The Character for Peace, Sealed Away ―― Tokugawa Nariaki, the Trump Card of the Seventh Month of Kaei 6

On the third day of the seventh month of Kaei 6 (1853), a notice came down to the Mito residence.Original
There was business concerning coastal defense, it said, and he was asked to attend the castle every other day for a while.Original
Since he was a retired lord, he need not use the main entrance; he was to enter by Hirakawa Gate and pass to his waiting chamber by way of the bathhouse gate.Original
Mito’s chief retainer, Nakayama Bingo no kami, was summoned and received these instructions directly from senior councilor Abe Masahiro.OriginalOriginal

The former middle counselor of Mito, Tokugawa Nariaki.Original
Fifty-four years old.Original
A man who had withdrawn from domain government was called back to serve the shogunate’s coastal defense.OriginalOriginal

“I Was Astonished”

Two days later, on the fifth day of the seventh month, Nariaki attended the castle.Original
He was not able to meet with shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi.Original
He was told this was due to illness.Original
In fact, Ieyoshi had already died.Original
The one who granted Nariaki an audience was the heir apparent, Iesada.OriginalOriginal

That same day, Nariaki wrote a reply to Matsudaira Yoshinaga.Original
“On the third day, I was informed that my period of mourning would be excused and that I was ordered to attend the castle; I was astonished.”Original
He was saying that he had been summoned before the mourning period had ended, and that this had astonished him.
He went on to say that he had had an audience with Iesada at the Gozanoma and discussed the matter of the foreign ships with all the senior councilors together, and added the following.Original
“Lacking in talent, I have no good ideas that could be of any use.”OriginalOriginal

Tokutomi Sohō reads this letter as an expression of Nariaki’s satisfaction.Original
Nariaki knew that Yoshinaga had strongly recommended him to Abe when he was appointed.Original
Even while taking the form of merely reporting the news, there was surely also gratitude mixed in, Sohō writes.OriginalOriginal

Named from the Deathbed

Why was it Nariaki?Original
Sohō cites Katsu Kaishū’s compiled work, Kaikoku Kigen.OriginalOriginal

The day before his illness grew grave, Ieyoshi ordered a close attendant to place a ceremonial vest over him as he lay ill, and said, “Call Ise.”Original
Matters concerning foreign countries must never be treated lightly.Original
He himself had fallen ill and could not see this affair through to its end.Original
The former middle counselor of Mito had devoted his attention to this matter for many years.Original
After his own death, Nariaki should be summoned to the castle, and together with him plans should be made concerning foreign affairs.OriginalOriginal

Whether this is fact or rumor is unclear, Sohō states, adding, “at any rate, it does seem to have been something like this.”OriginalOriginal

The hopes of the realm, too, had gathered upon him.Original
On the tenth day of the sixth month, Shimazu Nariakira wrote to Owari Yoshikatsu that the senior councilors too seemed greatly astonished this time, and that under the present circumstances there was no choice but to entrust matters to the old lord of Mito.Original
Tanabe Taichi’s Bakumatsu Gaikō Dan also writes that, while it is no exaggeration to call Abe Masahiro one of the finest chief ministers the shogunate ever had, it is regrettable that at this moment he lacked the courage to cut decisively through the matter.OriginalOriginal

The Harm of Excessive Secrecy

In a letter Nariakira sent from Kagoshima to Nariaki, dated the tenth day of the seventh month, there is a passage sharply critical of the shogunate.Original
He had heard that the matter of the foreign ships was somehow being kept secret.Original
The senior councilors were probably afraid of unrest among the people.Original
But if things are kept too secret, people instead grow suspicious and spread even trivial matters as if they were grave ones.OriginalOriginal

“Since there is not a single person born in Japan who wishes ill upon the Imperial Land.”Original
There was no need to keep this matter secret, Nariakira writes.Original
It should be conveyed in detail to the Gosanke, the Gosankyō, and the daimyo who hold provinces, and their opinions sought before a decision is reached.Original
That, he says, would form the basis of unity among the people.OriginalOriginal

On top of this, he coldly observes that if those in charge have no settled views and simply leave everything to general deliberation, no resolution will ever be reached.Original
He also writes that it is quite dangerous to seek knowledge of foreign countries from Nariaki.Original
Nariaki regarded foreign countries entirely as barbarians, he says, and was, as far as the state of the world went, nothing more than a frog at the bottom of a well.Original
In a land of the blind, even a one-eyed man is king.OriginalOriginal

Ten Articles and Five Matters

On the ninth day of the seventh month, Nariaki presented his humble views on coastal defense to Abe.Original
There were ten articles on why peace should not be made, and five on the means of coastal defense.OriginalOriginal

The most urgent task, he wrote, was to settle firmly on peace or war and, once decided, never waver from it.Original
The American ships had sailed into Uraga, put out a white flag, presented a petition, and moreover had sailed into the inner bay, fired blank shots, and even carried out surveys as they pleased.Original
“This may truly be called a national disgrace unmatched since the beginning of the world.”OriginalOriginal

Trade, too, should be rejected.Original
To exchange useful goods such as gold, silver, copper, and iron for useless items such as woolen cloth and satin brings great harm and little benefit.Original
It would even be well to halt trade with the Dutch, Nariaki writes.OriginalOriginal

The section on means is concrete.Original
The Dutch should be ordered to assemble warships and steamships, shipwrights and navigators, and present them as tribute.Original
Adopting the strengths of foreign countries is in keeping with the vastness of the Divine Land; ancient history records cases where craftsmen, beginning with the Five Classics scholars, were presented as tribute from the Three Han states.Original
Garrisons should be placed at strategic points along the coast, and fishermen organized into local militia.Original
They are strong of bone and sinew, and tempered by the sea.Original
They should be trained thoroughly in the two arts of the spear and the sword.Original
Unless the barbarian bandits land, they cannot fully indulge their greed.OriginalOriginal

Of all this, Sohō gives high praise only to the one article calling for great ships, heavy guns, shipbuilding engineers, and navigators to be sought from the Dutch.Original
It was not carried out at once, but it became the foundation on which the shogunate’s navy of later days, and in turn the Japanese Imperial Navy, would be built, he says.OriginalOriginal

The Sealed Character

Within that long document, a single line of a different character is inserted.Original
It was written on an attached slip of paper.OriginalOriginal

“Should my humble policy be adopted, I wish that the character for peace be sealed away, and that it be entrusted solely to the coastal defense officers.”OriginalOriginal

If his policy were to be used, he wanted the single character for peace sealed off, kept in the hands of the coastal defense officers alone.Original
Outwardly, the policy of expelling the foreign ships would be pushed through.Original
Peace existed, but it was not to be shown outwardly.Original

Sohō does not overlook this point.Original
While publicly and boldly advocating expulsion, behind the scenes he knew there was no prospect of victory given the present state of affairs and was contriving expedients—here, Sohō writes, lies the true weakness of the arguments of Nariaki and the Mito faction.Original
Katsu Kaishū too, in Magaki no Ibara, remarked that Lord Keizan’s theory had one face shown outwardly and another kept hidden, and that anyone who took the outward theory as the lord’s true intent could hardly be said to understand him.OriginalOriginal

Abe wrote an afterword to this memorial and gave it the title “Mioya no Mitama.”OriginalOriginal

Only the Surface Was Seen

What the realm saw was only that single outward character.OriginalOriginal

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, Yokoi Shōnan wrote from Kumamoto to Fujita Tōko in Edo.Original
That the old lord would serve as guardian, he wrote, was a great opportunity for the revival of the realm; Edo should be resolved to be a battlefield to the death, and the barbarian bandits ground to dust.Original
Yokoi Shōnan was known as one of the great forerunners of the argument for opening the country, standing alongside Sakuma Shōzan.Original
And yet his tone here was entirely that of an expeller of barbarians, Sohō points out.OriginalOriginal

That sealed character was never opened by Nariaki himself, to the very end.Original
This was because he never took down, of his own accord, his sign as a champion of expelling the barbarians.OriginalOriginal

Sohō’s judgment is harsh.Original
Nariaki was, among hereditary daimyo, one of the most outstanding, but he was not the man the realm had hoped him to be.Original
He had views, but he was minutely attentive to details while neglecting the larger picture.Original
He had both cunning and skill, but they showed through all too plainly.Original
Those who placed their hopes in a man unworthy of such hopes ought rather to be ashamed of their own lack of discernment—so far does Sohō go.OriginalOriginal

There was the true intention written on a single slip of paper, and there was the sign that the realm looked up to.Original
Was it not by exactly that gap that expectation would later be betrayed?Original

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.

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