Pre-modern Japan and the West

Nevertheless, many things came in through the Dutch traders, including clocks, textile dyes, incense, birds and other animals, leather, armaments, glass, ivory, artwork and books. The transfer between West and East did not merely consist of books, but also of knowledge. For one thing, the Dutch were required to make reports to the Japanese government about the affairs of the world. But they also brought knowledge of technological advances. Because the Dutch were required to reside on Dejima, and were not supposed to learn Japanese, a corps of interpreters grew around them. In the seventeenth century, the persecution of Christianity had led to a general distancing from anything Western. However, when Yoshimune became shogun in 1715, through his encouragement there was an upsurge of study of knowledge of the West. Because the Dutch were the conduit for this knowledge it came to be known as rangaku, or Dutch studies.

Initially, rangaku was primarily a product of the interpreters in Nagasaki, because they had the language skills. Eventually, however, through students of these interpreters and their translations, knowledge spread slowly through intellectual circles in Japan. Progress was at times slow because often the theoretical and philosophical basis for Western technological development was absent. Often the scholars were working from outdated books. Rangaku could and did cover the entire range of sciences, from astronomy to zoology, and even things like painting and etching techniques. Other works trickled in too. For example, Robinson Crusoe was translated into Japanese in 1850.

Medicine was perhaps one the most concentrated fields of study. The publication in 1774 of the Kaitai Shinsho is seen as a landmark. A translation of Tafel Anatomia by Johann Adam Kulmus, it took Maeno Ryōtaku and Sugita Genpaku three years to complete this translation. They had been inspired by noticing how exactly this anatomy book resembled the body, unlike their traditional Chinese-based texts. Henceforth, more and more works were translated and printed. A government translation bureau, called the Bansho shirabesho (Bureau for the Inspection of Barbarian Books), was even opened in 1811.

Knowledge was trickling in but official international relations remained much the same. The English had tried to reopen trade in 1673, but even they had been turned away. The Japanese gave as reason that the Queen of England was Portuguese, but isolationist policies had essentially become the traditional precedent by which future decisions were made.

By the late eighteenth century, the Russians were moving into Asia. Clashes occurred in Hokkaidō with Russian sailors. This awareness of a threat to the north spurred Japanese exploration of the island of Hokkaidō. Until then, a southern corner belonged to the Matsumae domain (han). The Japanese conducted a fairly extensive trade with the Ainu (the native Japanese of the area), but had not sought to expand their borders before Russian incursions. Finally in 1792, an expedition was sent under Adam Laxman (who was actually Finnish) to open trading relations between Russia and Japan. He returned several Japanese castaways but was told that all negotiations for trade had to be conducted in Nagasaki. Laxman left thinking permission had all but been granted so in 1804, the Russians sent an ambassador, Nikolai Resanov, to negotiate the details. The embassy was kept isolated for six months, and ultimately their gifts were refused and trade declined. The outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars then kept Russia occupied for a number of years.

Napoleon also greatly affected the Dutch trading empire. The Dutch East India Company had collapsed by 1799. The factory on Japan still stood, but the Dutchmen there were essentially abandoned. Factory head Hendrik Doeff was stranded there for seventeen years. During that time, ships were chartered from other countries, including Denmark and the United States, to maintain trade. In 1813 Thomas Raffles even sent a ship, and tried to replace the Dutch in Japan, but Doeff convinced the English that the Japanese were still too angered by the actions of Captain Pellew in 1808. Known as the Phaeton incident, Pellew sailed into Nagasaki. He took two Dutchmen prisoner and demanded supplies or else he would hang the Dutchmen and set fire to all the ships in the harbor. Insufficient defenses had resulted in the suicide of the magistrate of Nagasaki. Doeff advised the English to wait until anger had cooled. Raffles sent another ship the following year, but then, apparently distracted by Singapore, he lost interest in Japan.

Dutch trade continued initially through investors in Batavia (now Jakarta) who had formed into the Private Trading Society. In 1824, the quasi-governmental Netherlands Trading Society was formed to conduct trade, but it was never profitable for the Dutch Government.

It is generally believed by scholars that the sakoku edicts were never meant to be permanent. However, tradition, Dutch efforts to main a monopoly, and lackluster efforts by Western powers resulted in little outside contact. The mid-nineteenth century was a time of change throughout the world. Imperialism as we understand it today was born through rapid advances in military technology such as percussion rifles. The Japanese were aware of this through the Dutch, and galvanized by knowledge of English victory in the Opium War in 1842, attempted to modernize their military.

The United States was also increasingly a player on the world stage. American ships sailed frequently in the Pacific in pursuit of whales. The United States was angered by Japanese treatment of these ships. As a result in 1853, a squadron under the command of Matthew Calbraith Perry steamed into Uraga in 1853. The Japanese tried to use the same stalling technique that worked so well with earlier Russian embassies, but Perry left with an ultimatum that a treaty be signed upon his return. Thus in 1854, the Treaty of Kanagawa was signed, which opened the ports of Nagasaki, Shimoda, and Hakodate to foreign ships so that they could purchase fuel and water.

The “opening” of Japan to trade took several more years of negotiation but by 1860, the United States, the Netherlands, Britain, France, and Russia all had commercial treaties and several other ports were opened. The pressures caused by these changes were a contributing factor to the downfall of the shogunal system of government and Japan’s entrance into global politics.