Russian envoy Putyatin entered Nagasaki on July 17. While the days of waiting for a reply from Edo continued, the watchman Ōi Saburōsuke went out to the ship offshore. What he conveyed was only the news that shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi had died. Sohō sees this as a means of putting off the reply.
Two reports sent from the magistrate of Nagasaki to Edo convey the circumstances of that time. The range in which the Russian small boats moved gradually widened, and they began to say that if stopped, they would go around to Uraga. Even when asked to allow a landing, the magistrate answered that it was forbidden, so he could not permit it until he had inquired with Edo. Tokutomi Sohō, while saying he understood their difficulty, described their worried demeanor—concerned that delay would cause complications—as the usual tactic of officials.
According to Russian records, the news of Ieyoshi’s death was conveyed on September 19. Putyatin had Lieutenant Colonel Posyet press the question of why no reply had come quickly from Edo. The claim was that Nagasaki, being far from the capital, was a place devised so that foreigners would grow tired and leave. He also stated that mourning had been declared on July 22, and that officials must already have known this at the meeting on August 19. The letter sent again stated that waiting 3 or 4 months would be useless, and that if there was no response, he would speak directly in Edo soon.
Meanwhile, Sohō writes that Edo had no fixed policy. On August 3, Abe Masahiro gave instructions to the officials. The state letter was to be received, and since the reply would be relayed through the head of the Dutch trading post, the ship was to be made to depart. However, on August 5 this was revised, saying that if they wished to hear a reply, the ship should be kept, and the letter should be sent urgently to Edo. It is said that their minds were occupied not with the ship at Nagasaki, but with the American vessel that had just left Uraga.
There were voices fearing Russia and suspecting that even the offer of assistance might be a scheme exploiting an opportunity. On the other hand, Sendai domain retainer Ōtsuki Heiji submitted an opinion paper to finance magistrate Kawaji Toshiakira. Dated September 20, it argued for allying with powerful Russia to resist. There were almost no opinions calling for driving them away head-on. On October 8, the shogunate decided to send Kawaji Toshiakira, Tsutsui Masanori, and inspector Arao Narimasa in place of the senior councilors.
However, the Russian ship left Nagasaki on the 23rd, and 3 months had passed in vain since its entry into port. After that, Putyatin, hearing in Shanghai that peace between Russia and Britain and France had broken down, headed again to Nagasaki in early December. This time he set a deadline: if a high-ranking official did not come within 3 days, he would go to Edo. The magistrate of Nagasaki, unaware of these circumstances, could only try to placate him. From this account, one can see the shogunate delaying its reply to buy time, and the envoy counting the days toward war and hurrying.
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.
The inspector Ōi Saburōsuke went out to the offing.Original
His destination was the Russian ship moored within the harbor.Original
There was only one thing to report.
The death of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi.OriginalOriginal
The Russian envoy Putyatin entered Nagasaki on the seventeenth day of the seventh month.Original
Nearly a month had passed since then.Original
No reply had yet come from Edo.Original
What was brought there instead was news of the shogun’s mourning.OriginalOriginal
Tokutomi Sohō sees this mission as a maneuver of “using the shogun’s death as a pretext to delay the reply.”Original
That is, they used the shogun’s death as a reason to postpone the reply.Original
A boat that carried death instead of an answer.Original
The three months of this chapter can be read as condensed into this single scene.Original
又た養生の爲め、短艇にて、附近を乘り廻さんことを請うたから、制限的に之を許したら、漸次其の範圍が廣くなりて、之を制すれば浦賀に向ふ可しと聲言すとある
Open the original page at the National Diet Library“The Shogunate’s Chronic Ailment Lies in Procrastination”
Tokutomi Sohō writes, “The shogunate’s chronic ailment lies in procrastination.”Original
This means that the shogunate’s chronic disease lay in putting things off.Original
“Nothing is settled quickly”—that is, nothing gets resolved right away.Original
Reflecting this condition are the petitions of the magistrate of Nagasaki, and Tokutomi Sohō quotes two of them, dated the third day of the ninth month and the twenty-second day of the ninth month.Original
The main ship had first been moored near Takaboko Island, but fearing wind and waves, they requested to move it into the harbor.Original
Since the space was said to be narrow, the main ship was placed outside Kōzaki, and the two other vessels inside.Original
The gun batteries at Inasazaki and Iwasedō were transferred from the jurisdiction of the intendant Takagi Sakuemon to the guard units of the two houses.Original
The problem was the “batteira,” that is, the boat.Original
Permission was granted for use around the main ship, but then they said it was for “exercise and health,” and the scope expanded.Original
When restrained, they said, “We shall proceed to Uraga.”Original
This was a threat to go around to Uraga.Original
The magistrate finally got them to agree to the line that they would not enter inside the two guard posts, that offshore they would stay within sight of the guard boats, and that they would not land or survey.Original
The petition of the twenty-second day of the ninth month is even more urgent.Original
“Please permit us to land; otherwise we shall proceed to Uraga”—so they repeatedly insisted.Original
That is, they repeatedly insisted, asking to be permitted to land, or else they would go to Uraga.Original
The magistrate replied, “As this is forbidden by the country’s law, it cannot be permitted without inquiring first.”Original
That is, since it was forbidden by national law, it could not be permitted without first inquiring of Edo.Original
So on the sixteenth, an inspector was sent to announce the shogun’s death.Original
But the envoy said, “Until the reply from the senior councilors is known, we cannot withdraw and set sail.”Original
That is, they could not set sail until the reply from the senior councilors was known.Original
This time they demanded to be allowed to land for ship repairs.Original
The magistrate told them, “If you land without permission, you will of course be driven off, or perhaps cut down or captured.”Original
If they landed on their own accord, being driven off was natural, and being cut down or captured was also possible.Original
And at the end it states, “If the days are prolonged, various difficulties will arise, and we are deeply worried.”Original
That is, if the days dragged on, various obstacles would arise, and they were deeply worried.Original
Tokutomi Sohō comments, “This is the shogunate officials’ usual pattern, utterly ridiculous even now to say,” but adds, “yet one must understand their pains.”Original
The figure of the magistrate was “like chasing flies off rice,” and “with this, one could never dream of negotiating with foreigners and settling the great plans of the nation.”Original
That is, those on the scene had their hands full just driving them off.OriginalOriginal
九月三日附にて、大澤、水野兩奉行の上申書にも露船が從來高鉾島最寄に繫留しつゝあつたが、風波の虞れありて、港內に入らんことを請うたから、遂ひに之を許したとある。又た養生の爲め、短艇にて、附近を乘り廻さんことを請うたから、制限的に之を許したら、漸次其の範圍が廣くなりて、之を制すれば浦賀に向ふ可しと聲言すとある
Open the original page at the National Diet Library“A Place Set Up to Deceive Foreigners”
How did the Russian side view the same scene?Original
According to the Russian record, they were told of Ieyoshi’s death on the nineteenth day of the ninth month.Original
Putyatin had Lieutenant Colonel Posyet press them for an explanation.Original
Why did no prompt reply come from Edo?OriginalOriginal
“Nagasaki is, in the end, merely a place set up to deceive foreigners.”Original
It is in a corner of western Japan, far removed from the capital, so negotiations with the center inevitably become slow.Original
It must be your government’s true intention that foreigners grow weary and leave.OriginalOriginal
The shogun’s mourning was announced on the twenty-second day of the seventh month.Original
It takes about three weeks from Edo to Nagasaki.Original
At the meeting on the nineteenth day of the eighth month, the Japanese officials must certainly have already known.Original
What was the meaning of deliberately concealing it until now?OriginalOriginal
The letter of renewed demand, which Tokutomi Sohō quotes at the outset with the note “my own rough translation,” is of the same tone.Original
“If, as at present, we remain in Nagasaki for three or four months waiting for a reply, we shall only waste months in vain.”Original
That is, staying in Nagasaki for three or four months as this time, waiting for a reply, would only waste several months in vain.Original
“If matters cannot be resolved, we shall proceed at once to Edo to negotiate.”Original
If talks did not go through, they would go straight to Edo to negotiate.Original
Tokutomi Sohō reads this as “a spur applied against the shogunate’s procrastination.”OriginalOriginal
若無餘儀事ありて、事の成らざる時は一旦乘り來る所の海舶を發し、退て後謁見の旅具を整へ、境界議談の然るべきを俟て至るべし。其時は事を嚴にして、命令のあるを會議せん爲、屢來りて訂正すべきを要す。此節の如く、三四ヶ月も長崎に滯留し、御答を俟やふにては、徒らに數月を費すのみ。······此儀然るべからずと思へども、事の通ぜざる時は卽時に江戶に至りて議談すべし
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThe Third and Fifth Days of the Eighth Month
So what was Edo doing?Original
Tokutomi Sohō writes, “To tell the truth, the shogunate at that time had no firm policy toward Russia.”Original
What was written there were the words, “The frequent foreign ships are truly a cause for worry.”Original
That is, they were truly worried about the repeated appearances of foreign ships.Original
It continues, “If you have any thoughts on this, we humbly request that you inform us.”Original
On the third day of the eighth month, Abe Masahiro handed a document to the three magistrates, the senior and junior inspectors, and the coastal defense officers.Original
The state letter would be received.Original
Regarding the reply, it stated, “As we shall convey it through the Dutch captain, they are to be told to set sail.”Original
That is, since the reply would be conveyed through the Dutch captain, they should be told to set sail.Original
However, on the fifth day of the eighth month, this was corrected.Original
This would amount to urging them to set sail before even seeing the state letter, which was “in fact not proper”—that is, it would not do.Original
It was revised so that if they said they wished to hear Edo’s reply, the ship should be kept there, and the letter should be sent to Edo with all speed.Original
Tokutomi Sohō sums up the background in a single phrase.Original
The shogunate was “more preoccupied with the American ship that had come to Uraga than with the Russian ship that had come to Nagasaki.”Original
That is, the American ship that had just left Uraga troubled their minds more than the Russian ship now anchored at Nagasaki.OriginalOriginal
此度魯西亞より持來り候書翰の儀、文化度彼國使節船渡來の節申渡置候通、御國法に於て難請取筋には候得共、無餘儀申立之趣も有之に付前文の趣、能々申諭候上、書翰請受差越可申候
Open the original page at the National Diet LibrarySuspicion and Pro-Russian Sentiment
Views toward Russia were split in two.Original
On one side there was “Japan’s Russophobia.”Original
Tokutomi Sohō writes that the northern disturbances from the Kansei era through the Bunka and Bunsei eras were “a nightmare for the whole of Japan, high and low, deep in peaceful slumber.”Original
This means a nightmare for a Japan sleeping peacefully.Original
The reason no action had been taken since the refusal of Rezanov in the Bunka era was probably exhaustion since the time of Bonaparte.Original
That they should now offer assistance was suspicious.Original
“Is this not a scheme to plunder by exploiting our weakness?”Original
That is, was it not a plot to plunder by taking advantage of the opening?Original
The American side wrote that if Japan and America went to war, Russia would side with Japan, use that trust to gain a foothold, and eventually plot to swallow up the whole country.Original
On the other hand, there were also voices calling for allying with Russia to check America.Original
This was the Sendai domain retainer Ōtsuki Heiji, that is, Bankei.Original
On the twentieth day of the ninth month, he submitted a memorandum to the finance magistrate Kawaji Toshiakira.Original
From Kansei 5, sixty-one years, through Rezanov’s visit in Bunka 1, this was the third arrival.Original
“Once you have made the mighty Russia your allied nation…”Original
There were almost no opinions calling to drive them off outright.OriginalOriginal
若し水師提督彼理が不幸にして平和的の談判に失敗し、日本人と武力的交鬪に及ぶに際せば、露人は其地に在りて、仲裁を事とせず、日本側の味方として、日本を援助し、而して若し成功せば、其の信用の刹那に乘じ、靜かに日本帝國の或る部分に立脚地を占め、適當の時に其の全國を併呑するの素地を作るの企謀であつた
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThe Eighth Day of the Tenth Month, Edo
The Russian envoy gradually showed his “true hardline colors.”Original
He declared that if a senior councilor or someone of equal rank did not come, he would go to Edo himself.Original
The demand was not for trade alone.Original
It was the setting of the northern border.Original
Tokutomi Sohō sees this as “a circumstance the shogunate could by no means avoid.”OriginalOriginal
そは露國使節の要求は、通商のみでなく、北方に於ける境堺設定でありて、此には幕府も到底囘避し難き事情あるが爲めであつた
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryOn the eighth day of the tenth month, the shogunate decided on deputies for the senior councilors.Original
Kawaji Toshiakira was appointed to the finance magistrate’s general affairs post, and Tsutsui Masanori was granted the rank of senior inspector.Original
Inspector Arao Narimasa and the Confucian scholar Koga Kin’ichirō joined them.Original
Both men were given the standing and treatment of senior retainers.OriginalOriginal
Three Months
In Nagasaki, the ship had moved before the decision was made.Original
On the fourth day of the tenth month, the supply ship that had gone to Shanghai returned, laden with letters, newspapers, and provisions.Original
Tokutomi Sohō supposes that this is how they learned that relations between Russia and Britain and France in Europe had grown tense.Original
On the fifteenth day of the tenth month, the Burīneru, which had sailed north, returned to Nagasaki.Original
On the seventeenth day of the tenth month, a signal was raised indicating they would sail around to Edo.Original
On the nineteenth, the Russian ship furled its flag.Original
The magistrate of Nagasaki announced that four senior officials would be sent from Edo, but could not give the date of arrival.Original
On the twenty-third, the Russian ship left Nagasaki.Original
Counting from its entry on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, “three months had been spent in vain at Nagasaki.”Original
The fleet dropped anchor off Woosung, and on the twelfth day of the eleventh month arrived at Shanghai.Original
There, Putyatin heard that, by the fifth day of December in the Russian calendar, peace with Britain and France had broken down.Original
War broke out in the third month of the following year.Original
Both the fifty-two-gun frigate and the twenty-gun corvette were superior to the British ships, but their draft was too deep to enter Shanghai.Original
In early the twelfth month, the fleet again headed for Nagasaki.Original
This time Putyatin set a deadline.Original
If a senior official did not come within three days, he would go to Edo.Original
Tokutomi Sohō writes that the magistrate of Nagasaki, “not knowing these internal circumstances,” merely tried to placate the Russian envoy.Original
The shogunate could face this only by buying time.Original
Putyatin was pressed for time.Original
One side used the shogun’s death as a pretext, while the other counted the days against the flames of war in Europe.Original
Posyet’s words, “a place set up to deceive foreigners,” and Tokutomi Sohō’s diagnosis, “the chronic ailment lies in procrastination,” may point to the same harbor.Original
Who, in the end, was it that had kept the other waiting?OriginalOriginal
露使は老中若しくはそれと同位地の者長崎に來らずんば、露使自から江戶に赴きて、その目的を達せんと聲言したれば、幕府も愈よ老中代理として、川路左衞門尉聖謨、筒井肥前守政憲、及び目付荒尾土佐守成允、儒者古賀謹一郞增等を差遣し、特に川路は公事方勘定奉行であつたが自今勘定奉行勝手掛を勤む可しと命ぜられ、筒井は西丸留守居であつたが、大目付格を授け、兩人には重臣としての資格及び待遇を與ふることゝした
Open the original page at the National Diet Library| 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 | 21 dates and 9 names in the text were compared with 1,705 entries in the Ishin shiryō kōyō. |
| English gates | 124 of 124 sentences passed the checks on the English text. |
| Summary | 28 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.
