Tokugawa Japan’s Selective Rejection of New Technology Coming Out from Under the Gun

Tokugawa Japan’s Selective Tokugawa Japan’s Selective Rejection of New TechnologyRejection of New Technology

Coming Out from Under the GunComing Out from Under the Gun

Japan at the End of the 16Japan at the End of the 16thth Century Century

Tokugawa Japan’s Selective Tokugawa Japan’s Selective Rejection of New TechnologyRejection of New Technology

I. Age of the Country at War (1467–1600)

II. Out from Under the Gun (1607–1853)

III. Anti-Tokugawa, anti-Confucian Intellectual Movements

I. Age of the Country at War (1467–1600)

A. Period of “National Unification” (1568–1600)

1. Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582)

2. Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598)

3. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) — founder of Tokugawa Shogunate

Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582)

Contemporary Portrait of Oda NobunagaContemporary Portrait of Oda Nobunaga

Toyotoma Hideyoshi (1536–1598)

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616)

Board on Which Toyotomi Hideyoshi Board on Which Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu Played Goand Tokugawa Ieyasu Played Go

Tokugawa Ieyasu’s HandprintTokugawa Ieyasu’s Handprint

3. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) — founder of Tokugawa Shogunate

a. Battle of Sekigahara (1600)

b. Took title of shogun (1603)

c. Siege of Osaka Castle (1615)

3. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) — founder of Tokugawa Shogunate

d. views of

(1) Buke Hyaku Kajo

(2) George Sansom, A History of Japan (1958–1963)

(3) Edwin O. Reischauer, Japan: The Story of a Nation (1970)

Battle of Sekigahara (1600)Battle of Sekigahara (1600)

Osaka CastleOsaka Castle

Siege of Osaka CastleSiege of Osaka Castle

I. Age of the Country at War (1467–1600)

(continued)B. Japanese Views of Europeans and European Views of

Japanese

C. Tokugawa Technological Achievements

C. Tokugawa Technological Achievements

1. Engineering

2. Mining and Metallurgy

3. Mathematics — wasan

4. Agriculture

5. Postal service

6. Medicine

7. Retail merchandising

8. Paper manufacture

I. Age of the Country at War (1467–1600)

(continued)D. Centralization and the Turn Away from Foreign Influence

1. “Laws Governing Military Households” (1615)

2. Sakoku — “closed country policy” (1635)

3. Exclusion of Portuguese (1639)

4. Village regulations (1649)

Nagasaki Bay with View of Dejima Nagasaki Bay with View of Dejima IslandIsland

Scale Model of Dutch Outpost on Scale Model of Dutch Outpost on Dejima IslandDejima Island

II. Out from Under the Gun (1607–1853) — based on Noel Perrin, Giving

Up the Gun, 1979A. Introduction of Matchlocks — August 25, 1543

1. Tanegashima Island (guns called tanegashima [later teppo])

2. Lord Tokitaka (acted as entrepreneur)

3. “skip the introductions” — Battle of Uedahara (1548)

4. Battle of Nagashino (1575) — 3 ranks of 1000 each

Arquebus from Tanegashima IslandArquebus from Tanegashima Island(now in Ako Temple Museum)(now in Ako Temple Museum)

Arquebuses from the Tokugawa ShogunateArquebuses from the Tokugawa Shogunate

II. Out from Under the Gun (1607–1853) — based on Noel Perrin, Giving Up the Gun,

1979 (continued)B. Reasons for Turning Away from Guns

1. samurai opposed firearms — Bushido

2. geopolitical — islands are hard to invade

3. swords had great symbolic value

4. general reaction against outside influence

5. aesthetic — swords associated with elegant body movement

Samurai in Full ArmorSamurai in Full Armor

Samurai with Nanban CuirassSamurai with Nanban Cuirass

The Samurai Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga in The Samurai Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga in Rome in 1615Rome in 1615

Sketch of Samurai with His ServantSketch of Samurai with His Servant

Samurai with Various WeaponsSamurai with Various Weapons

Red Seal ShipRed Seal Ship

Izumo no Izumo no OkuniOkuni

Founder of KabukiFounder of Kabuki

(ca. 1603)(ca. 1603)

ShudoShudo

Same-sex love Same-sex love

III. Anti-Tokugawa, anti-Confucian Intellectual Movements

1. Kokugaku = “national learning” — Kamo Mabuchi (1697–1769)

2. Rangaku = “Dutch studies” — Sugita Gempaku (1733–1817)

3. Honda Toshiaki (1744–1821), A Secret Plan of Government

(Keisei Hisaku) (1798)

– “four imperative needs”: gunpowder, metallurgy, trade, colonies

KokugakuKokugaku

Mono no awareMono no aware: : ““Sensitivity to thingsSensitivity to things””

• • term coined in the 18th century by the  Edo periodterm coined in the 18th century by the  Edo period Japanese Japanese cultural scholar Motoori Norinaga, cultural scholar Motoori Norinaga,

• • originally a concept used in his literary criticism of originally a concept used in his literary criticism of The Tale of Genji,, and later applied to other seminal Japanese works  and later applied to other seminal Japanese works including the including the Man'yōshūMan'yōshū

• • becoming central to his philosophy of literature, and eventually becoming central to his philosophy of literature, and eventually to the Japanese cultural tradition.to the Japanese cultural tradition.

Sakura within a field of Phlox subulata at Yachounomori Garden in

Tatebayashi, Gunm

Example of Rangaku:Example of Rangaku: Account of Account of Foreign CountriesForeign Countries by Nishikawa Joken by Nishikawa Joken

(1708)(1708)

Example of Rangaku: JapanExample of Rangaku: Japan’’s First s First Treatise on Western Anatomy (1774)Treatise on Western Anatomy (1774)

Example of Rangaku: Description of a Example of Rangaku: Description of a Microscope from Microscope from Sayings of the DutchSayings of the Dutch

(1787)(1787)

Example of Rangaku: Astronomy on Example of Rangaku: Astronomy on Dejima IslandDejima Island

SayonaraSayonara