The Opening of Japan
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Today, we are going to discuss the Opening of Japan and its implications for Japanese culture and society. Japan had self-isolated for a period of 240 years between 1639 and 1853. A policy known as Sakoku, or “closed country,” was imposed by the Tokugawa Shogunate. It was designed to limit the number of foreigners entering Japan and restrict foreign trade to a few locations in the country. This policy also prohibited Japanese citizens from leaving the country. Sakoku ended after the 1853 when American warships, commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, sailed into Edo Bay (today’s Tokyo Bay) and demanded trade access to Japan.
Previously, Western European merchants, first Portuguese then Dutch, were allowed to trade at the artificial island known as Dejima. This island was constructed in Nagasaki Bay specifically to conduct trade while also limiting interaction between the foreigners and native Japanese. The Portuguese insisted on being allowed to set up a local Catholic mission and begin preaching Christianity. This was viewed with suspicion because the Japanese religion was predominantly Shinto, which was tied directly into loyalty to the Japanese Emperor. A 1637 uprising by Japanese Christians against the Shogun led to the expulsion of the Portuguese two years later. The Dutch East India Company was allowed to take over the trade port because they were Protestants and did not require a mission to conduct business.
One of the key reasons for creating and enforcing Sakoku was tied directly to the Tokugawa Shogunate. Its founder, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542 – 1616) lived most of his life during a series of bitter wars fought between powerful daimyo. These daimyos were samurai warlord families who battled over who would be named Shogun and rule Japan for the Emperor. While the Emperor and Imperial Family were the ceremonial and spiritual rulers of the country, it was the Shoguns who controlled every other aspect of the kingdom. To maintain his family’s hard-won victory, Ieyasu and his successors needed political power to enforce their success and ensure they survived.
Because the Tokugawa Shogunate was so new and not yet well established Ieyasu’s successor, Tokugawa Hidetada, implemented Sakoku to cripple potential rivals. The Dutch and English sought to establish trade monopolies with the Japanese, this was dangerous for the new Shogun. The Portuguese, Dutch, and English had all sold firearms and gunpowder with the competing daimyo only decades before, without the permission of the emperor. These weapons were soon copied and used on the battlefields with great success. If foreign trade was not regulated or controlled, there was always the potential for rebels to acquire these weapons for use against the Shogun. Hidetada, in addition to stopping foreign trade of these weapons, also ordered that the Japanese manufacturers of firearms cease production under penalty of death.
Hidetada further tied his family to the Imperial Court by marrying his daughter to the emperor. His granddaughter, Empress Meisho (reigning from 1629-1643 CE) further consolidated her family’s power and increased isolation against Americans and Europeans. It was during her reign as regent that the Christian rebellions around Nagasaki took place. She had learned from Dutch and English merchants how the Spanish and Portuguese used the spreading of Catholicism to the Native Americans as a first step in colonization. This caused deep distrust and hostility within the Imperial Court towards any Western European interaction with the Japanese.
This fear of Western imperialism continued to shape Japanese culture into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Fierce isolationism was maintained by strict and brutal punishments that even included the beheading of any non-Japanese shipwrecked sailors. Japan still traded with China and Korea throughout this period and was wary of the humiliating defeats Western Europeans had inflicted upon China. The British, Dutch, and other European powers partitioned the country amongst themselves as they forced the Chinese Empire to open more and more cities to foreign trade. The specter of Western Imperialism arrived as the American “Black Ships” sailed into and then anchored in Edo Bay in 1853. Suddenly, the Shogun and the Emperor were faced with an enemy who could destroy their city and armed forces with no way to respond. Commodore Perry had orders to force Japan to open itself up for free trade with America.
The Japanese were sorely underequipped to fight against a major Western Power. They lacked modern firearms, artillery pieces, and warships. Very little in the way of heavy industry existed in Japan, and none could be quickly created to produce the weapons necessary to push the foreign warships out of the imperial capital. Commodore Perry bombarded several buildings around Edo Bay to show his fleet’s firepower. The thousands of samurai warriors hidden throughout Edo could make no impression against American naval artillery. One year later, Commodore Perry returned with a second fleet forcing the Japanese to sign the Treaty of Kanagawa, which opened the ports of Shimodo and Hakedate to provision American whaling ships. It also required that the Japanese would care for, and not execute, shipwrecked American sailors. The Russians arrived in 1855 and forced the Japanese to extend them the same privileges. The closed door of Japan had been kicked off its hinges.
To prevent the forced partitioning of Japan (as this was happening to China at the time), the Tokugawa Shogunate sent several missions to Europe to procure modern weapons, as well as peace treaties. As more treaties were signed between Japan and European powers, the Japanese government realized that rapid modernization and Westernization needed to take place if they were to preserve their country’s independence. Between 1860-1867 numerous diplomatic missions were sent to Europe to evaluate which of these powers could help bring the Japanese military into the modern era.
On February 3, 1867, Emperor Komei died and his fourteen-year-old son, Prince Meiji, came to power. Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned as Shogun beginning the period known as Imperial, or Meiji, Restoration. The Meiji Restoration saw the dissolution of the Shogunate and samurai domination of Japanese society. It also included rapid modernization of industry and society. It saw the beginnings of democratic legislation, the end of class discrimination, and traditional customs deemed distasteful to Europeans and Americans were banned. Japanese citizens were encouraged to study abroad to learn new skills and bring them home. Japan also set about acquiring foreign weapons and warships until their own industry could produce them.
One ancient custom that was banned was Ohaguro or teeth blackening. Ohaguro was the practice of using iron filings mixed with vinegar and tannin from vegetables and tea to dye one’s teeth daily. This was done by both men and women once they hit the age of maturity and was seen as a sign of beauty. This can be considered equivalent to American teeth whitening. European and American traders and diplomats saw black teeth as a sign of rot and decay, not beauty. As Emperor Meiji interacted with more Westerners, it came to his attention that they believed the Japanese appeared to be unhygienic, decadent, and weak. To prevent negative cultural traits being reflected on his people as those had been cast onto the Chinese, he ordered Ohaguro banned throughout Japan. Geishas would still occasionally practice this custom, but it died off in the mainstream culture by the end of the nineteenth century.