LATE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE

The 'Late Tokugawa Shogunate' ( ''Bakumatsu'') is the period between 1853 and 1867 during which Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy called ''sakoku'' and modernized from a feudal shogunate to the Meiji government. It is at end of the Edo period and preceded the Meiji era. The major ideological/political factions during this period were divided into the pro-imperialist ''Ishin Shishi'' (nationalist patriots) and the shogunate forces, including the elite shinsengumi (newly selected corps) swordsmen. Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of Bakumatsu to seize personal power.^[1] Furthermore there were two other main driving forces for dissent; first, growing resentment of tozama daimyo (or outside lords), and second, growing anti-western sentiment following the arrival of Perry. The first related to those lords who had fought against Tokugawa forces at Sekigahara (in 1600 AD) and had from that point on been exiled permanently from all powerful positions within the shogunate. The second was to be expressed in the phrase ''sonnō jōi'', or "revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians". The turning point of the Bakumatsu was during the Boshin War and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi when pro-shogunate forces were defeated.^[2]

Treaty of Peace and Amity (1854)

Commodore Matthew C. Perry.

When Commodore Matthew C. Perry's four-ship squadron appeared in Edo Bay (Tokyo Bay) in July 1853, the ''bakufu'' (shogunate) was thrown into turmoil. The chairman of the senior councillors, Abe Masahiro (1819–1857), was responsible for dealing with the Americans. Having no precedent to manage this threat to national security, Abe tried to balance the desires of the senior councillors to compromise with the foreigners, of the emperor who wanted to keep the foreigners out, and of the feudal ''daimyo'' rulers who wanted to go to war. Lacking consensus, Abe decided to compromise by accepting Perry's demands for opening Japan to foreign trade while also making military preparations. In March 1854, the Treaty of Peace and Amity (or Treaty of Kanagawa) maintained the prohibition on trade but opened three ports (Nagasaki, Shimoda, Hakodate) to American whaling ships seeking provisions, guaranteed good treatment to shipwrecked American sailors, and allowed a United States consul to take up residence in Shimoda, a seaport on the Izu Peninsula, southwest of Edo.

Political troubles and modernization

The resulting damage to the ''bakufu'' was significant. Debate over government policy was unusual and had engendered public criticism of the ''bakufu''. In the hope of enlisting the support of new allies, Abe, to the consternation of the fudai, had consulted with the ''shinpan'' and ''tozama'' daimyo, further undermining the already weakened ''bakufu''.

The Nagasaki Naval Training Center, in Nagasaki, near Dejima.

''Kankō Maru'', Japan's first steam warship, 1855.

In the Ansei Reform (1854–1856), Abe then tried to strengthen the regime by ordering Dutch warships and armaments from the Netherlands and building new port defenses. In 1855, with Dutch assistance, the Shogunate acquired its first steam warship, ''Kankō Maru'', which was used for training, and opened the Nagasaki Naval Training Center with Dutch instructors, and a Western-style military school was established at Edo. In 1857, it acquired its first screw-driven steam warship, the ''Kanrin Maru''. Scientific knownledge was quickly expanded from the pre-existing foundation of Western knowledge, or "Rangaku".
Opposition to Abe increased within ''fudai'' circles, which opposed opening ''bakufu'' councils to ''tozama'' daimyo, and he was replaced in 1855 as chairman of the senior councillors by Hotta Masayoshi (1810–1864). At the head of the dissident faction was Tokugawa Nariaki, who had long embraced a militant loyalty to the emperor along with antiforeign sentiments, and who had been put in charge of national defense in 1854. The Mito school—based on neo-Confucian and Shinto principles—had as its goal the restoration of the imperial institution, the turning back of the West.

Treaty of Amity and Commerce (1858)

Townsend Harris negotiated the "Treaty of Amity and Commerce" in 1858, opening Japan to foreign influence and trade, under "unequal" conditions.

View of Yokohama in 1859.

Following the nomination of Townsend Harris as U.S. Consul in 1856 and two years of negotiation, the "Treaty of Amity and Commerce" was signed in 1858 and put into application from mid-1859. In a major diplomatic coup, Harris had abundantly commented the aggressive colonialism of France and Great Britain against China in the current Second Opium War (1856–1860), suggesting that these countries would not hesitate to go to war against Japan as well, and that the United States offered a peaceful alternative. The most important points of the Treaty were:

★ exchange of diplomatic agents.

★ Edo, Kobe, Nagasaki, Niigata, and Yokohama’s opening to foreign trade as ports.

★ ability of United States citizens to live and trade at will in those ports (only opium trade was prohibited).

★ a system of extraterritoriality that provided for the subjugation of foreign residents to the laws of their own consular courts instead of the Japanese law system.

★ fixed low import-export duties, subject to international control, thus depriving the Japanese government control of foreign trade and protection of national industries (the rate would go as low as 5% in the 1860s.)

★ Ability for Japan to purchase American shipping and weapons (three American steamships were delivered to Japan in 1862).
Japan was also forced to apply such conditions to any other foreign nation, under the "most favoured nation" provision. Soon several foreign nation followed suit and obtained treaties with Japan (Great Britain, France, Russia..).
Trading houses were quickly set in the open ports.

Crisis and conflict

Political crisis

Hotta Masayoshi (1810–1864).

Hotta lost the support of key daimyo, and when Tokugawa Nariaki opposed the new treaty, Hotta sought imperial sanction. The court officials, perceiving the weakness of the ''bakufu'', rejected Hotta's request and thus suddenly embroiled Kyoto and the emperor in Japan's internal politics for the first time in many centuries. When the shogun died without an heir, Nariaki appealed to the court for support of his own son, Tokugawa Yoshinobu (or Keiki), for shogun, a candidate favored by the shinpan and ''tozama'' daimyo. The ''fudai'' won the power struggle, however, installing Naosuke Ii, arresting Nariaki and Keiki, executing Yoshida Shoin (1830–1859, a leading ''sonnō-jōi'' intellectual who had opposed the American treaty and plotted a revolution against the bakufu), and signing treaties with the United States and five other nations, thus ending more than 200 years of seclusion.

Modernization, economic crisis and upheaval

Foreign ships in Yokohama harbor.

A foreign trading house in Yokohama in 1861.

The opening of Japan to uncontrolled foreign trade brought massive economic instability. While some entrepreneurs prospered, many other went bankrupt. Unemployment rose, as well as inflation. Coincidentally, major famines also increased the price of food drastically. Incidents occurred between brash foreigners, qualified as "the scum of the earth" by a contemporary diplomat, and the Japanese.
Japan's monetary system also broke down. Traditionally, Japan's exchange rate between silver and gold was 1:5, whereas international rates were of the order of 1:15. This led to massive purchases of gold by foreigners, and ultimately forced the Japanese authorities to devalue their currency.^[3]
Foreigners also brought cholera to Japan (probably from India), leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths^[4]

Members of the First Japanese Embassy to Europe (1862), around Shibata Sadataro, head of the mission staff (seated).

During the 1860s peasant uprisings (hyakushō ikki) and urban disturbances (uchikowashi) multiplied. "World renewal" movement appeared (yonaoshi ikki), as well as feverish hysteric movements such as the Eejanaika ("Ain't it great!").
Several missions were sent abroad by the Bakufu, in order to learn about Western civilization, revise unequal treaties, and delay the opening of cities and harbour to foreign trade. These efforts towards revision remained largely unsuccessful.
A Japanese Embassy to the United States was sent in 1860, onboard the ''Kanrin Maru'' and the USS ''Powhattan''. A First Japanese Embassy to Europe was sent in 1862.

Murder of foreigners and open conflict

Attack of the British legation in Edo, 1861.

Violence increased against the foreigners and those who dealt with them. Ii Naosuke, who had signed the Harris Treaty and eliminated opposition to Westernization in the Ansei Purge, was murdered in March 1860 at Sakuradamon. Henry Heusken, Harris' Dutch translator was killed by swordsmen in January 1861. Also in 1861, the British legation in Edo was attacked, resulting in two deaths. During that period, about one foreigner was killed every month. In September 1862 occurred the Richardson Affair which would force foreign nations to take decisive action in order to protect foreigners and guarantee the implementation of Treaty provisions. In May 1863, the US legation in Edo was torched.

The Richardson affair, as depicted in a 19th century Japanese woodcut print. Charles Lennox Richardson is at the centre of the scene.

Japanese cannons shooting on Western shipping at Shimonoseki in 1863. Japanese painting.

Belligerent opposition to Western influence further erupted into open conflict when the Emperor Kōmei, breaking with centuries of imperial tradition, began to take an active role in matters of state and issued on March 11 and April 11 1863 his "Order to expel barbarians" (攘夷実行の勅命). The Shimonoseki-based Chōshū clan, under Lord Mori Takachika, followed on the Order, and began to take actions to expel all foreigners from the date fixed as a deadline (May 10, Lunar calendar). Openly defying the shogunate, Takachika orders his forces to fire without warning on all foreign ships traversing Shimonoseki Strait.
Under pressure from the Emperor, the Shogun was also forced to issue a declaration promulgating the end of relations with foreigners. The order was forwarded to foreign legations by Ogasawara Zusho no Kami on June 24, 1863:
Lieutnant-Colonel Neale, head of the British legation, responded on very strong terms, equating the move with a declaration of war:
A Second Japanese Embassy to Europe would be sent in December 1863, with the mission to obtain European support to reinstate Japan's former closure to foreign trade, and especially stop foreign access to the harbor of Yokohama. The Embassy ended in total failure as European powers did not see any advantages in yielding to its demands.

Western military interventions (1863-1865)

American influence, so important in the beginning, waned after 1861 due to the advent of the American Civil War (1861–1865) which mobilized all available U.S. resources. This influence would be replaced irrevocably by that of the British, the Dutch and the French.
The two ringleaders of the opposition to the Bakufu were Chōshū and Satsuma. As they happened to be directly involved in the attacks on foreign shipping in Shimonoseki for the former, and the murder of Richardson for the latter, and as the Bakufu declared itself unable to placate them, Allied forces decided to mount direct military expeditions.

American intervention (July 1863)

The USS ''Wyoming'' battling in the Shimonoseki Straits against the Choshu steam warships ''Daniel Webster'' (six guns), the brig ''Lanrick'' (''Kosei'', with ten guns), and the steamer ''Lancefield'' (''Koshin'', of four guns).

Main articles: Naval battle of Shimonoseki

In the morning of July 16, 1863, under sanction by Minister Pruyn, in an apparent swift response to the attack on the ''Pembroke'', the U.S. frigate USS ''Wyoming'' under Captain McDougal himself sailed into the strait and single-handedly engaged the U.S.-built but poorly manned rebel fleet. For almost two hours before withdrawing, McDougal sank one enemy vessel and severely damaged the other two, along with some forty Japanese casualties, while the ''Wyoming'' suffered extensive damage with fourteen crew dead or wounded.

French intervention (August 1863)

Main articles: Bombardment of Shimonoseki

On the heels of McDougal's engagement, two weeks later a French landing force of two warships, the ''Tancrède'' and the ''Dupleix'', and 250 men under Captain Benjamin Jaurès swept into Shimonoseki and destroyed a small town, together with at least one artillery emplacement.

British bombardment of Kagoshima (August 1863)

Birds-eye view of the bombardment of Kagoshima by the British Navy, August 15, 1863. ''Le Monde Illustré''.

Main articles: Bombardment of Kagoshima

In August 1863, the Bombardment of Kagoshima took place, in retaliation for the Namamugi incident and the murder of the English trader Richardson. The British Royal Navy bombarded the town of Kagoshima and destroyed several ships. Satsuma however later negotiated and paid 25,000 pounds, but did not remit Richardson's killers, and in exchange obtained an agreement by Great Britain to supply steam warships to Satsuma. The conflict actually became the starting point of a close relationship between Satsuma and Great Britain, which became major allies in the ensuing Boshin War. From the start, the Satsuma Province had generally been in favour of the opening and modernization of Japan. Although the Namamugi Incident was unfortunate, it was not characteristic of Satsuma's policy, and was rather abusively branded as an example of anti-foreign sonnō jōi sentiment, as a justification to a strong Western show of force.

Allied bombardment of Shimonoseki (September 1864)

The Bombardment of Shimonoseki, 1863–1864.

Main articles: Bombardment of Shimonoseki

Western nations planned an armed retaliation against armed Japanese opposition with the Bombardment of Shimonoseki. The Allied intervention occurred in September 1864, combining the naval forces of Great Britain, the Netherlands, France and the United States, against the powerful feudal Japanese warlord or ''daimyo'' Lord Mori Takachika of the Chōshū clan based in Shimonoseki, Japan. This conflict threatened to involve America, which in 1864 was already torn by civil strife, in a foreign war.

Hyōgo naval expedition (November 1865)

As the Bakufu has proved incapable to pay the $3,000,000 indemnity demanded by foreign nations for the intervention at Shimonoseki, foreign nations agreed to reduce the amount in exchange for a ratification of the Harris Treaty by the Emperor, a lowering of customs tariffs to a uniform 5%, and the opening of the harbours of Hyōgo (modern Kōbe) and Osaka to foreign trade. In order to press their demands more forcefully, an squadron of four British, one Dutch and three French warships were sent to the harbour of Hyōgo in November 1865. Various incursions were made by foreign forces, until the Emperor finally agreed to change his total opposition to the Treaties, by formally allowing the Shogun to handle negotiations with foreign powers.^[5]
These conflicts led to the realization that head-on conflict with Western nations was not a solution for Japan. As the Bakufu continued its modernization efforts, Western daimyos (especially Satsuma and Chōshū) also continued to modernize intensively in order to build a stronger Japan and to establish a more legitimate government under Imperial power.

Bakumatsu renewal and modernization

''Kanrin Maru'', Japan's first screw-driven steam warship, 1855.

During the last years of the ''bakufu'', or ''bakumatsu'', the ''bakufu'' took strong measures to try to reassert its dominance, although its involvement with modernization and foreign powers was to make it a target of anti-Western sentiment throughout the country.
Naval students were sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral Enomoto. The French naval engineer Léonce Verny was hired to build naval arsenals, such as Yokosuka and Nagasaki. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, the Japanese navy of the shogun already possessed eight western-style steam warships around the flagship ''Kaiyō Maru'', which were used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin war, under the command of Admiral Enomoto. A French Military Mission to Japan (1867) was established to help modernize the armies of the Bakufu. Japan sent a delegation and participated to the 1867 World Fair in Paris.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last Shogun, in French military uniform, c.1867

Revering the emperor as a symbol of unity, extremists wrought violence and death against the Bakufu and Han authorities and foreigners. Foreign naval retaliation in the Anglo-Satsuma War led to still another concessionary commercial treaty in 1865, but Yoshitomi was unable to enforce the Western treaties. A ''bakufu'' army was defeated when it was sent to crush dissent in the ''han'' of Satsuma and Chōshū in 1866. Finally, in 1867, Emperor Kōmei died and was succeeded by his second son, Mutsuhito, as Emperor Meiji.
Keiki reluctantly became head of the Tokugawa house and shogun following the unexpected death of Tokugawa Iemochi, previously in mid-1866. He tried to reorganize the government under the emperor while preserving the shogun's leadership role, a system known as ''kōbu gattai''. Fearing the growing power of the Satsuma and Chōshū daimyo, other daimyo called for returning the shogun's political power to the emperor and a council of daimyo chaired by the former Tokugawa shogun. With the threat of an imminent Satsuma-Chōshū led military action, Keiki moved pre-emptively by surrendering some of his previous authority.

End of the Bakufu

Shogunal troops in 1864.Illustrated London News.

After Keiki had temporarily avoided the growing conflict, anti-shogunal forces instigated widespread turmoil in the streets of Edo using groups of ''rōnin''. Satsuma and Chōshū forces then moved on Kyoto in force, pressuring the Imperial Court for a conclusive edict demolishing the shogunate. Following a conference of daimyo, the Imperial Court issued such an edict, removing the power of the shogunate in the dying days of 1867. The Satsuma, Chōshū, and other ''han'' leaders and radical courtiers, however, rebelled, seized the imperial palace, and announced their own restoration on January 3, 1868. Keiki nominally accepted the plan, retiring from the Imperial Court to Osaka at the same time as resigning as shogun. Fearing a feigned concession of the shogunal power to consolidate power, the dispute continued until culminating in a military confrontation between Tokugawa and allied domains with Satsuma, Tosa and Chōshū forces, in Fushimi and Toba. With the turning of the battle toward anti-shogunal forces, Keiki then quit Osaka for Edo, essentially ending both the power of the Tokugawa, and the shogunate that had ruled Japan for over 250 years.
Following the Boshin war (1868–1869), the ''bakufu'' was abolished, and Keiki was reduced to the ranks of the common daimyo. Resistance continued in the North throughout 1868, and the ''bakufu'' naval forces under Admiral Enomoto Takeaki continued to hold out for another six months in Hokkaidō, where they founded the short-lived Republic of Ezo. This defiance ended in the Battle of Hakodate, after one month of fighting.

Notes

1. Hillsborough, Romulus. ''Shinsengumi: The Shōgun's Last Samurai Corps''. North Clarendon, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2005.
2. Mark Ravina, ''Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori'', John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
3. Dower, "Chaos"
4. Dower, "Chaos".
5. p157.

References

★ Dower, John W. "Yokohama Boomtown: Foreigners in Treaty-Port Japan (1859–1872)".

★ Hillsborough, Romulus. ''Shinsengumi: The Shōgun's Last Samurai Corps''. North Clarendon, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0804836272.

★ Ravina, Mark. ''Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. ISBN 0471089702.

External links

★ Languages and the Diplomatic Contacts in the Late Tokugawa Shogunate

★ http://www.webkohbo.com/info3/bakumatu_menu/bakutop.html ((in Japanese))

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