublai Khan, and currently the only nation with which Japan<br />
maintains official diplomatic relations is Korea. While Japan has had a<br />
single emperor from a continuous line since the sixth century, political<br />
power has rested in a number of military dictatorships, or shogunates.<br />
The current Tokugawa shogunate has existed for over two centuries,<br />
dating back to 1603, and maintains control of Japan through a highly<br />
organized status system and a rice-based economy. 2<br />
Tokugawa era Japan—Tokugawa and fudai domains are in blue,<br />
shimpan domains in orange, and tozama domains in pink<br />
While peace and order have characterize the two centuries of<br />
Tokugawa rule, the last few decades have seen a disturbing breakdown<br />
of this order, with peasant rebellions, merchant opulence, samurai<br />
discontent, and Western encroachment all threatening to undermine<br />
the Tokugawa regime. In order to ensure its survival, the shogunate<br />
will have to make prudent decisions and walk a fine line between the<br />
competing factions of mid-19 th century Japan.<br />
5
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
Structure and Function of the Council<br />
My Honorable and Esteemed Compatriots,<br />
As you all know, since 1603, a group of over 240 fractured domains have been under the relatively<br />
peaceful and stable rule of a shogun of the house of Tokugawa. The shogun, ruling from the<br />
metropolis of Edo, controls national diplomacy, trade and defense. Each local domain rests under<br />
the control of a lord, or daimyo, who swears allegiance to the shogun in return for stability and<br />
protection. The shogun is generally advised by a small group of trusted shimpan and fudai daimyo.<br />
The 23 shimpan daimyo are relatives to the shogun, while the fudai daimyo are the loyal hereditary<br />
vassals of the Tokugawa house. They generally control small domains near the shogun’s base in Edo<br />
and act as administrators of the realm.<br />
However, due to extraordinary circumstances, the revered shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi has called for your<br />
counsel. You represent a diverse group of the Japanese political elite, not only shimpan and fudai<br />
daimyo, but also powerful tozama daimyo, who control large domains far from Edo and are generally<br />
wary of Tokugawa authority. Some of you are also important military advisors, leading intellectuals,<br />
imperial representatives, and even members of the ascendant merchant class. The shogun, fifty-nine<br />
years-old and in his seventeenth year of rule, has called together this council to advise him on the<br />
pressing issues.<br />
Together, this eclectic group must navigate the mounting challenges to Tokugawa authority. The<br />
political dominance of the shogunate wavers as the feudal economy and social system carefully<br />
established by Ieyoshi’s illustrious ancestors erode. Spies report that some tozama daimyo are illegally<br />
establishing foreign trade without Tokugawa authority. The previously heroic and daring warrior<br />
samurai, who receive a fixed stipend from ten to 10,000 koku, either languish in bureaucratic<br />
positions or remain unemployed. Low-level samurai chafe under a system lacking in social mobility<br />
and meritocratic principles, where they barely scrape by while rich merchants live in luxury and gain<br />
the favor of their daimyo. Many of them are beginning to turn to the philosophies of Mitogaku and<br />
sonno joi, which espouse dangerously subversive principles. A small group of merchants are establishing<br />
enormous monopolies that wield a disturbing level of influence on society. Additionally, a series of<br />
poor harvests has struck Japan, resulting in widespread famine. Many peasants, interpreting their<br />
misfortune as an ill omen, create new gods and some even proclaim a world renewal. Isolated peasant<br />
uprisings begin to increase in frequency and violence, concerning many daimyo. Finally, Western<br />
powers are increasingly encroaching on the sovereignty of Japan, which has closed itself to almost all<br />
Western contact since the 1600s.<br />
The Ieyoshi shogunate will have to deftly navigate these issues, and has called upon you for advice. The<br />
decentralized Tokugawa state set up over two centuries ago offers both advantages and disadvantages to<br />
the shogunate at this time. While the shogun can deftly manage the competing factions in Tokugawa<br />
society, the shogunate itself wields great influence but little direct power on individual domains,<br />
which retain considerable fiscal autonomy. While the shogun makes the final decision on all matters<br />
brought before the council, each of you will use your own expertise to advise the great Ieyoshi.<br />
In order to ensure you are all up to date regarding issues at hand, expert Tokugawa scholars have<br />
meticulously labored for many hours to produce this guide for each of you. I ask that you all read it<br />
carefully in order to properly prepare yourselves for the council. We will meet shortly.<br />
- Abe Masehiro Jan. 1853<br />
rojo shuseki of Tokugawa Ieyoshi<br />
6 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
The Unification of Japan<br />
Topic Area<br />
Historical Background<br />
For most of the 16 th century, political chaos engulfed Japan.<br />
Groups of warring states vied for control but could not establish<br />
hegemony, disintegrating like dust before the wind. However,<br />
beginning in 1570, three great warlords unified Japan and within<br />
thirty years established a new shogunal dynasty. The first unifier<br />
was Oda Nobunaga, a regional lord whose tactical mastery of the<br />
firearm, a recent import from the West, allowed him to establish<br />
control over a large portion of Japan. 3<br />
After Nobunaga’s death, his chief general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi,<br />
continued the process of unifying Japan. Hideyoshi issued<br />
a number of reforms in an attempt to consolidate control.<br />
Hideyoshi instituted the status system of samurai, peasants,<br />
artisans and merchants (to be discussed in depth later). Hideyoshi’s<br />
social engineering separated peasants, who could no longer carry<br />
weapons, from warriors, who could no longer work the land. 4<br />
Hideyoshi also carried out Japan’s first cadastral survey to measure<br />
the estimated rice yield of every domain in terms of koku (the<br />
amount of rice one man would be expected to eat in a single year).<br />
Other important events of Hideyoshi’s rule include the building<br />
of the enormous Osaka castle and his two failed invasions of<br />
Korea, which were Japan’s last military involvement with a foreign<br />
nation. 5<br />
The final unifier, Tokugawa Ieyasu, inherited and made peaceful<br />
the land unified by his two predecessors. In 1600, the divine Ieyasu<br />
defeated his last real threat, the traitor Ishida Mitsunari, at the battle<br />
of Sekigahara; and in 1603 the Emperor of Japan conferred the<br />
title of seii tai shogun, or “barbarian-subduing generalissimo,” onto<br />
Ieyasu. The settlement at Sekigahara marginalized the Emperor<br />
from politics and left the Tokugawa clan with the sole duty of<br />
maintaining order in society. Ieyasu ruled for two years before<br />
installing his third son, Tokugawa Hidetada, as shogun. The first<br />
three shoguns, Ieyasu, Hidetada (r. 1605-23), and Iemitsu (r. 1623-<br />
51), consolidated Tokugawa hegemony and established a complex<br />
social and economic system that remained relatively untouched<br />
until recently. 6<br />
Methods of Tokugawa control<br />
The first three shoguns worked to pacify and consolidate the<br />
realm. The Tokugawa bakufu controlled commerce, public works,<br />
defense, and religion throughout Japan. They ruled from Edo,<br />
which saw an explosion in population during the early-Tokugawa<br />
period, becoming the largest city in the world by the 18 th century<br />
with over a million people. 7<br />
The shogunate managed diplomacy and limited trade throughout<br />
the realm. To prevent subversive elements from entering Japan,<br />
the shogunate strictly controlled foreign relations, restricting the<br />
import of foreign weapons and ideas (particularly Christianity).<br />
All foreign trade was conducted either on Tsushima (with Korea)<br />
or Nagasaki (with China and the Netherlands). While rice was<br />
the national currency, the shogunate minted coins in gold, silver,<br />
and copper, with the gold ryo being the largest denomination,<br />
and strictly controlled the value of gold and silver to a 5/1 ratio.<br />
Domains and merchants independently issued paper currency,<br />
redeemable for bakufu-issued coins. 8<br />
Tokugawa Ieyasu pacified his realm and began the Tokugawa<br />
dynasty. He was later deified by his grandson, Iemitsu<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
The shogunate’s greatest concern was in controlling the unruly<br />
daimyo. There were five main methods with which the bakufu<br />
kept the daimyo in check. The first method was the confiscation<br />
and politics of space. After Sekigahara, the Tokugawa shogunate<br />
rewarded his loyal retainers with generous land holdings near<br />
7
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
the capitol of Edo. Daimyo that had opposed Ieyasu had their<br />
holdings confiscated, or were dispossessed into smaller domains<br />
on the outskirts of the realm. The shogunate maintained the<br />
ability to award or confiscate land from any daimyo, although the<br />
practice grew increasingly rare after the 17 th century. The second<br />
method of control was a law that limited each domain to a single<br />
castle, preventing any single domain from bolstering its defenses.<br />
The third method was the Tokugawa inspectors, essentially a<br />
network of spies that monitored the behavior of shogunal<br />
officials and daimyo and reported back to the administration in<br />
Edo. The fourth method of control was marriage. The shogun<br />
had to approve of all daimyo marriages, and could therefore<br />
prevent particularly powerful marriage alliances from forming<br />
while marrying his own children into powerful domains.<br />
The Status System: SPAM<br />
The shogunate’s most effective and widespread method of<br />
control was the status system, established by Hideyoshi in<br />
the late 16 th century. The status system split almost the entire<br />
population into four groups: samurai, peasants, artisans, and<br />
merchants (you can remember this as SPAM). The Neo-<br />
Confucian texts of Hayashi Razan provided the philosophical<br />
basis behind the status system. Razan believed that social<br />
hierarchy is a part of natural order, writing, “if we can<br />
understand the meaning of the order existing between heaven<br />
and earth, we can also perceive that in everything there is an<br />
order separating those who are above and those who are<br />
below.” 10<br />
With hierarchy framed as a virtue, the status system became<br />
the dominant value system in Japan, and every member of<br />
society needed to know his relative place in the system. With<br />
such a system in place, the shogunate could delegate most of<br />
the responsibility of administration to these social containers.<br />
The status system was the center of Tokugawa rule and<br />
Japanese society. With the duties of rule mostly farmed out<br />
through the status system, the Tokugawa shogunate acted as<br />
the head of a decentralized yet hierarchically integrated state.<br />
Daimyo<br />
Sankin Kotai, or alternate attendance, was the shogunate’s primary method of<br />
keeping the daimyo in check<br />
The final method of control, established by Iemtisu, was by far<br />
the most important and effective. Called sankin kotai, or alternate<br />
attendance, it stipulated that all daimyo must spend alternate<br />
years in Edo. This system, in which Daimyo had to maintain<br />
residences both in Edo and their domain, caused a major drain<br />
on domain resources. In an effort to outdo one another, daimyo<br />
organized elaborate processions to and from Edo. Sankin kotai<br />
was also a hostage system, in that the wives and children of all<br />
daimyo stayed permanently in Edo. At any threat of rebellion, the<br />
shogun could threaten a daimyo with the lives of those dearest<br />
to him. This system not only made it difficult for the daimyo to<br />
maintain their administrations at home, being absent half the<br />
time, but also detached future generations from their realms. The<br />
children of daimyo, having spent their entire lives in Edo, would<br />
not be equipped to handle the challenges of their domains, nor<br />
would they have established a rapport with their people. Sankin<br />
kotai remained an extremely effective check on domainal power<br />
throughout the Tokugawa era. 9<br />
The 240-295 daimyo, the highest-level samurai, lorded over<br />
domains of at least 10,000 koku, with the largest domains at<br />
around one million koku. Daimyo controlled three-quarters<br />
of the land in Japan, while the Tokugawa house directly ruled<br />
the rest (mostly Edo and its surroundings, Osaka, Kyoto, and<br />
Nagasaki). These daimyo made an oath of direct loyalty to<br />
the shogun, who offered them protection and peace in return.<br />
Daimyo paid their loyal samurai vassals a stipend of anywhere<br />
from 10 to 10,000 koku. 11 The 23 shimpan daimyo, all related<br />
to the shogun, controlled large holdings on Honshu. The<br />
fudai daimyo usually controlled small domains near Edo and<br />
acted as a buffer between the Tokugawa base and the tozama<br />
daimyo. The tozama daimyo had fought against Ieyasu at<br />
Sekigahara and were punished with the loss of holdings and<br />
dispossessions to the corners of the domain. 12 While the<br />
original goals of these dispossessions had succeeded – putting<br />
dangerous elements away from Edo, decreasing tozama<br />
influence in affairs, and removing daimyo from their power<br />
bases – the remote nature of the tozama domains allowed them<br />
to become semi-independent states, and sometimes covertly<br />
act against Tokugawa orders. Additionally, tozama domains,<br />
having lost lands after Sekigahara, had a disproportionately<br />
8 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
large number of samurai. While this made it more difficult<br />
to feed the entire population, tozama daimyo could establish<br />
greater control over their land by placing samurai in rural<br />
villages to watch over peasants. 13 Three of the most important<br />
domains of the time period were the tozama domains of<br />
Satsuma and Choshu and the shimpan domain of Aizu.<br />
Many of the daimyo who had opposed Ieyasu at Sekigahara were severely<br />
punished and became lords of tozama domains<br />
Satsuma and Choshu, among the largest and most powerful<br />
domains, were also bitter rivals with each other. However, they<br />
both shared a similar disdain for the Tokugawa shogunate.<br />
Because of land concessions after Sekigahara, Satsuma, ruled<br />
by the Shimazu clan, had the highest percentage of samurai<br />
out of any domain, with close to 25% of the population<br />
belonging to the samurai class. 14 However, Satsuma was one<br />
of the few domains on the losing side whose daimyo did not<br />
have to relocate to a different region, thereby allowing Satsuma<br />
to remain powerful throughout the Tokugawa era. The large<br />
number of samurai in Satsuma put extra strain on the peasants,<br />
who were worked notoriously hard, cultivating in particular<br />
a type of potato unique to the domain. Satsuma received<br />
additional revenue by having a monopoly on trade with the<br />
Ryukyu islands, which brought the valuable commodity of<br />
sugar into the domain. Additionally, Satsuma had been using<br />
its contact with the Ryukyu islands to skirt trade restrictions<br />
with the Chinese for decades. Satsuma was able to use its<br />
size and power to receive a number of accessions from the<br />
Tokugawa regime, notably being allowed to have multiple<br />
castles and more relaxed sankin kotai requirements. 15<br />
Choshu’s daimyo, meanwhile, had led the opposing forces at<br />
Sekigahara, which led to severe punishment by the shogunate.<br />
However, Choshu, ruled by the Mori clan, was able to regain<br />
its financial footing during the Tokugawa era through strict<br />
(and often unpopular) economic reforms and entrepreneurial<br />
endeavors. 16<br />
While the ruling families of these two domains were not<br />
friendly towards each other, they shared a similar resentment<br />
over Sekigahara that carried into the 19 th century. Every year<br />
at the anniversary of the battle, Satsuma samurai would don<br />
their armor and meditate over the defeat. However, Satsuma<br />
was not openly anti-bakufu, and often worked to establish<br />
strong ties with the administration to advance its own interests.<br />
Choshu, on the other hand, never ceased to fume with antibakufu<br />
dioscontent. By the mid-19 th century, Choshu had<br />
become a center of subversive activity and a constant concern<br />
to the shogunate.<br />
In contrast to Satsuma and Choshu, the shimpan domain of<br />
Aizu epitomized loyalty to the Tokugawa regime. The founder<br />
of the house, the son of Tokugawa Hidetada and a concubine,<br />
wrote a code for Aizu samurai in 1668, which was read every<br />
year. The principle doctrine of the code was to “serve the<br />
shogun with single-minded devotion. Do not measure your<br />
loyalty by the standard of other domains. If any Aizu daimyo<br />
is disloyal to the Tokugawa house, he is no descendant of<br />
mine, and on no account are you to obey him.” 17 The Aizu<br />
domain, ruled by one of the Matsudaira clans, was one of four<br />
domains that the shogunate entrusted to handle the coastal<br />
defense of Tokugawa lands. 18 However, Aizu, like many of<br />
the shimpan and fudai domains, struggled economically<br />
throughout its history. Aizu daimyo began to increasingly<br />
borrow from merchants to finance lavish lifestyles, leading to<br />
higher taxes on the peasants. In 1749, one of the most violent<br />
peasant rebellions in Japanese history occurred in Aizu.<br />
Following a series of poor harvests, Aizu peasants voiced<br />
their discontent by looting merchant houses and rioting in<br />
the capitol. The daimyo, forced to lower taxes in response, fell<br />
even further into debt. Aizu’s financial woes continued into<br />
the 19 th century, yet it remained an influential domain. 19<br />
Samurai<br />
Whereas Japanese daimyo are not dissimilar from feudal<br />
European barons, the samurai differ considerably from the<br />
knight. Unlike the knight, the samurai do not own land; his<br />
power is purely bureaucratic. In the late 16 th century, when<br />
smallholdings consolidated under a few lords that became<br />
the daimyo, the samurai were stripped of their fiefs, which<br />
the daimyo converted into a annual stipends. Forbidden by<br />
the status system from working the land or managing money,<br />
samurai work as governmental officials. This was a result of the<br />
Tokugawa shogunate’s concerted effort to “tame the samurai” by<br />
transforming them from rural warriors to urban bureaucrats. 20<br />
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9
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
The philosophy of the feudal samurai is best found in<br />
Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s Hagakure (“Hidden Leaves”).<br />
Yamamoto, prohibited from committing seppuku, or ritualized<br />
suicide, by the bakufu after his daimyo’s death in 1700, retired<br />
as a ronin, or samurai without a lord, and wrote one of the<br />
first texts to attempt to codify bushido, or the way of the<br />
samurai. Yamamoto espoused, “the Way of the Samurai is<br />
found in death,” and advocated the practice of junshi, or<br />
following one’s lord in death. 21 Yamamoto also stated that a<br />
true samurai is unwavering in his loyalty to his master and<br />
completely renounces self-interest. 22<br />
“an underemployed and unproductive elite” would eventually<br />
create serious economic and social problems in society and<br />
lead to the birth of a frustrated and impoverished samurai<br />
underclass. 23<br />
Samurai make up around seven percent of the population,<br />
although this figure varies considerably among domains (by<br />
comparison, the nobility of pre-Revolutionary France made<br />
up less than 1% of the total population). 24 The samurai status<br />
accords certain privileges in society, including the ability to carry a<br />
sword (most samurai carry two), as well as the distinctive topknot<br />
hairstyle and samurai clothing. 25 Except for those samurai directly<br />
loyal to the shogun, samurai serve only their daimyo, who pays<br />
each samurai a hereditary stipend in koku. Each daimyo, in turn,<br />
serves the shogun. This complex pyramidal allegiance system has<br />
caused problems throughout the Tokugawa era, most famously<br />
with Ako vendetta (discussed later).<br />
Peasants<br />
Peasants are the most numerous members of society, making<br />
up over 80% of the population. While rice is the staple crop of<br />
Japan, other grains, soy, potatoes, cotton, and tobacco are grown<br />
in smaller amounts. 26 Peasant life is centered in the village, which<br />
is the basic building block of Tokugawa society. Villages, rather<br />
than individuals, pay taxes. Taxes, paid in koku, are based not<br />
on the actual yield, but rather a fixed volume of the expected<br />
yield for the land. 27 Therefore, peasant communities with more<br />
efficient or innovative techniques could manage to accumulate<br />
disposable income. However, this system also meant that years<br />
of bad harvests hit peasants particularly hard, as we will later see<br />
with the Tempo crisis. Each village has a governing council with a<br />
respected elder headman, who acts as the main link between the<br />
lord and the village.<br />
Only samurai could carry swords, although they had largely become symbolic to<br />
the Tokugawa era samurai bureaucrats<br />
However, the Tokugawa era marked a fading of this samurai<br />
spirit. Separated from the land, the samurai followed their<br />
daimyo into cities, severing their connections from their<br />
hometowns. By forcing the samurai to put down the sword<br />
and pick up the brush, the shogunate eliminated a major<br />
threat to societal order. However, as we will see in the section<br />
on the Tempo era, the transformation of the samurai into<br />
The shogunate has enacted numerous measures to suppress the<br />
peasant population. Peasants are rooted to their land, and cannot<br />
move to a different domain, or even a different village, without<br />
official permission. To enforce this rule, the shogunate requires<br />
all peasants to register with their local Buddhist temple. 28 While<br />
social mobility has been essentially stagnant for all members of<br />
Tokugawa society, this is particularly true of the peasants, where it<br />
is almost impossible to improve one’s lot. The brutal tax burden<br />
suppresses most any hopes of advancement. Kamio Harunaka,<br />
a minister of finance during the reign of Tokugawa Yoshimune<br />
(r. 1716-1745), uttered the famous phrase that embodied burdens<br />
placed on peasants in Tokugawa Japan: “with peasants and sesame<br />
seeds, the more you squeeze them the more you get out.” 29<br />
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Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
Peasants, however, do have recourse for their struggles. Village<br />
headmen can petition samurai officials. The most famous of<br />
these petitions was by Sakura Sogoro, a village headman from<br />
the mid-1600s. Sakura led a group of headmen in petitioning<br />
daimyo officials when taxes led to mass starvation among<br />
the peasants. However, after their demands were consistently<br />
rebuffed, Sakura took the unprecedented step and petitioned<br />
the shogun directly. For daring to disrespect the shogun with<br />
his presence, Sakura and his family were crucified, but the<br />
daimyo remitted the high taxes out of embarrassment. Hailed<br />
as a peasant martyr, Sakura has become a symbol of resistance<br />
and the patron saint of protests. Shrines to Sakura sprung up<br />
in many villages. 30 As we will later see, during the Tempo era<br />
the nature of peasant protests would take a violent turn.<br />
of laying down his sword and becoming a merchant. He opened<br />
a brewery and a pawnshop, and his son Tokatoshi followed<br />
him by opening a branch store in Edo. The Edo shop grew to<br />
become Japan’s first department store, Echigoya, which invented<br />
advertising in Japan. It eventually became Japan’s largest store,<br />
also opening numerous branches. The Mitsui family became<br />
one of the wealthiest in Japan, and far more rich and influential<br />
than they ever were as a samurai family. 33 The story of Mitsui<br />
reveals the transformation of an agrarian economy into a market<br />
and exchange economy, unraveling the status system that the<br />
shogunate’s founders so carefully put in place. This issue becomes<br />
acute during the Tempo crisis, as we will later see.<br />
Sakura Sogoro became a folk hero for the sacrifice he made to petition the shogun<br />
Artisans and Merchants<br />
During the Tokugawa era, the merchant class, which approximately<br />
equals the samurai in numbers, has achieved an incredible<br />
ascendancy. Based mostly in Osaka and Edo, merchants have<br />
established a monetized market economy on top of the<br />
national rice economy by creating a futures market based on rice.<br />
Merchant and artisan guilds also maintain government-sanctioned<br />
monopolies by paying a yearly fee, much like the corporations of<br />
Early modern Europe. 31 Many merchants change rice into coinage<br />
and lend to samurai and daimyo, who often go deep into debt.<br />
Although an individual merchant has no legal means to enforce<br />
proper repayment of loans, negligent daimyo and samurai can<br />
be blacklisted by merchant guilds. Many merchants become<br />
extremely wealthy, drawing the ire of the samurai. The samurai,<br />
who devotes his life to public service, often struggles in poverty,<br />
while the dishonorable moneymaker lives in ease in elegance and<br />
often receives special treatment from the daimyo. 32<br />
One of the most remarkable examples of merchant ascendancy<br />
during the Tokugawa era is the case of the Mitsui family. In the<br />
early 1600s, samurai Mitsui Sokubei took the unprecedented step<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
The Mitsui families Echigoya shop had a great effect on Tokugawa society<br />
Groups Outside the Status System<br />
While the vast majority of the population was sorted into the<br />
status system, the imperial court, outcasts, priests, doctors, monks,<br />
foreigners, and, to a certain extent, women, live outside the status<br />
system. We will briefly discuss a few of these groups.<br />
The early Tokugawa shogunate had largely marginalized the<br />
imperial court and Emperor. While the Emperor officially<br />
appointed each shogun and gave power to the house of Tokugawa<br />
with the imperial seal, this act was nothing but a formality to give<br />
further justification to Tokugawa rule. 34 The Imperial dynasty<br />
was established in the early 6 th century, although a mythological<br />
line extends back a further 1200 years to the sun god Amaterasu.<br />
While the idea of the emperor is important to the Japanese, the<br />
position itself has been powerless since the 9 th century and the<br />
Emperor remains uninvolved with the daily life of the Japanese<br />
people. The Emperor and his court convene at Kyoto, and serve<br />
two major functions. First, the Emperor controls all the mines in<br />
Japan. Second, the Emperor serves as a scholar and head of the<br />
Shinto belief system. Shinto is not a powerful or unifying ideology,<br />
nor a true religion, but a series of rituals for the imperial court<br />
11
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
and a disorganized local belief system throughout Japan. 35 The<br />
organization of Shinto would not begin until the Tempo era saw<br />
the rise of Mitogaku and the beginning of the sonno movement.<br />
a spurred merchant class and the growth of the markets. The<br />
fifth was improved transport and communication.<br />
The two groups of outcasts are called Eta and Hinen. Together<br />
they comprise about 4% of Japanese society. Outcasts<br />
perform functions forbidden of those inside the status system.<br />
The Eta label is hereditary, and includes all professions<br />
that handle carcasses, such as butchers, tanners, morticians,<br />
and executioners. They live in segregated villages. 36 Hinen<br />
(“non-human”) is a non-hereditary label applies to actors,<br />
fortunetellers, beggars, and prostitutes. While discrimination<br />
against outcasts exists, they perform vital functions in society<br />
and are often respected individuals. 37<br />
It is impossible to place women either inside or outside the<br />
status system. A Tokugawa era woman is responsible for<br />
childrearing and household management, but peasant women<br />
also help with the harvest and merchant women assist with<br />
bookkeeping. Samurai women often receive formal education.<br />
Some women instead enter the life of a geisha, and live and<br />
work in specialized yukaku (red-light) districts. Japanese<br />
society does not consider the geisha’s work disgraceful, but<br />
rather another necessary role in society. In fact, a well-trained<br />
geisha would also master art, dance, and gossip. 38<br />
The bustling Yoshiwara district in Tokyo was the most famous of the yukaku<br />
red-light districts<br />
Developments of early Tokugawa era<br />
A major development of the early Tokugawa era was the<br />
transformation of domainal castle towns into cities. This<br />
urbanization led to six major developments that affected<br />
Japanese society. The first development was the consolidation<br />
of lordly status on the daimyo, leading to the ascendancy of the<br />
daimyo in society. The second was a consolidation of control<br />
in each domain, which had a stabilizing effect. The third was<br />
the urbanization of the samurai, which allowed the daimyo<br />
to keep them under control and monitored. The fourth was<br />
The famous revenge of the 47 ronin is often called final act of the medieval<br />
samurai<br />
The last, and perhaps the most important, development was<br />
the bureaucratization of the samurai and the loss of samurai<br />
independence and spirit. This development can be best seen<br />
in the Ako Vendetta of 1701, often deemed the last gasp of<br />
the feudal samurai spirit. In the Ako Vendetta, a group of 47<br />
ronin set about revenging their deceased lord by launching a<br />
surprise attack on another daimyo. The ronin acted exactly<br />
according to proper samurai behavior, following their moral<br />
principle, and displaying loyalty to the house of their lord.<br />
And according to the pyramidal structure of society, where<br />
the non-samurai population was submissive to the samurai<br />
class, the samurai submissive to their daimyo, and the daimyo<br />
submissive to the shogun (and the shogun, theoretically,<br />
submissive to the Emperor), the ronin had acted properly.<br />
However, according to the laws of the bakufu, the ronin had<br />
disrupted order in society. The shogunate placed the values<br />
of law and order above medieval samurai values and ordered<br />
the ronin to commit honorable seppuku. 39 The Ako Vendetta<br />
exemplifies the shogunate’s successful social and political<br />
containment of the samurai, achieved by excluding them<br />
from the land and reorganizing them into the bureaucratic<br />
hierarchy. As the shogunate has promoted the values of the<br />
modern samurai (duty, obligation, responsibility, and loyalty<br />
to the law), over those of the medieval samurai (pride, honor,<br />
violence, and loyalty to one’s master), the Tokugawa era has<br />
witnessed a fading of the samurai spirit.<br />
12 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
Foreign Affairs and the West<br />
The shogunate alone carries responsibility for foreign relations<br />
and national defense, a limitation that acts both as a strength<br />
and a liability. Until 1543, Japan only had contact with the<br />
East. Chinese monks imported Buddhism and Confucianism<br />
in the 500s. 40 Both quickly became central elements of<br />
Japanese culture and evolved their own schools of thought<br />
within Japan. In the last foreign invasion of Japan, a series<br />
of storms prevented a Mongol invasion led by Kublai Khan<br />
twice in the late 1200s. Japan maintains official diplomatic<br />
relations with only Korea, and only the daimyo of the island<br />
of Tsushima handles trade with the country. 41 Restricted trade<br />
with China, mostly the exchange of silver for silk, occurs in<br />
the city of Nagasaki, although Satsuma often has used the<br />
Ryukyu islands as an intermediary to skirt this regulation.<br />
Other than in Satsuma, Tsushima, and Nagasaki, foreign<br />
trade is forbidden throughout Japan. Officials throughout<br />
the centuries have dreamt of overseas expansion into Korea<br />
and China, but after Hideyoshi’s debacle in the late 1500s, the<br />
bakufu has made no further attempts at foreign incursion.<br />
Japan maintains administration over Ezo, the northernmost<br />
of the four main islands, but except for the southern tip,<br />
native Ainu tribes populate the island. 42<br />
The first Western contacts with Japan were Portuguese and<br />
Spanish Catholic missionaries. The Portuguese arrived in 1543,<br />
bringing arms and the Gospel into Japan. 43 Christianity spread<br />
from the port city of Nagasaki, whose daimyo had converted,<br />
throughout southern Japan. By 1600, hundreds of thousands<br />
had converted to Christianity. However, these southern daimyo<br />
also joined the opposing side at Sekigahara, and divine Ieyasu<br />
became extremely suspicious of the foreign religion. 44 A 1612<br />
decree banning Christianity remained relatively unenforced until<br />
the last major anti-bakufu revolt of the Tokugawa era. In 1637,<br />
peasants in Shimbara and surrounding regions rose up against<br />
the government before being quashed by shogunal forces. When<br />
great Iemitsu learned that many of the leaders of the rebellion<br />
were Christian, he reacted swiftly. To combat the subversive<br />
ideologies entering Japan, Iemitsu decreed a seclusion order in<br />
1639 that severely limited foreign contact. Japanese were forbidden<br />
to travel abroad, all foreigners were expelled, and the practice of<br />
Christianity became punishable by death. Thereafter, all foreigners<br />
shipwrecked on Japan were required to trample on a crucifix to<br />
prove they were not missionaries. Many Christians gave up their<br />
faith, but legend says the rest went underground. These Kakure<br />
Kirishitan, “Hidden Christians,” are thought to secretly practice<br />
their beliefs in the areas around Nagasaki, but have never been<br />
discovered by shogunal inspectors. 45<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
With China’s defeat in the Opium Wars, Japan realized the might of Western<br />
military technology<br />
Japan, however, did not completely close up to the West.<br />
Having convinced the bakufu that their aims were purely<br />
financial, the Dutch are permitted to trade with the Japanese<br />
on the tiny island of Dejima in Nagasaki. 46 The bakufu limits<br />
trade with the Dutch to a trickle, and there is very little contact<br />
with them outside of the island. The Dutch make one official<br />
visit to Edo every four years to present gifts and produce<br />
a report on global news. Through the Dutch, the bakufu<br />
administration has become fairly well informed about world<br />
affairs and technological advances, although the rest of the<br />
country remains completely ignorant. However, the Dutch<br />
also occasionally feed false information in order to maintain<br />
their trading monopoly with the Japanese. The bakufu also<br />
questions castaways, both foreigners and Japanese returned by<br />
other governments, to gain intelligence on the West. 47<br />
The Japanese fear of Christianity prevents almost any other<br />
Western knowledge from entering Japan. Books imported<br />
by the Dutch are sent to Edo and stored in the shogun’s<br />
castle, for fear of subversive Christian elements. One of<br />
the only Western imports that the Japanese have responded<br />
positively to is Western painting. The use of perspective<br />
had not yet been discovered in Japan, and many Japanese<br />
artists have incorporated Western techniques after seeing<br />
one of the few pieces artwork imported by the Dutch. A few<br />
translators have slogged through a couple books on medical<br />
and scientific learning, but it was not until 1789 that the first<br />
Dutch language school opened in Nagasaki. 48 Starting in the<br />
1800s, a few Japanese began to learn French, Russian, and<br />
English in addition to Dutch. However, Rangaku, or Dutch<br />
Studies, has oscillated between periods of popularity and<br />
official clampdown. In 1839, a purge of “barbarian scholars”<br />
occurred and study of the West fell out of favor. 49<br />
13
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
However, it was only a matter of time before the major<br />
Western imperial powers began to encroach on Japanese<br />
sovereignty. The Russians, having reached Siberia, were<br />
expanding through the Pacific from the North, and became<br />
the first to contact the Japanese. The explorer Adam Laxman<br />
arrived in Ezo in 1792, alarming the shogunate. When Japan<br />
refused the Russian request to open trade relations, Russian<br />
warships mounted two raids on Japanese communities in an<br />
attempt to coerce them by force. The attempt failed, but the<br />
Russian behavior showed the shogunate both its own military<br />
deficiency against the cannons of the West, and instilled a<br />
deep mistrust of Westerners. 50 When Russia established a<br />
(short-lived) Japanese language school, the shogunate was<br />
put on high alert, thinking the Russians were preparing for an<br />
invasion of Japan. 51 In order to combat Russian encroachment,<br />
the shogunate made efforts to establish a presence in Ezo and<br />
settle more Japanese on the island.<br />
The next power to make contact with the Japanese was the<br />
British Empire. While Britain is not currently viewed as<br />
having colonial aspirations for Japan, it sees the island as a<br />
strategic point in the Pacific. The first British ship, Phaeton,<br />
entered Nagasaki in 1808 to search for enemy Dutch vessels.<br />
Demanding supplies, the governor of Nagasaki could<br />
only reluctantly acquiesce due to the superior firepower of<br />
the English ship. 52 Later, in 1818, the British requested to<br />
establish trade with the Japanese and were rejected. In 1824,<br />
men from a British ship off the shore of Kagoshima arrived<br />
on the mainland to steal supplies. Fighting broke out between<br />
the sailors and the Japanese. 53 In response to this incident,<br />
the shogunate, infuriated and concerned about Western<br />
encroachment, enacted the “Shell and Repel” edict of 1825.<br />
This edict stipulated that any Western vessels seen in Japanese<br />
waters would be attacked with cannon fire. Distressed vessels<br />
would be refused aid. The period this edict was in place, from<br />
1825-1842, is often called the sakoku, or closed country,<br />
period. The bakufu revoked the edict in response to the First<br />
Opium War.<br />
The First Opium War (1839-1842), a conflict between Britain<br />
and China, resulted in the first of China’s embarrassing<br />
defeats to Western nations in the late 19 th century. Chinese<br />
concessions to Britain included the loss of the territory of<br />
Hong Kong, revoked tariff autonomy, extraterritoriality for<br />
the British (meaning that British citizens were not subject to<br />
Chinese laws when on Chinese soil), and most favored nation<br />
status. For China, the regional power that Japan had looked<br />
to in awe for centuries, to lose a conflict so handily to the<br />
West was extremely unsettling to the bakufu. The shogunate<br />
revoked the edict, realizing that provoking the West could<br />
result in a disastrous war for Japan. The Opium War confirmed<br />
bakufu beliefs that Westerners were violent barbarians, but<br />
Japan needed time to build up its defenses if it wanted to try<br />
to resist the West. 54<br />
During the 1840s, the French also established contact<br />
with Japan, although these encroachments took place at<br />
Tsushima and the Ryukyus rather than attempted visits to<br />
the mainland. 55 However, the last and most aggressive power<br />
to reach Japan was America. There were sporadic sightings<br />
of American whaling vessels off the Japanese coast, but the<br />
first ship to attempt trade with the Japanese was the Morrison<br />
in 1837, which the Japanese met with cannon fire. 56 In 1846,<br />
the bakufu turned away from Edo two ships captained by<br />
Commodore James Biddle. However, these ships were not<br />
fired upon (in accordance with the revocation of the Shell<br />
and Repel Edict), an encouraging sign for the Americans. The<br />
Japanese were dismayed to see that the two American vessels<br />
vastly outgunned the sparse and antiquated coastal cannons<br />
around Edo. 57 When America acquired California after the<br />
Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the Pacific opened up<br />
to American traders. As early as 1849, American businessman<br />
Aaron Palmer advocated opening trade relations with Japan as<br />
a supplying and coaling center for whaling vessels. 58<br />
It is only a matter of time until America attempts once again<br />
to open Japan, which, without even a navy, is in no state to<br />
resist. There are two conflicting opinions among the bakufu<br />
administration for how to respond to the West. One group<br />
advocates a buildup of coastal defenses, while the other<br />
pushes simply for an avoidance of conflict. 59 The shogun’s<br />
chief advisor, Abe Masahiro, ordered for the buildup of<br />
coastal defenses in Tokugawa lands in 1845, and for domains<br />
in 1850. Abe took the unprecedented step of calling on<br />
domains to raise peasant militias, an action in direct conflict<br />
with the status system. 60 Desperate times call for desperate<br />
measures.<br />
Tempo Era (1830-43)<br />
Heading into 1830, things were looking bright in the Land of<br />
the Rising Sun. Scholars had declared the year the beginning<br />
of the Tempo (“Heavenly Protection”) era. The last set of<br />
Tokugawa reforms occurred during the Kansei era in the<br />
1790s. Shogunate advisor Matsudaira Sadanobu responded<br />
to an erosion of Tokugawa authority by attempting to return<br />
to tradition. The shogunate further restricted foreign trade,<br />
placed restrictions on merchants, cancelled some samurai<br />
14 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
debts, removed corrupt officials, reorganized the governance<br />
of Edo, increased government censorship, and officialized the<br />
shogunate’s Confucian doctrine. All these measures increased<br />
the shogunate’s control on society and placed tradition at<br />
the forefront of bakufu thought. After these reforms, Japan<br />
experienced a series of particularly good years for crops,<br />
leading to a period of social tranquility. 61<br />
This period, however, did not last for long. In the Tempo era,<br />
poor crops and a debased currency led to a sharp rise in the<br />
price of rise, with disastrous consequences. In this period<br />
of unrest and crisis, the social and economic system set up<br />
by the three unifiers unraveled. In 1833 began a period of<br />
abnormally cold weather that caused massive crop shortages<br />
and famines. Some peasants were even forced to eat their<br />
straw raincoats to survive. 62 For the samurai, rising inflation<br />
decreased the value of their stipends; cash-strapped daimyo<br />
even permanently reduced some stipends. In an attempt to<br />
keep up appearances despite lessening purchasing power<br />
and reduced stipends, samurai increasingly borrowed from<br />
merchant moneylenders, going further and further into debt.<br />
Some desperate samurai even sold their samurai status to<br />
wealthy merchants. Exacerbating these problems, in 1843<br />
Tokugawa Ieyoshi, the 12 th shogun, went on a pilgrimage<br />
to the shrine of the divine Tokugawa Ieyasu (who had been<br />
deified by great Iemitsu in the 17 th century). His personal<br />
escort numbered between 150 and 200 thousand. The sheer<br />
size of this entourage caused complete chaos, and incurred<br />
extraordinary costs to the daimyo hosting the shogun along<br />
his route. 63<br />
Peasant protests began as petitions for redress, but during the Tempo era they<br />
often escalated into violence<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
Societal reaction to this crisis was unprecedented levels of<br />
popular protest. Unrest occurred in both urban and rural areas<br />
as inequality and injustice became more palpable. Villages<br />
began to act politically as the deference to authorities that<br />
underpinned the status system eroded. Peasants increasingly<br />
revolted. New and unsanctioned peasant religions, worshipping<br />
yonaoshi, or “world renewal” gods, spread rapidly as peasants<br />
desperately tried to find hope in the future. 64<br />
The height of Tempo era peasant rebellion was the 1837<br />
Osaka riot. Oshio Heihachiro, a low-level samurai and<br />
Tokugawa inspector, saw the peasants’ plight and grew tired<br />
of inaction by authorities. He penned a manifesto deriding<br />
commercialism, which had turned the social order on its head,<br />
and called the suffering peasants to arms. Oshio and a peasant<br />
army razed over a quarter of Osaka to the ground before the<br />
rebellion was put down. 65 Oshio’s rebellion set a dangerous<br />
precedent – with strong leadership and a desperate peasant<br />
population, discontent could dangerously boil over. Merchant<br />
wealth incurred the wrath of both samurai and peasants, and<br />
any collaboration between the two would have threatened<br />
national security. However, Oshio was an extraordinary<br />
exception. His manifesto, calling for unity between classes to<br />
overthrow the merchant stranglehold on society, reads like a<br />
call for socialist revolution. Not all samurai are as modern in<br />
thought as Oshio, and the vast majority is much too proud<br />
to associate themselves with lowly peasants. Nevertheless,<br />
Tokugawa society, so obsessed with maintaining order, turned<br />
into a powder keg.<br />
The shortcomings of the shogunate became evident in its<br />
response to the crisis. The shogunate began with its usual<br />
response to crop shortages – reducing taxes, securing food<br />
for cities, quelling riots forcefully, and debasing the currency.<br />
These measures, which had offered relief in less acute crises,<br />
did nothing to alleviate the situation. Only in 1841 did the<br />
shogunate finally attack the crisis with the Tempo reforms.<br />
The brainchild of Mizuno Tadakuni, there were three main<br />
aspects to the Tempo reforms: moral regulation, economic<br />
stabilization, and the reassertion of Tokugawa authority.<br />
Mizuno’s moral regulations attempted to curb excesses and<br />
return the country to an imagined past of moral righteousness.<br />
The shogunate taxed and regulated the “immoral” luxuries of<br />
the samurai, such as prostitution, gambling, tattoos, theater,<br />
alcohol, and pornography. 66 Additionally, the shogunate decried<br />
the “excesses” of the peasantry, a particularly ill-advised move<br />
considering the mass starvations at this time. The attempts<br />
at economic stabilization worked to curb efforts by rural<br />
15
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
entrepreneurs and ambitious daimyo from skirting the Osakabased<br />
market and rice economy, efforts that were weakening<br />
Tokugawa finances by decentralizing the economy. When the<br />
shogunate debased the currency, leading to runaway inflation, it<br />
abolished merchant guilds, thinking that a freer market would<br />
drive down prices. However, when inflation continued, the<br />
shogunate quickly reinstated the guilds. The shogunate did<br />
decide to force rich Osaka merchants to “contribute” large sums<br />
to the Tokugawa treasury. Lastly, the shogunate attempted to<br />
reestablish Tokugawa prestige and reassert its power in society.<br />
The shogunate placed restrictions on domainal currency and<br />
seized land around Edo and Osaka. 67 An attempt to strip three<br />
daimyo of their titles was rescinded after loud protests from<br />
other daimyo. 68 Whereas Iemitsu confiscated and reorganized<br />
hundreds of realms, in the intervening two centuries the daimyo<br />
had grown to view their domains as a right, and attempts to<br />
remove them were viewed as nothing but empty threats. A major<br />
check against daimyo insubordination had become toothless.<br />
The reforms of Mizuno proved largely unsuccessful, but the<br />
Tempo crisis eventually subsided due to improved weather in the<br />
1840s. However, the crisis had a number of lasting effects. The<br />
confiscation of land around Tokugawa metropolitan centers<br />
and the threat of unseating daimyo alienated the lords from the<br />
shogunate. A climate of mutual suspicion had been created, as<br />
the daimyo suspected the shogunate of plotting to unseat them<br />
and the shogunate suspected the daimyo of secretly breaking<br />
laws and undermining the shogunate. Tokugawa Nariaki, the<br />
shimpan daimyo of the Mito domain, emerged as an opposition<br />
figure for those opposed to the shogunate<br />
actions. The bakufu finances were in an<br />
extremely poor position, while a number<br />
of the large tozama domains (Satsuma in<br />
particular) had weathered the crisis much<br />
better. Efforts against samurai luxury were<br />
massively unpopular in the metropolis of<br />
Edo. 69<br />
The strengths of the Tokugawa system<br />
– dividing up society and space and<br />
controlling foreign relations – also<br />
proved to be weaknesses as the status<br />
system began to fall apart and foreigners<br />
increasingly violated Japanese sovereignty.<br />
Major concerns have surfaced over<br />
the bakufu’s military preparedness,<br />
particularly after the difficulty of putting<br />
down Oshio’s riot. The samurai, having<br />
not fought a major battle in Japan<br />
since 1637, have grown complacent. The increasingly literate<br />
peasants (by the Tempo era, 40% of all Japanese men and 10-<br />
15% of women were literate) 70 begin to demand things of their<br />
rulers, and, with the rise of the merchants, the appearance of<br />
a difference between status and class has created a social basis<br />
for revolution. A disconnect has appeared between the image<br />
of the world under the status system and reality.<br />
At the end of the crisis, the conciliatory and prudent Abe<br />
Masahiro replaced the proactive Mizuno as chief advisor of<br />
the shogunate. The Tempo crisis set the stage for the current<br />
situation facing the council. But before we delve into these<br />
issues, we must briefly look at the philosophical development<br />
of Mitogaku and the sonno movement.<br />
Philosophical Developments<br />
Tokugawa Nariaki became one of the shogunate’s<br />
staunchest critics<br />
Beginning in the late 1700s, intellectuals began to probe the<br />
idea of restoring imperial rule in Japan. The bakufu cracked<br />
down on these renegade individuals with tight censorship. 71<br />
However, this all changed with the 1825 publication of<br />
Aizawa Seishisai’s New Theses. Aizawa was the philosopher<br />
of Tokugawa Nariaki’s court in the Mito domain. The New<br />
Theses, when originally published, provided grounding for<br />
bakufu sovereignty. Aizawa wrote the intensely anti-Western<br />
New Theses (Aizawa’s bias was clear: “America is located at<br />
the rear end of the world, so its inhabitants are stupid and<br />
incompetent) 72 to praise the Shell and Repel edict, providing<br />
philosophical reasoning for isolation and a justification for<br />
the Tokugawa system. However, as<br />
Tokugawa isolationism relaxed and the<br />
status system unraveled, the New Theses<br />
have become increasingly co-opted by<br />
anti-bakufu forces.<br />
The New Theses advocates three major<br />
reforms to society. First, it supports<br />
restoring reverence for the Emperor. It<br />
states that the Emperor is the essence<br />
of the nation (called kokutai) and a<br />
way to create national unity and loyalty.<br />
Following Neo-Confucian philosophy,<br />
it calls on the duty of all Japanese to be<br />
loyal to the Emperor through the shogun.<br />
It also calls for a reinvigoration of the<br />
Shinto faith and an attempt to separate the<br />
foreign Buddhism from Shinto. Aizawa<br />
believes a renewed faith in Shinto would<br />
help in resisting the West, the second<br />
16 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
major change advocated in the New Theses, writing, “What<br />
better way to spark the samurai spirit and cow the barbarians<br />
into submission?” 73 Aizawa views the West as an ideological<br />
threat to Japanese traditions that must be met forcefully. To<br />
better prepare all of Japan from potential dangers, Aizawa<br />
recommends that the shogunate give some military control back<br />
to the domains, which would become responsible for defending<br />
their realm. Lastly, Aizawa advocates the promotion of men of<br />
ability amongst the samurai. Meritocracy would create just and<br />
capable leadership that would both be fair and ensure Japan<br />
would be ready to confront its Western enemies. 74<br />
The New Theses formed the basis of Mitogaku, or the<br />
learning of the Mito domain. Mito’s daimyo Nariaki has<br />
become a national figure and a constant thorn in the side<br />
of the shogunate. He demands a return to Shell and Repel<br />
and greater domainal autonomy for defense. Nariaki heads<br />
one of the three branch families from which a shogun could<br />
be chosen if the main line produced no heir, making him a<br />
particularly bitter and contentious rival. 75<br />
Danger at Home<br />
Domestic issues include a status system eroding under<br />
economic and social change as the dichotomy between status<br />
(SPAM) and class (with some merchants as the wealthiest<br />
non-daimyo in Japan and even some peasants out-earning<br />
low-level samurai) widens. The Neo-Confucian belief in<br />
benevolent government is crumbling under an increasingly<br />
disintegrating system. With young daimyo unprepared to rule<br />
after growing up in Edo under sankin kotai, the relationship<br />
between the samurai vassal and his lord is becoming distant,<br />
formal, and administrative, a far cry from the warrior loyalty<br />
shown by the 47 ronin or by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. Samurai<br />
secretly copy the New Theses and send them around Japan to<br />
stir up anti-bakufu sentiment.<br />
Aizawa’s treatise appeals especially to frustrated, lowlevel,<br />
unemployed, or underemployed samurai, who feel<br />
trapped in a system that prevents social mobility and angry<br />
at merchants who live much more comfortably than they.<br />
Mitogaku combined with kokugaku (“national learning,” the<br />
set of traditions and legends that make up Japanese culture)<br />
and Shinto to birth the proto-nationalist sonno (“revere the<br />
Emperor”) movement. The Mito domain has become the<br />
center of this movement, and hundreds of intelligent and<br />
discontented samurai flock to study in Mito.<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
Current Situation<br />
At this point, in the beginning of 1853, Japan contains<br />
approximately 27 million people, with approximately 20<br />
percent residing in urban areas. Over a million live in Tokyo,<br />
while around 400 thousand reside in Osaka and Kyoto. 76<br />
Tokugawa Ienari, the previous shogun, had the longest reign<br />
in Tokugawa history. An unprecedented level of personal<br />
luxury characterized his fifty-year rule. Ienari’s lavish tastes,<br />
particularly his harem of 40 consorts and his 55 children,<br />
taxed government coffers. 77 To make financial matters worse,<br />
the shogunate conducted its last cadastral survey in 1700. The<br />
system of expected yield upon which taxes are based is over<br />
150 years old. 78 With a poor financial climate, a crumbling<br />
status system, the rise of subversive philosophies, and<br />
Western encroachment, the troubles of 1853 can be placed<br />
in two categories: danger at home and trouble from abroad.<br />
The enormous Edo castle looms over the metropolis<br />
Peasants are becoming increasingly literate and mobile. While only<br />
samurai have universal formal education, merchant academies<br />
in Osaka and Edo teach children of wealthy merchants, and the<br />
formal teaching of commoners, which had begun in the Mito<br />
domain, is spreading throughout Japan. At the same time, the<br />
nature and frequency of peasant protests is shifting. Instead of<br />
submitting a petition or fleeing an oppressive domain, protests<br />
are becoming more frequent, more violent, and more destructive.<br />
New religions and collective behaviors appear among the peasants.<br />
Increasingly mobile peasants are making Okage Mairi, or mass<br />
pilgrimages to the sacred Ise shrine, with ever more frequency.<br />
Lastly, a new craze called Ee ja nai ka (“What the hell?!”) has swept<br />
certain peasant groups. When magic talismans appear to fall from<br />
the sky (most likely dropped from roofs by mischief-makers),<br />
peasants spontaneously break into dance and celebration, a mob<br />
17
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
that occasionally leads to the looting and destruction of buildings.<br />
Ee ja nai ka has no political purpose, nor is it led by anyone in<br />
particular. It is a spontaneous grassroots movement arising out of<br />
a population that is becoming increasingly agitated. 79<br />
To make matters worse, in July of 1852 a wing of Edo Castle<br />
was lost to an accidental fire. The reconstruction, which began<br />
immediately, is enormously expensive and still ongoing. It is<br />
estimated that repairs will amount to approximately an entire<br />
year’s budget for the shogunate, which cannot afford such a cost. 80<br />
Troubles from Abroad<br />
The full title of the shogun is “barbarian-subduing<br />
generalissimo.” The bakufu is, at its core, a warrior<br />
government. If the shogunate cannot control the barbarian<br />
threat, its legitimacy is fundamentally challenged. In the West,<br />
the development of the steamship has shortened the trip<br />
from California to Japan to a mere fourteen days. Rumors of<br />
an official American mission to Japan reach the shogunate<br />
through the Dutch. Advisors are wondering whether to take<br />
preemptive action against such a mission. Additionally, the<br />
daimyo of Satsuma, Shimazu Nariakira, has requested to<br />
build warships to patrol the Ryukyu islands. 81 This would<br />
amount to the first Japanese navy since Hideyoshi’s failed<br />
invasion of Korea, but the shogunate is worried about giving<br />
additional authority to what is already the most powerful and<br />
independent domain in Japan.<br />
Within Japan, three competing factions begin to form. The<br />
first faction contains Tokugawa hardliners, who support<br />
a reassertion of shogunal authority throughout Japan and<br />
exclusive authoritarian rule by top bakufu leaders. Shogunate<br />
advisor and daimyo Ii Naosuke leads this group. The second<br />
faction contains moderate imperialists. While not directly<br />
opposed to Tokugawa rule, they all have individual gripes with<br />
the bakufu and many support an increased role of the imperial<br />
court in society. This group contains the Mitogaku founders<br />
Tokugawa Nariaki and Aizawa Seishisai, the representatives<br />
from the Satsuma domain, and many of the tozama daimyo.<br />
This group is not at all unified and the other two factions will<br />
try to persuade its individual actors to their side. The third<br />
group is a radical splinter group of nativist samurai called<br />
shishi (“men of high purpose”). This small group, containing<br />
the more radical samurai of the Mito and Choshu domains,<br />
rapidly grows in number. Shishi are mostly frustrated lowlevel<br />
samurai who have embraced the sonno movement. They<br />
are all virulently anti-West.<br />
Having to contend with these three factions are the shogun<br />
and his chief advisor, Abe Masahiro. Abe, who has called<br />
this council together, is an astute politician and political<br />
maneuverer, who attempts to achieve consensus, although<br />
sometimes at the expense of results. The council members,<br />
while advising the shogunate, will all fall into one of these<br />
three groups, who will compete both in the council chamber<br />
and behind closed doors for the future of Japan.<br />
Timeline of Significant Events<br />
* 1543 : Portuguese missionaries arrive at Japan<br />
* 1570-1603 : Unification of Japan under Oda Nobunaga,<br />
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu<br />
* 1600 : Battle of Sekigahara<br />
* 1603-1605 : Rule of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1st shogun)<br />
* 1605-1623 : Rule of Tokugawa Hidetada (2nd shogun)<br />
* 1623-1651 : Rule of Tokugawa Iemitsu (3rd shogun)<br />
* 1639 : Beginning of isolationism after Shimbara revolt<br />
* mid-1600s : Martyrdom of Sakura Sogoro<br />
* 1701 : Ako Vendetta (47 ronin)<br />
* early-1700s: Publication of Hagakure<br />
* 1787-1837 : Rule of Tokugawa Ienari (11th shogun)<br />
* 1789 : First Dutch language school opens<br />
* 1790s : Kansei reforms<br />
* 1792 : Adam Laxman initiates Russian contact with Japan<br />
* 1808 : First British contact with Japan<br />
* 1825-1842 : Shell and Repel edict and sakoku period<br />
* 1825 : New Theses published<br />
* 1830-1843 : Tempo Era<br />
* 1837 : Oshio Heihachiro’s Osaka riot<br />
* 1837 : Beginning of rule of Tokugawa Ieyoshi (12th shogun)<br />
* 1839-1842 : First Opium War<br />
* 1846 : Commodore Biddle attempts to land at Edo<br />
* 1852 : Edo castle catches fire<br />
* 1853 : Abe Masahiro calls council together<br />
18 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
Major Questions<br />
A number of immediately pressing issues face this council. The<br />
council must find a way to improve the shogunate’s finances<br />
while the restoration of Edo castle saps important resources.<br />
The shogunate is also slowly improving its coastal defenses,<br />
and the council must decide how to continue. Should the<br />
council form the peasant militias suggested by Abe, continue<br />
on the current track, or decide to spend its funds more wisely?<br />
The shogunate must also decide how to deal with the tozama<br />
daimyo, who are still angered by the Tempo reforms. Should<br />
the council attempt to placate the daimyo, or crack down on<br />
illegal trade? The council must respond to Satsuma’s request<br />
to construct and form a navy. A naval presence would deter<br />
Western nations, but agreeing to Satsuma’s naval request<br />
might give too much power to the domain.<br />
The council needs to address growing samurai discontent.<br />
How can the shogunate ease the plight of unemployed and<br />
indebted samurai? Many of these samurai have espoused<br />
the nativist Mitogaku. The growing numbers of violent<br />
and radical shishi concerns the shogunate. And the critical<br />
Tokugawa Nariaki remains a destabilizing force, gaining the<br />
support of samurai opposed to Tokugawa policies. Many<br />
hardliners in the Tokugawa administration are also concerned<br />
that Nariaki is maneuvering for his favored son, Hitotsubashi<br />
Keiki, to become a future shogun. Ieyoshi’s heir, the 29 yearold<br />
Tokugawa Iesada, is sickly and childless. If Iesada does<br />
not bear an heir, forces supporting Nariaki will push to install<br />
Hitotsubashi Keiki as shogun.<br />
Other issues of concern to the shogunate are peasant unrest<br />
and merchant influence. While peasant unrest has decreased<br />
since the Tempo crisis, increased mobility and literacy create<br />
a climate ripe for peasant unrest, and the recent Ee ja nai ka<br />
craze is a concerning sign. Additionally, merchant influence<br />
destabilizes society, undermining the rice-based economic<br />
system and incensing the samurai and peasants. Should the<br />
council keep the merchants in check, or use their influence<br />
and wealth to serve the shogunate?<br />
At this watershed moment, the council has a chance to outmaneuver<br />
both domestic and foreign opposition and rewrite history with<br />
swift and clever action. During this period of Japan, the bakumatsu<br />
(“end of the shogunate”) period, six major historical “what ifs,”<br />
failed opportunities by the shogunate, create an opportunity for<br />
this council to change the course of history. The council has the<br />
opportunity to play with all six of these possibilities in an attempt<br />
to ensure the continuance of the Tokugawa shogunal dynasty.<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
Komei (born 1831) is the Emperor of Japan in 1853. Little is known about him<br />
The first “what if ” is the response to foreign pressure. The<br />
council must choose carefully how to deal with Western<br />
intervention in Japan. The second is the force of bakufu<br />
reaction to domestic unrest. Should the shogunate placate<br />
opposition and reform or vigorously nip unrest in the bud?<br />
The third is the exploitation of internal discord amongst the<br />
opposition. How can the shogunate play opposing forces,<br />
particularly the Satsuma and Choshu domains, off each<br />
other? The fourth is the response to peasant uprisings. Can<br />
the shogunate use peasant unrest to its advantage? The fifth is<br />
military preparedness. How can the bakufu bolster its defenses<br />
against both internal and external threats? Can the shogunate<br />
use Western military technology to its advantage? And the<br />
final “what if ” of the bakumatsu period is the manipulation<br />
of the Emperor. How can the shogunate use the Emperor as<br />
a symbol to its advantage, and prevent the opposition from<br />
doing the same? The Emperor resides in Kyoto, officially in<br />
Tokugawa territory but over 200 miles away from its base in<br />
19
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
Edo. If the council can use some of these six opportunities<br />
to the shogunate’s advantage, it may be able to bend without<br />
breaking, weathering the buffets of historical change to<br />
emerge from the mid-nineteenth century intact.<br />
Questions A Position Paper Must Answer<br />
Before you set out on writing your position papers, you will<br />
be assigned an important historical character from bakumatsu<br />
Japan. Your character may be a shogunal advisor, a daimyo, an<br />
intellectual, a merchant, or an influential samurai commander.<br />
Thus, each of you will bring a unique angle to your position<br />
paper, which should be written from the perspective of your character.<br />
Solutions to major issues outlined in this study guide and<br />
discovered in your research should be proposed, focusing on<br />
the area of expertise of your assigned character. For example,<br />
while a tozama daimyo might focus on ways the council<br />
could repair relations with the domains, an expert in Rangaku<br />
might focus on how the council should respond to the West.<br />
Your advice and potential solutions should align with your<br />
character’s political views and affiliations. If your character<br />
is a samurai, what level is his stipend? If your character is a<br />
daimyo, which of the three kinds is he?<br />
Your position paper should not rehash all the issues put<br />
forward in the study guide. Briefly review the situation, but<br />
focus on providing new details and insight. Your paper should<br />
be focused on two areas: providing information on your<br />
character, and offering solutions to current issues.<br />
Regarding the first focus area, provide background on your<br />
character that might influence his views and decisions in the<br />
council. What has he done in the past that defines his views?<br />
What does he feel about the shogunate and the Tokugawa<br />
dynasty? Is he a Tokugawa hardliner, a sneaky opportunist, a<br />
sworn enemy? Look at his relationship and views towards the<br />
Emperor and the imperial court. Ask, what is his opinion of<br />
the West? How does he feel about recent Western incursions,<br />
and what would he think of Western involvement in Japan?<br />
Look for guidance both in his past actions and his aspirations<br />
for the future. This is the crux of the second focus area. What<br />
does he hope for Japan’s future? Does he support the status<br />
quo? If so, how can the council work to preserve tradition, if<br />
not, what kind of change does Japan need? Propose specific<br />
solutions to address the issues of the time period. Be creative,<br />
but remember your character’s views and interests.<br />
The goal of this council is to ensure the strength and survival<br />
of the shogunate, but many of you are opposed to these goals.<br />
Play with this. What can your character propose in committee<br />
to further his goals, and how can he also work behind the<br />
scene to ensure them? For this committee to be successful,<br />
there should be plots, conspiracies, scheming, and subterfuge.<br />
Who can your character work with on specific issues, and who<br />
are his natural enemies? What can he do to form coalitions in<br />
his side, and keep his enemies off-balance? Having both a set<br />
of proposed solutions for advising Ieyoshi in committee as<br />
well as a set of personal goals and aspirations will be essential<br />
to prepare for the committee.<br />
Suggestions for Further Research<br />
To review material and for a more in-depth look at Tokugawa<br />
Japan, there are three books I highly recommend: The<br />
Cambridge History of Japan, Andrew Gordon’s A Modern History<br />
of Japan, and Marius Jansen’s The Making of Modern Japan.<br />
While Cambridge’s goes into much more factual depth and<br />
features perspectives from a variety of authors, Gordon has<br />
chapters on interesting cultural elements not included in this<br />
study guide. Jansen’s is a mixture of the two approaches.<br />
There are a number of primary sources from the period I<br />
also recommend. Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-<br />
Modern Japan provides primary text and analysis of the New<br />
Theses. This book would be great if your character espouses<br />
Mitogaku (especially if you are Aizawa himself!). The Hagakure<br />
can be found online in translation and provides a wonderful<br />
look into the samurai spirit that underwent a slow death in the<br />
Tokugawa era. Japan: A Documentary History is a great collection<br />
of primary sources, including Oshio Heihachiro’s single page<br />
manifesto, which I suggest everyone read. Lastly, Musui’s Story<br />
is the biography of a low-level samurai struggling through life<br />
during the Tempo crisis. It’s a romp through Tokugawa Japan,<br />
as the author challenges others to duels, hires prostitutes until<br />
he falls deep into debt, extorts peasants, and cheats, steals,<br />
and lies his way through society. Musui’s account provides a<br />
first-hand look at the problems facing a nineteenth century<br />
samurai: debauchery, unemployment, attempting to keep up<br />
appearances, debt, and a loss of prestige. Musui’s son, unlike<br />
his deadbeat dad, becomes a prominent figure in bakumatsu<br />
Japan and a member of this council. This is a very enjoyable<br />
read while also providing information relevant to the<br />
committee.<br />
If you are more into films, three can provide a sense of the<br />
time period. Twilight Samurai looks at a low-level samurai<br />
struggling to provide for his demented mother and two young<br />
daughters. This movie provides a glimpse at samurai struggles<br />
20 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
in bakumatsu Japan, differences between ranks of samurai,<br />
and their increasingly distant relationship to the daimyo. It’s a<br />
superb film, and the most historical of the three. Seven Samurai<br />
is a classic, set in the warring states period just before the three<br />
unifiers. It gives a good sense of the medieval samurai spirit as<br />
well as the relationship between samurai and peasants. Lastly,<br />
The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe,<br />
is set over twenty years after the date of the council, but<br />
prominently features council member Saigo Takamori, often<br />
called the last samurai of Japan, as he makes one final stand<br />
for samurai values in the face of Western modernization.<br />
Please do not take this movie to be historical fact.<br />
Position Paper Requirements<br />
HMUN requires delegates to adopt the position of a specific<br />
person or country during debate. This is a key element of the<br />
“international” experience of <strong>Model</strong> UN as it forces delegates<br />
to examine perspectives, problems, and policies that they do<br />
not necessarily share. Consequently, crafting a position paper<br />
is often also one of the most difficult aspects of <strong>Model</strong> UN:<br />
students must confront the inherent biases of their own<br />
national perspectives. Nonetheless, position papers are the<br />
focus of positional preparation before the conference, and we<br />
ask you to spend time and effort on researching and writing<br />
them.<br />
Each position paper should be at least three pages, singlespaced,<br />
twelve-point Times New Roman font (approximately<br />
1500 words). Your name(s), country or character name, school,<br />
and committee should be stated in the upper right hand corner.<br />
Closing Remarks<br />
By this point, you are all well-versed in the major events,<br />
politics, and figures leading up to the bakumatsu period, which<br />
should provide you with guidance in counseling Shogun<br />
Ieyoshi. Knowledge of the issues outlined in this paper will<br />
be essential in addressing the crises brought before you in<br />
committee. However, this study guide provides only a big<br />
picture of Early Modern Japan and its issues. The best advisors<br />
will be able to provide solutions from the perspective of their<br />
characters based on crucial historical details and precedents<br />
beyond what is provided in the guide. I highly encourage you<br />
to conduct additional research, focusing especially on your<br />
personage and those of his status. However, I advise against<br />
studying events in Japanese history after 1853. While all of<br />
you will doubtless learn about the Perry Mission and the Meiji<br />
Restoration in your studies, extensive research into these<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
events will not only take some of the novelty and fun out of<br />
the committee for you personally, but will more likely than<br />
not become a hindrance in dealing with the crises that will<br />
come up in committee, where intuition, creative originality,<br />
and knowledge of current events is key.<br />
I would like to make clear that all events leading up to the start<br />
of committee excepting the survival of Tokugawa Ieyoshi<br />
are codified history. However, from this point onwards, I<br />
challenge you to sway the course of Japanese history as you<br />
desire, according to the beliefs, opinions, and interests of<br />
your characters. Your actions in committee will dictate Japan’s<br />
future; do not assume that history will follow the same course.<br />
I am extremely excited to see you in committee and hear of<br />
all the solutions that will make my (Ieyoshi’s) life easier, my<br />
legacy stronger, my wealth grander, and maybe even my harem<br />
a little larger. I certainly wouldn’t complain. For 96 hours, we<br />
will be Japanese living in the last great feudal state. Embrace it.<br />
And, while I cannot guarantee that dropping a quote from The<br />
Last Samurai will guarantee you an award, strings can be pulled.<br />
After all, the shogun does have the final say in all matters. Best<br />
of luck, and see you in the Land of the Rising Sun!<br />
1 Gordon 3<br />
2 Ibid 12-3<br />
3 Brown 39<br />
4 Jansen 23<br />
5 Ibid 20<br />
6 Gordon 14-15<br />
7 Hellyer 26<br />
8 The Cambridge History of Japan 286<br />
9 Gordon 15<br />
10 Ibid 37<br />
11 Ibid 14-6<br />
12 Ibid 15<br />
13 Hellyer 28<br />
14 Ibid<br />
15 Cambridge 328<br />
16 Jansen 38<br />
17 Shiba 4<br />
Endnotes<br />
21
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
18 Mitani 71<br />
19 Shiba 5<br />
20 Totman xvii<br />
21 Yamamoto 17<br />
22 Ibid 20<br />
23 Cambridge 2<br />
24 Jansen 105<br />
25 Ibid 101-2<br />
26 Ibid 111-2<br />
27 Ibid 8-10<br />
28 Gordon 17<br />
29 Shinzaburo 34<br />
30 Walthall 35-75<br />
31 Cambridge 149<br />
32 Smith 136<br />
33 Jansen 119-20<br />
34 Ibid 99<br />
35 Gordon 5-8<br />
36 Lehmann 100-1<br />
37 Jansen 122-3<br />
38 Lehmann 94-5<br />
39 Sources of Japanese Tradition 440-458<br />
40 Gordon 6<br />
41 Mitani xxxi<br />
42 Auslin 31<br />
43 Gordon 5<br />
44 Auslin 17<br />
45 Shinzaburo 27-8<br />
54 Gordon 49<br />
55 Hellyer 152, 168<br />
56 Gordon 49<br />
57 Brown 73; Mitani 62-3<br />
58 Duus 67-70<br />
59 Mitani 41<br />
60 Ibid 69-70<br />
61 Cambridge 52-62<br />
62 Ibid 117-8<br />
63 Ibid 50-2<br />
64 Ibid 217-8<br />
65 Japan: A Documentary History 280-1; Gordon 54<br />
66 Cambridge 142-4<br />
67 Ibid 149-153<br />
68 Ibid<br />
69 Ibid 148-64<br />
70 Gordon 28<br />
71 Brown 58<br />
72 Wakabayashi 149<br />
73 Ibid 209<br />
74 Ibid 215<br />
75 Cambridge 129<br />
76 Gordon 22-3<br />
77 Cambridge 51-2<br />
78 Jansen 228<br />
79 Cambridge 217-21<br />
80 Mitani 113<br />
81 Ibid 114<br />
46 Keene 17<br />
47 Cambridge 89<br />
48 Keene 30<br />
49 Cambridge 106<br />
50 Brown 64<br />
51 Keene 48<br />
52 Brown 67<br />
53 Ibid<br />
22 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
Bibliography<br />
Auslin, Michael. Negotiating with Imperialism : The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy. Cambridge: <strong>Harvard</strong><br />
University Press, 2004. Print.<br />
Brown, Delmer. Nationalism in Japan; an Introductory Historical Analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1955. Print.<br />
Duus, Peter. The Japanese Discovery of America : A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. Print.<br />
Ed. de Bary, William Theodore, Carol Gluck, and Arthur Tiedemann. Sources of Japanese Tradition. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia<br />
University Press, 2005. Print.<br />
Ed. Hall, John Whitney, Marius Jansen, Madoka Kanai, and Denis Twitchett. The Cambridge History of Japan. Cambridge<br />
England ;New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Print.<br />
Ed. Lu, David John. Japan : A Documentary History. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1997. Print.<br />
Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan : From Tokugawa Times to the Present. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press,<br />
2009. Print.<br />
Hellyer, Robert. Defining Engagement : Japan and Global Contexts, 1640-1868. Cambridge: <strong>Harvard</strong> University Press, 2009. Print.<br />
Jansen, Marius B. The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: <strong>Harvard</strong> University Press, 2000. Print.<br />
Keene, Donald. The Japanese Discovery of Europe : Honda Toshiaki and Other Discoverers, 1720-1798. London: Rutledge and K. Paul,<br />
1952. Print.<br />
Lehmann, Jean-Pierre. The Roots of Modern Japan. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982. Print.<br />
Mitani, Hiroshi. Escape from Impasse : The Decision to Open Japan. Tokyo: International House of Japan, 2006. Print.<br />
Shiba, Goro. Remembering Aizu : The Testament of Shiba Goro. Trans. Teruko Craig. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999.<br />
Print.<br />
Shinzaburo, Oishi. Warrior Rule in Japan. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print.<br />
Smith, Thomas. Native Sources of Japanese Industrialization, 1750-1920. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Print.<br />
Totman, Conrad. The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1862-1868. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980. Print.<br />
Wakabayashi, Bob. Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan : The New Theses of 1825. Cambridge: <strong>Harvard</strong><br />
University Press, 1986. Print.<br />
Walthall, Anne. Peasant Uprisings in Japan : A Critical Anthology of Peasant Histories. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.<br />
Print.<br />
Yamamoto, Tsunetomo. Hagakure : The Book of the Samurai. New York: Kodansha International, 2002. Print.<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
23
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
Appendices<br />
Appendix 1: Rural Disorder in Tokugawa Japan: Peasant Uprisings<br />
Period Total Annual rate<br />
1601-1650 209 4.2<br />
1651-1700 211 4.2<br />
1701-1750 422 8.4<br />
1751-1800 670 13.4<br />
1801-1850 814 16.3<br />
24 <strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong>
Shogunate Council of Tokugawa Ieyoshi, 1853<br />
Appendix 2<br />
<strong>Specialized</strong> <strong>Agencies</strong><br />
25