In the 10th month of Kaei 6 (1853), Takashima Kihei submitted a memorial to the shogunate. He was the man who had once called himself Shirōdayū Shūhan and introduced the techniques of Western artillery to Japan. In a document running to tens of thousands of words, he argued that trade should be opened. Egawa Hidetatsu, who received it, is said to have disliked it. Takashima had been held prisoner for 12 years, and it had not yet been 3 months since he was pardoned.
On July 1, the shogunate broke with its previous practice. It asked the daimyo and officials for measures to deal with the American demands. Most opposed reconciliation, arguing that if the Americans came, Japan should fight. The daimyo of Owari, Mito, Echizen, Chōbō, and Hizen were among these, with Tokugawa Nariaki as their representative. Date Munenari stated that trade should be permitted for a time, and that once military preparations were strengthened, they should either refuse or attack.
Shimazu Nariakira’s memorial is dated July 29. He held that maritime defenses were weak and there was no prospect of victory, and he urged stalling for 3 years. Sohō finds this unsatisfying, and leaves open the question of whether it reflected his true intention. Kuroda Nagahiro, lord of Chikuzen, stated that America should be permitted the same trade as the Dutch, and that a Dejima and a trading post should be built at Nagasaki. He also argued that there was no ill will in the American letter, and that if Japan refused and it came to war, Japan would have no cause to fight.
In Sohō’s view, none of the daimyo’s opinions contained a genuine argument for opening the country. Takashima Kihei’s memorial was like footsteps echoing in an empty valley. Takashima explained that trade meant exchanging goods so that both sides gained. He said that if it were permitted for 2 or 3 years, the gains and losses would become clear, and the other side would withdraw. Sohō sees that Takashima’s experience as town elder of Nagasaki kept his argument from being a mere desk-bound discussion.
The shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi fell ill on June 19 and died on the 22nd. His successor Tokugawa Iesada was 30 years old. On August 6, Takashima was handed over as a retainer of Egawa Hidetatsu. Construction of large ships was also permitted, and Shimazu Nariakira at once built 15 ships. The plan for 11 gun batteries at Shinagawa stopped at 6.
This account shows that no policy directed outward was obtained from the hundreds of memorials submitted. Sohō writes that only Takashima’s document spoke of what trade actually was.
A summary made from the body of this article. Names and dates are checked against the body. The text below follows the source text; every sentence can be traced to its source.
Honjo, the Tenth Month of Kaei 6
The tenth month of Kaei 6 (1853).Original
Takashima Kihei.Original
He was once known as Shirōdayū Shūhan, the man who brought Western gunnery techniques to Japan.OriginalOriginal
His document was a petition running to tens of thousands of words.Original
It argued that trade should be opened.OriginalOriginal
而して苟も我より信義を以て交らば、彼も亦た信義を以て交る可し。決して理不盡に彼より手を出して來るが如きことはある可らず。彼の本意は、交通、貿易にありて、決して別に害心なし。決して掛念するに及ばずとの趣旨である
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThe *Tokugawa sanbyakunen shi*, which Tokutomi Sohō quotes, reports that Egawa, upon receiving it, showed reluctance.Original
Takashima answered.Original
His meaning was that for a man to look only to his own safety when the country is in danger is not the conduct of a man.OriginalOriginal
This man had spent twelve years in confinement.Original
Not yet three months had passed since his pardon.Original
What place did this old man’s document occupy among the several hundred opinions submitted to the shogunate in Kaei 6?Original
I would like to begin the account from there.Original
On the first day of the seventh month, the shogunate, breaking with precedent, consulted the daimyo and officials on how to respond to the American demands.Original
Tokutomi Sohō writes that among the answers returned, there was hardly a fresh view to be found.Original
Most opposed friendly relations and rejected any exchange.Original
The argument was that if he came again, war should not be avoided.OriginalOriginal
This was the position of the great daimyo of Owari, Mito, Echizen, Chōbō, and Hizen, and likewise of the domain lords of Tsu, Kuwana, Matsushiro, Nanbu, and Nihonmatsu.Original
Their representative was Tokugawa Nariaki.OriginalOriginal
Between these extremes there were several variant positions.Original
Shimazu Nariakira said that the answer should be delayed for a time, and rejection should wait until military preparations were complete.Original
Date Munenari said that trade should be permitted for a time, and after military preparations were complete, either rejection should follow or Japan itself should advance to attack.Original
The domain lords of Kaga, Sendai, and Kumamoto said that after generous treatment, strong measures should be taken once military preparations were complete.OriginalOriginal
Yet even Okudaira Masayori’s opinion, in Sohō’s view, was “by no means a true argument for opening the country.”Original
“If other countries request trade, have America itself hold them back.”Original
That is, if other countries sought trade, America should be made to stop them.Original
The reasoning was to use America’s hand to refuse trade with other countries.OriginalOriginal
Shimazu Nariakira’s Policy of Delay
Shimazu Nariakira was said to be the most versed in overseas conditions, and had a reputation for diligence in progressive reform.Original
His opinion is dated the twenty-ninth day of the seventh month.OriginalOriginal
“As for driving them off, since coastal defense is now inadequate, I fear certain victory cannot be assured.”Original
Nariakira said that to drive them off now, with coastal defense so thin, offered no prospect of certain victory.Original
He argued for delaying as long as possible.Original
The period of delay should be three years.Original
Nariakira wrote that after three years, preparations throughout the provinces would certainly be complete.Original
He said there was no one but Tokugawa Nariaki for the task.Original
He added the proviso that even a coal depot should not be permitted.OriginalOriginal
Sohō says of this opinion that he feels “somewhat dissatisfied.”Original
That is, he found it unsatisfying.Original
Did Nariakira, seeing that no further argument would be accepted, deliberately put forward an ordinary opinion?Original
Or was this his honest, unvarnished view?Original
In either case, this opinion seems to have been accepted at the time as the most moderate one, he says.OriginalOriginal
是れ或は當時に於ては、此れ以上の意見は行はれざるを看破して、故らに斯る平凡の意見を開陳したのである乎
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryKuroda Nagahiro’s Policy of Controlling Foreign Powers with Foreign Powers
Kuroda Nagahiro, lord of Chikuzen, was a child of Shimazu Shigehide.Original
Sohō writes that it goes without saying his insight differed from that of an ordinary daimyo.OriginalOriginal
Kuroda’s memorial ran to several thousand words.Original
Toward America, he argued, trade should be permitted just as with Holland, and a Dejima-style trading post should be built at Nagasaki.Original
The term should be five or six years.Original
“This is precisely the superior policy of using foreign countries to control foreign countries, without loss to the Imperial Country’s soldiers.”Original
That is, this was the best policy—using one foreign country to check another, without harming Japan’s own troops.OriginalOriginal
阿蘭陀同樣之交易取組方相願候得共、其義は難被爲及御沙汰、隨而異國交易之義も、專ら於長崎表取扱候御法に候間、彼地え罷越、御國產諸品熟覽致し、右直段出產之多少等も悉く承知可致、且又其國より積渡交易可致產物も、諸品名書出並直段等も逐一申立、凡交易之仕法豫め組合相試み候樣可致候
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryAmerica and Russia were countries of good faith; England and France were countries of duplicity.Original
Kuroda declared this so, but Sohō tilts his head, wondering what grounds he had for it.OriginalOriginal
Yet Kuroda’s memorial contains a passage not found in those of other daimyo.Original
America’s letter, he noted, sought only the protection of shipwrecked sailors and friendly relations, with no harmful intent.Original
To refuse this and go to war would make “them the army with a just cause, and Japan the army without one,” and this would sound poorly among all nations.Original
Sohō praises this consideration of the justification for war, saying, “Among the Japanese of that time, one who could think this far must be called, first of all, a person of outstanding insight.”OriginalOriginal
Kuroda further argued that daimyo in general should be permitted to build warships and steamships, and that Japan’s merchant vessels too should be rebuilt in the Western style.Original
“The time has truly come when Japan can no longer maintain perpetual seclusion.”Original
That is, the time had come when Japan could no longer continue its perpetual seclusion.Original
Even so, he did not cross the line of relying on America and Russia to check England and France.Original
A single thin membrane, so to speak, had not yet been peeled away.OriginalOriginal
Takashima Kihei’s Argument for Trade
Summing up the daimyo’s opinions, not a single one was a genuine argument for opening the country.Original
“The one thing that might be called, by chance, footsteps in an empty valley, coming from outside the ranks of the daimyo, is Takashima Kihei’s memorial.”Original
This is a metaphor for footsteps echoing in an uninhabited valley.OriginalOriginal
The framework of Takashima’s argument begins with the question of what trade actually is.Original
“Exchanging this good for that good, with the profit shared between both sides—this is by no means a matter of one country coveting all the gain.”Original
That is, trade means exchanging goods so that both sides gain profit, not one country greedily taking all the benefit.OriginalOriginal
From there, Takashima built an argument that no other commentator had made.Original
Japan is a small country, he said, with few products.Original
Holland has continued coming to Nagasaki because Japan gives it copper; once the copper runs out, it will stop coming.Original
The same holds true for America.Original
He suggested trying trade experimentally for two or three years.Original
“Once the matter of profit and loss becomes clear, they will surely withdraw of their own accord.”Original
That is, once profit and loss became clear, the other side would certainly pull back on its own.OriginalOriginal
阿蘭陀方昨今迄無滯入津仕、御用相勤候義も、全く銅御渡に相成候故之義にて自然銅御渡無之時に至り候節は、外に利潤に可相成品一種も無御座候間、決て渡來仕候義無御座候
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryTo the worry that permitting one country would bring all countries flocking in, Takashima answers the opposite.Original
Rather, this should be welcomed.
If many countries bring in goods, prices will fall, and once profits grow thin, they will find it no longer worthwhile.Original
“The matter of commerce is simply a question of method and arrangement, and there is not the slightest cause for concern.”Original
That is, trade is a matter of structure and arrangement, with nothing at all to worry about.OriginalOriginal
Takashima forgets one point: that opening trade would cause domestic production to grow.Original
This may have been a device to reassure the shogunate into opening the country, or he may truly have believed it, Sohō says.
Still, this man understood well “the great principle that things flow where they are needed, and the principle that the rise and fall of trade ultimately depends on the amount of profit.”Original
Sohō judges that his career as a town elder of Nagasaki kept him from empty theorizing.OriginalOriginal
Takashima also argued the disadvantage of deceiving the other side through cunning.Original
“That is a mere temporary trick, and will only increase their anger.”Original
That is, it would only serve as a stopgap, and would merely increase their fury.OriginalOriginal
The Death on the Twenty-Second of the Sixth Month, the Order of the Fifteenth of the Ninth Month
Even as the opinions were being gathered, events were moving around the shogunate.OriginalOriginal
Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi fell ill from the nineteenth day of the sixth month and died on the twenty-second.Original
Mourning was announced on the twenty-second day of the seventh month.Original
He was sixty-one years old, and had held the position of shogun for seventeen years.Original
“Though one cannot say that Perry killed the shogun, in truth it came close to that.”OriginalOriginal
His successor, Tokugawa Iesada, was thirty years old.Original
Sohō judges him “rather feeble-minded than merely ordinary.”Original
Citing the account in the *Ansei kiji* that he chased geese for amusement and boiled beans to give to his attendants, Sohō says that whether he was truly so foolish cannot be guaranteed, but “there is no doubt that he was a man below the average.”Original
Sohō says that to have this shogun at the helm just as domestic troubles and foreign threats were about to arrive at once must have been deeply unsettling for both the officials and the daimyo.OriginalOriginal
On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, an order enforcing frugality and thrift was issued.Original
On the sixth day of the eighth month, Takashima Shirōdayū was handed over as a retainer to Egawa Tarōzaemon.OriginalOriginal
“Given the present state of affairs, large ships are necessary; henceforth, daimyo shall be permitted to build large ships.”Original
With this order, Shimazu Nariakira at once built fifteen large ships.OriginalOriginal
Sohō presents this lifting of the ban as a task that had been carried forward unresolved for sixteen years.Original
In the sixth month of Tenpō 9 (1838), Tokugawa Nariaki, following Western style, tried to build a warship twenty-four ken long and three jō, eight shaku, seven sun wide, and sought to name it Hitachi Maru.Original
The shogunate refused, saying it violated ancestral law, and it remained only a model.Original
On the nineteenth day of the ninth month of Tenpō 12, Mizuno Tadakuni and three other senior councilors replied jointly that “it need not even be examined further.”Original
That is, it was not even worth investigating.
Sohō writes that it seems to have been dismissed without even reaching the shogun’s ears.Original
“Regardless of who was in charge, the carelessness of the shogunate was truly the shogunate’s own responsibility.”OriginalOriginal
彼は建白のみならず、天保九年戊戌六月侍臣に命じ、西洋の式に倣ひ、一軍艦長さ廿四間、幅三丈八尺七寸のものを作り、日立丸と名け、海防の用に供せんとした
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryEven the gun batteries at Shinagawa, planned for eleven positions, stopped at six.Original
Goten-yama, the hill within the grounds of Takanawa Sengakuji, was cut down and used for landfill, and the cost of the six batteries came to seven hundred fifty thousand two hundred ninety-six ryō and more.Original
Unable to bear the enormous expense, work on the sixth battery was halted once it had only just broken the water’s surface.OriginalOriginal
Footsteps in the Empty Valley
If only Tokugawa Nariaki had possessed insight like Takashima’s.Original
If only Abe Masahiro had grasped things thoroughly and comprehensively as Takashima did.Original
“In the years of Mizunoto-Ushi and Kinoe-Tora, Japan’s conduct would have been a little more graceful, a little more just and upright, a little more manly.”OriginalOriginal
若し水戶齊昭をして彼が如き見識あらしめば、而して阿部正弘をして、彼が如く徹底的に、會通する所あらしめば、癸丑甲寅の間に於ける、我が日本の措置は、今少しく手奇麗に、今少しく公明正大に、今少しく男性的にあつたであらう
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryEven Sakuma Shōzan and Yokoi Shōnan still held to the doctrine of expelling the barbarians that year.Original
“Though the world calls Takashima Shūhan the reviver of gunnery and the founder of Western military methods, it was rather in his argument for opening the country, in his pacifism,” that he opened a path of his own.OriginalOriginal
Sohō says that among the several hundred opinions, the shogunate gained nothing as foreign policy.Original
The consultation, he says, was rather a matter of domestic policy.Original
Among them all, only the document of the old man who had emerged from twelve years of confinement spoke of what trade truly was.OriginalOriginal
In the sea off Shinagawa, the stones of the sixth battery, which had only just broken the surface, lie sunk.Original
In Kagoshima, fifteen ships were taking shape.Original
Was there anyone who heard the footsteps that echoed in the empty valley?
Would they eventually be heard, or would they remain forever lost at the bottom of the valley?Original
| Source text | Kinsei Nihon kokuminshi, Perry’s Arrival and Its Time (1929). National Diet Library Digital Collections (PDM). PID 3431222 |
| Checked against | Ishin shiryō kōyō, vol. 1 (1940). PID 1046665 |
| Dates and names | 13 dates and 9 names in the text were compared with 3,726 entries in the Ishin shiryō kōyō. |
| English gates | 124 of 124 sentences passed the checks on the English text. |
| Summary | 27 sentences checked against the body. |
This article is a reading of Kinsei Nihon kokuminshi, Perry’s Arrival and Its Time. Tokutomi Sohō’s views are those of the 1920s and 1930s and may differ from current scholarship. The source text is a century old and may differ from current scholarship.
