In the 10th month of Kaei 6 (1853), Takashima Kihei, who had brought Western gunnery to Japan, wrote up an opinion paper running to tens of thousands of words. In the same year, Tokugawa Nariaki was seen as the representative of the daimyo who opposed friendly relations with foreign countries. Takashima was a man who had once gone by the name Shirōdayū Shūhan. He had been imprisoned for 12 years, and not even 3 months had passed since his pardon.
On July 1, the shogunate broke with its previous practice and asked daimyo and officials for their opinions on how to deal with the American demands. Tokutomi Sohō writes that there was hardly anything new among the answers that came in. Most argued that relations should be cut off, and that if the Americans came, Japan might as well fight. The daimyo of Owari, Mito, Echizen, Chōbō, and Hizen, and the domain lords of Tsu, Kuwana, Matsushiro, Nanbu, and Nihonmatsu were of that persuasion.
Shimazu Nariakira urged delaying the reply by 3 years and refusing only after armaments had been put in order. Date Munenari said to permit trade for a while, and then either refuse or attack. The daimyo of Kaga, Sendai, and Kumamoto likewise thought Japan should treat the Americans leniently before taking a firm hand. Tokutomi Sohō regards Okudaira Masamoto’s proposal too as no genuine argument for opening the country. This was because his reasoning was that if other countries asked to trade, the United States should be made to hold them back.
Kuroda Nagahiro, lord of Chikuzen, submitted an opinion paper of several thousand words. His view was to grant the United States the same trade as Holland, and to build a Dejima and a trading house at Nagasaki. He also stated that the American letter held no ill will, and that if Japan refused and fought, it would have no just cause. Tokutomi Sohō praised this point as an excellent view. Kuroda also called for the construction of warships and steamships, but he did not go beyond relying on the United States and Russia.
Tokutomi Sohō says that among all the daimyo’s opinions there was not a single genuine argument for opening the country. Takashima’s opinion paper was like footsteps echoing in an empty valley. Takashima explained that trade means exchanging goods so that both sides profit. He argued that if trade were permitted on trial for 2 or 3 years, the gains and losses would become clear, and the other side would withdraw of its own accord. Tokutomi Sohō sees Takashima’s background as a former town elder of Nagasaki as having kept him from empty theorizing.
Meanwhile, shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi fell ill from June 19 and died on the 22nd. Tokutomi Sohō rates Tokugawa Iesada, who succeeded him, as a man who did not measure up. On August 6, Takashima was handed over to Egawa Hidetatsu and was also released from the order to build large ships, and Shimazu Nariakira soon built 15 ships. Tokutomi Sohō records that from hundreds of opinion papers the shogunate never arrived at a foreign policy. Only Takashima’s paper alone spoke of what trade actually was.
Through Tokutomi Sohō’s commentary in Kinsei Nihon kokuminshi, Perry’s Arrival and Its Time, one can trace which daimyo answered what among the opinion papers the shogunate collected.
The Tenth Month of Kaei 6, Honjo
The tenth month of Kaei 6 (1853).Original
Takashima Kihei.Original
He had once called himself Shirōdayū Shūhan, and was the man who introduced Western artillery techniques to Japan.OriginalOriginal
The 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 Sanbyakunenshi*, as quoted by Sohō, records that Egawa, upon receiving it, showed reluctance.Original
Takashima answered him.Original
His meaning was that when the country is in danger, it is not the conduct of a man to seek only his own safety.OriginalOriginal
This man had spent twelve years in confinement.Original
It had not yet been three months since his pardon.Original
What position did this old man’s document occupy among the several hundred opinion papers that reached the shogunate in Kaei 6?Original
I would like to begin the story from there.Original
On the first day of the seventh month, the shogunate broke with precedent and consulted the daimyo and officials on countermeasures to the American demands.Original
Sohō writes that among the answers that came back, there was almost nothing novel in the arguments.Original
Most opposed peaceful relations and rejected intercourse.Original
Their argument was that if he came again, they would not shrink even from war.OriginalOriginal
This was true of the great daimyo of Owari, Mito, Echizen, Chōbō, and Hizen, and also of the domain lords of Tsu, Kuwana, Matsushiro, Nanbu, and Nihonmatsu.Original
Their representative was Tokugawa Nariaki.OriginalOriginal
Between these positions there were several variants.Original
Shimazu Nariakira said that the answer should be delayed for a while, and rejection should come only after military preparations were complete.Original
Date Munenari said that trade should be permitted for a while, and only after military preparations were complete should it be rejected, or else Japan itself should advance and strike first.Original
The lords of Kaga, Sendai, and Kumamoto said that the Americans should be treated leniently for now, and strong measures taken only after military preparations were complete.OriginalOriginal
Yet even that opinion of Okudaira Masamoto was, in Sohō’s view, “by no means a genuine argument for opening the country.”Original
“Should 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 logic was to borrow America’s hand to refuse trade with other countries.OriginalOriginal
Shimazu Nariakira’s Policy of Delay
Shimazu Nariakira was reputed to be the most knowledgeable about conditions abroad and the most diligent in progressive reform.Original
His opinion paper bears the date of the twenty-ninth day of the seventh month.OriginalOriginal
“As for driving them off by force, since our coastal defenses are presently weak, I cannot be confident of certain victory.”Original
Nariakira said that to drive them off now, while coastal defenses were weak, offered no prospect of certain victory.Original
He argued for delaying as many years as possible.Original
The period of delay was three years.Original
Nariakira wrote that once three years had passed, preparations throughout the various provinces would certainly be in place.Original
He said there was no one but Tokugawa Nariaki.Original
He added a proviso that even coal depots 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 bolder opinion would be accepted, deliberately put forward a commonplace one?Original
Or was this his true, unvarnished feeling?Original
In either case, this opinion seems to have been accepted at the time as the most moderate one, he writes.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 Using Foreign Countries to Check Foreign Countries
Kuroda Nagahiro, lord of Chikuzen, was a child of Shimazu Shigehide.Original
Sohō writes that it goes without saying his views differed from those of an ordinary daimyo.OriginalOriginal
Kuroda’s memorial ran to several thousand words.Original
Toward America, he argued, Japan should permit trade as it did with Holland, and build a factory at a Dejima constructed in Nagasaki.Original
The term should be five or six years.Original
“This is indeed the best policy of using foreign countries to check foreign countries, without wasting the soldiers of the Imperial land.”Original
That is, this was the best policy—to control foreign countries by means of foreign countries, without losing Japanese soldiers.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 trustworthy countries; England and France were duplicitous ones.Original
Kuroda declared this so firmly, but Sohō tilts his head, wondering on what grounds.OriginalOriginal
Yet Kuroda includes a passage not found in the other daimyo’s opinions.Original
America’s letter, he noted, sought only the protection of castaways and friendly relations, and held no malicious intent.Original
If Japan refused this and went to war, “they would have a righteous army, and Japan an unrighteous one,” and this would sound ill to all the nations of the world.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 exceptional insight.”OriginalOriginal
Kuroda further argued that all the daimyo in general should be permitted to build warships and steamships, and that Japan’s own trading vessels should also be rebuilt in the Western style.Original
“The time has come when Japan can no longer maintain seclusion forever.”Original
That is, the time had come when Japan could no longer continue its policy of perpetual seclusion.Original
Even so, he did not cross the line of relying on America and Russia to check England and France.Original
It is said that a single membrane had still not peeled away.OriginalOriginal
Takashima Kihei’s Theory of Trade
Summarizing the daimyo’s opinion papers, there was not a single one advocating the pure opening of the country.Original
“Among those outside the daimyo, the one opinion paper that might be called footsteps echoing in an empty valley is that of Takashima Kihei.”Original
This is a metaphor for footsteps echoing in a deserted valley.OriginalOriginal
The framework of Takashima’s argument begins with the question of what trade is.Original
“Exchanging this good for that good, the profit is mutual; it is by no means an intent to greedily seek the profit of one country alone.”Original
Trade, he said, is exchanging goods so that both sides gain profit, not one country greedily seeking gain.OriginalOriginal
From there, Takashima put forward an argument that none of the other commentators had made.Original
Japan is a small country with few products.Original
Holland kept coming to Nagasaki because Japan was handing over copper; once the copper ran out, they would stop coming.Original
The same was true for the United States.Original
As a trial, one need only permit trade for two or three years.Original
“Once the balance of profit and loss becomes clear, they will surely withdraw of their own accord.”Original
Once gains and losses became clear, he said, the other side would surely withdraw.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 LibraryAgainst the concern that permitting one country would bring all countries flocking, Takashima argued the opposite.Original
It was, rather, something to welcome.
If many countries shipped goods over, prices would fall, and once profits thinned, it would no longer suit them.Original
“The matter of commerce is purely a question of method and arrangement, so there is not the slightest cause for concern.”Original
Commerce, he said, is a matter of structure, and there is no need for worry at all.OriginalOriginal
Takashima overlooked the one point that opening trade would cause domestic production to increase.Original
This may have been a device to reassure the shogunate into opening the country, or perhaps he genuinely believed it so.
Yet this man well understood “the great principle of exchanging what one has for what one lacks, and the principle that the rise and fall of trade ultimately depends on the amount of profit.”Original
His background as a town elder of Nagasaki kept his argument from becoming mere armchair theory, Tokutomi Sohō observes.OriginalOriginal
Takashima also argued the disadvantage of deceiving the other side through clever schemes.Original
“That is but a temporary trick, and it will only increase their anger.”Original
It was only a stopgap, he said, and would merely increase their anger.OriginalOriginal
The Death on the Twenty-Second Day of the Sixth Month, the Order of the Fifteenth Day of the Ninth Month
Even as the opinion papers 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, having held the office of shogun for seventeen years.Original
“One cannot say that Perry killed the shogun, but in truth it came close to that.”OriginalOriginal
Tokugawa Iesada, who succeeded him, was thirty years old.Original
Tokutomi Sohō assesses him as “rather than ordinary, he was weak and dim-witted.”Original
Citing the story from the Ansei Kiji that he took pleasure in chasing geese and boiled beans to give to his close attendants, Sohō says there is no guarantee that he was truly so foolish, but adds that “there is no doubt he was a man below the average level.”Original
At a moment when internal troubles and foreign threats were about to converge at once, having this shogun at the helm must have been deeply unsettling for both officials and daimyo, Tokutomi Sohō says.OriginalOriginal
Please consult the original page images for this source.
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryOn the seventeenth day of the seventh month, an order was issued to enforce frugality and thrift.Original
On the sixth day of the eighth month, Takashima Shirōdayū was handed over to become a retainer of Egawa Tarōzaemon.OriginalOriginal
“Given the present state of affairs and the necessity of large ships, all daimyo are henceforth permitted to build large ships.”Original
With this order, Shimazu Nariakira immediately built fifteen large ships.OriginalOriginal
Tokutomi Sohō describes this lifting of the ban as an unfinished task carried over from sixteen years earlier.Original
In the sixth month of Tenpō 9 (1838), Tokugawa Nariaki, following the Western style, built a warship twenty-four ken in length and three jō, eight shaku, seven sun in width, and sought to name it Hitachi-maru.Original
The shogunate refused, holding that it violated the 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, stating “it is difficult even to look into this matter separately.”Original
That is to say, it did not even merit investigation.
It seems the matter was closed without even reaching the shogun’s ears, Tokutomi Sohō writes.Original
“The shogunate’s carelessness, regardless of who was in charge, was truly the responsibility of the shogunate itself.”OriginalOriginal
As for the gun batteries at Shinagawa too, a plan for eleven emplacements stopped at six.Original
The hill of Gotenyama within the grounds of Takanawa Sengakuji was cut down and used as landfill, and the cost of the six emplacements exceeded seven hundred fifty thousand two hundred ninety-six ryō.Original
Unable to bear the enormous expense, work on the sixth emplacement was halted after it had been built only up to the water’s surface.OriginalOriginal
Footsteps in an Empty Valley
If only Tokugawa Nariaki had possessed insight like Takashima’s.Original
If only Abe Masahiro had grasped things as thoroughly as Takashima did.Original
“Japan’s handling of affairs between Kichū and Kōin would surely have been a little cleaner, a little more just and fair, 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 LibraryBoth Sakuma Shōzan and Yokoi Shōnan still held to the theory of expelling the barbarians in this year.Original
“The world calls Takashima Shūhan the reviver of gunnery techniques and the founder of Western-style military methods, but he was rather a man who opened a new phase in the theory of opening the country, in pacifism,” he says.OriginalOriginal
Out of hundreds of opinion papers, the shogunate gained nothing for its foreign policy, Tokutomi Sohō says.Original
The consultation, he says, was rather a matter of domestic policy.Original
Among them, only one document — that of an old man who had emerged from twelve years of confinement — spoke of what trade truly was.OriginalOriginal
In the waters off Shinagawa, the stones of the sixth battery, which had only just broken the surface, lay sinking.Original
In Kagoshima, fifteen ships were gradually taking shape.Original
Was there anyone who heard the footsteps that echoed through the empty valley?
Would they eventually be heard, or would they remain, vanished, 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 (1937). PID 1046665 |
| Dates and names | All 10 dates in the text exist in the calendar for their year, and the Western years given alongside them agree. Of the 10 people named in the text, 7 also appear in Ishin shiryō kōyō, vol. 1. |
| English gates | 124 of 124 sentences passed the checks on the English text. |
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.
