Tokugawa Japan: Land of Contradictions
One of Japan’s longest-reigning historical stereotypes has been that of a physically, economically, and politically isolated nation. Some Western historians have championed the idea of a “closed” Japan up until recent decades, citing the U.S. intervention of 1853 to be the “opening of Japan”. Modern historians such as Conrad Totman are increasingly debunking this myth of absolute Japanese isolationism and arguing that Japan wasn’t closed to the world, it was just closed to the west. I would agree with Totman’s assessment of Japan’s position with one emendation: the closure of Japan was not sufficient to render it isolated, but sufficiently so to promote predatory Japanese trade practices and propagate Japanese hostility and imperialism.
The Japanese treatment of the Dutch is a prime example of the hostility and paranoia perpetuated by Japan that other nations, western and eastern alike, interpreted as an unwillingness to trade or isolationism. Totman readily cites Japanese trade with the Dutch at Dejima as a counterexample to the incorrect notion of an isolated Japan, which while true, severely ignores the inhumane treatment of the Dutch and Tokugawa Japan’s absolute control over its citizens. The Dutch also had to go to extreme, sometimes humiliating lengths, just to trade with Japan. German doctor Engelbert Kaempfer best noted, “The Dutch showed the utmost subservience in everything, even wrongful impositions, to stay in the good books of this nation and conduct profitable trade.” The Dutch are clearly shown in this account not to be engaging in free trade, but participating in an economy that viewed trade and foreign traders as a risky last recourse to be intensely monitored by government officials.
Japanese interaction with Korea serves as another example of the hostile Tokugawa attitude towards foreign relations and outsiders. Korean envoys to Japan noted the curious citizens flocking to the ports of Edo to witness the arrival of foreign emissaries, pinpointing that travel to and from Tokugawa Japan was the exception rather than the rule. The Korean envoy also emphasized the excessively ritualistic and strict Japanese procedures surrounding any foreign arrival to Japan, where Japanese officials were wary not to let any foreigners out of their sight. The distrust of foreigners among Japanese government officials bred resentment among Koreans, who didn’t understand Tokugawa Japan’s hostility, promoting the image of Japan as a closed country.
Tokugawa Japan’s imperialism is supremely showcased by their interactions with the Ryukyu, where Tokugawa leaders first conquered their southern neighbors, then engaged in forced trade and superficially cordial visits to the islands. “Submission to Japan (Shō
Nei brought as captive)”. This caption from a historical account chronicling the interactions between the Ryuku and Japanese reinforces that Japan’s relations with the Ryuku were not open, they were forced and tense as a result of conquest.
To say the Japanese nation was closed before 1853 would be a gross mischaracterization, but equally egregious would be to acknowledge Japan as a nation involved in free trade. Japan was built on a model of self-sustainability ever since the introduction of cotton to the island and trade amounted to little more than a word. This is not to ignore the exchange of goods between Japan and the world, but to acknowledge that Japan’s engagement in trade was not in the spirit of an “open” nation and was at the expense of every trading partner. Ultimately, saying the west “opened” Japan in 1853 would be just as correct as Japan was “open” to trade.
