Tokugawa System

This uprising was brief and unsuccessful but it exemplified the political and economic problems which would continue to plague the bakufu. Ōshio's motivation represented a kind of Confucian moralism based on the belief that the country's leaders should protect and provide for the people, especially during times of economic crisis, and, when they failed to do so, the people had every right, in fact a duty, to overthrow them. He also elevated the impotent imperial household in his pantheon of leaders to a position above the shogun and called for restoration of imperial power. Unlike the implication of the name of the era, Tenpō, heaven was definitely not protecting Japan and the fault, Ōshio thought, lay at the door of the bakufu. Something had to be done.

Even the shogun, who certainly would not have agreed with Ōshio's reasoning, realized that some sort of reforms was needed if his regime were to survive. The crop failures, famine, and epidemics and the peasant uprising and urban riots had intensified the economic and social tension already evident in the bakuhan system. Also, there had been a few times since the beginning of the 19th century when the emperor in Kyoto, supported by his court, had attempted to raise issues of imperial rights. The shogun had managed so far to thwart the possibility of any real sharing of power. When necessary this was accomplished with a ceremonial show of military force in the hundreds of thousands. The court, however, with its long tradition, religious authority, and trained retinue of administrative courtiers was available if needed. In the 1830s official documents pronounced the sitting emperor as the 120th in direct line from the goddess Amaterasu who was claimed to have founded Japan. Although most ordinary people in Japan had little knowledge and cared less about the imperial court and its pomp and circumstance, past history suggested a grander role for the emperor to play on the national level should the shogun stumble. All these internal pressures, however, represented only one part of the crisis which was unraveling the political fabric of the country.

The West Notices Japan

In the 17th century, the early shoguns had determined to isolate Japan in an attempt to keep it safe from outside intrusion. The resultant policy called sakoku halted all trade with most foreigners while maintaining the commerce and exchange of knowledge considered essential by the bakufu. A small window for commerce with the West was provided for on a man-made island just off Nagasaki in Kyūshū. This island, Dejima, became the official headquarters for trade. This suited the bakufu's perceived needs for foreign goods, books, and technology very well, and the Dutch enjoyed their monopoly as the only Western nation with entrée into Japan. However, the world was changing, and by the 1800s other foreign ships challenged the right of Japan to isolate itself in this manner. The first Westerners to try to insinuate their way into the country were from Imperial Russia. They approached Japan through its official foreign port at Nagasaki asking permission to open trade with Japan. The refusal took several months to be issued from Edo but it came nonetheless with the statement that only Dutch, Chinese, Koreans and Ryūkyūans had traditionally been permitted to trade and this custom could not be changed. Other commercial ships from Russia and Britain, and whalers from America shipwrecked off the coast of Japan sought to penetrate Japan from the north, south, and off the eastern coast.