Sho Konishi - Russian-Japanese Revolutionary Encounter

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1/31

Reopening the "Opening of Japan": A Russian-Japanese Revolutionary Encounter and theVision of Anarchist ProgressAuthor(s): Sho KonishiSource: The American Historical Review, Vol. 112, No. 1 (Feb., 2007), pp. 101-130Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4136008 .

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2/31

Reopening

he

"Opening

of

Japan":

A

Russian-Japanese evolutionary

ncounter nd the

Vision

of Anarchist

rogress

SHO KONISHI

INTHE

SPRING

F

1874,

he Russian

populist

nd

international

evolutionary

eader

Lev Mechnikov1838-1888) sailed toJapan norderto observe ndparticipaten

the

Meiji

Ishin,

ommonly

nown

n

English

s the

"Meiji Restoration."'Japan

was

still

n

the throes f disorder

nd

conflict s he disembarked n Yokohama.

Com-

paring

he

shin

o

revolutionary

ovements

n

Europe,

Mechnikov alled

t

a

com-

plete

and radical

revolution,

hekindwe know

nly

from

istory."2

eeking

o

right

a common

misunderstandingmong

many

n

the

West about

thecauses of the

shin,

he described t as

being

of native

rigin.

He

argued

that he shinwas

not

simply

political

reaction o external

ressure

n

Japan

to

adopt

Western ivilization nd

become nvolved

n

capitalist evelopment.

ather,

twas a

complex

evolution rom

within,

ased

on centuries f

ocial,

ultural,

nd

ntellectual

evelopments,

hathad

merely eengiven urthermpetus ydisturbances rom broad. Mechnikovwould

eventually

ccord the

Ishin

global

significance

or

human

progress

n a

different

direction

ltogether

romWestern

modernity.

Historianshave

rarely uestioned

ne

aspect

of the birth

f

modern

Japan:

the

"Opening

of the Nation" to the

West,

or

kaikoku,

nd the

resulting

nitiation f

civilization

nd

progress.

s a

result,

he

meaning

f

kaikokuhas been

closed,

and

alternative arratives

f modern

Japanesehistory

ave

essentially

een

precluded

from he

historiography

n

Japan.

By exploring

Mechnikov's

rivate

ncounterwith

Ishin

Japan

on thenon-stateevel

beyond

he

magined

ast-West

divide,

t

may

be

possible

o

reopen

he

meaning

f

kaikoku nd ntroduce

he

arger

ssociatedvision

ofcooperatistnarchistivilization ndprogress.3 t theverymoment hatJapan's

My

thanks o

the

anonymous

eaders

f

the

AHR,

who

provided

nvaluable omments n

this rticle.

Special

thanks

o

to Tetsuo

Najita,

Sheila

Fitzpatrick,

nd James

Ketelaar,

who served s

my

mentors

at

the

University

f

Chicago

Department

f

History,

here wrote he

ssay.

Archival esearchwas made

possible

by

the

generous

upport

f

the

Fulbright-Hays

esearch Abroad

Fellowship

n

2001.

1

n

this

rticle,

nly

when

referring

o

how

nineteenth-century

ussiansdescribed he

events

ur-

rounding

heoverthrowf the

Tokugawa

eudal

egime

o I use the term

revolution." lsewhere use

the

Japanese

erm Ishin."

On the

problem

f

rendering

eiji

shin s "Restoration"

n

translation,ee,

for

xample,

etsuo

Najita, Japan's

ndustrial evolution n Historical

erspective,"

n

Masao

Miyoshi

and

H. D.

Harootunian, ds.,

Japan

n the World

Durham,

N.C.,

1993),

19-23.

2

Lev

Mechnikov,

Era

prosveshcheniia

aponii:

Meidzi,"

in

A. A.

Shcherbina, d.,

Iaponiia

na

perelome:zbrannyetat'i ocherkiVladivostok, 992),76.

All

translationsremineunless otherwisenoted.

3

I use

a

new

erm,

cooperatist,"

nstead f

"cooperativist,"

o

emphasize

n ethic nd

subjectivity

101


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3/31

102

Sho

Konishi

borders

opened

to

negotiation

with he West

and

to the concomitant

arratives

f

civilizational

rogress, hey pened

as well to

alternative isions f

progress.

Mech-

nikovwould

give

Japan's

modernrevolutionworld-historical

eaning

s

a

major

catalyst

or

the

advancement

f

humanity

ased

on

the

principles

f

cooperatist

anarchy.

he

resulting

dea

of

progress

would

emphasize ooperation

etween

eo-

ple

overSocial Darwinist

ompetition,

nd

spontaneous

ree ssociations f

peoples

over the rule

of aw

and state

governance,

s

fundamental or

he advancement

f

human ife.

t

would be based on the

premise

hat ndividual nd

group

differences

on

multiple

evels

constituted n essential

basis

for

a

cooperative

human

ociety,

makingpossible

a

modern

ubjectivity

hat

imultaneously

ncorporated

oth

the

individual

nd the collective.

Mechnikov's ncounterwith shin

Japan

ed

him

to refashion

narchism,

rans-

forming

t from

Bakuninist

deology

f

primordial

nd violentdestruction f

the

existing

ocial and

political

tructuresnto

n

evolutionary

onstruct or

developing

a civilization

n the

basis of mutual

id.4

Mechnikov dentified

dynamic

model

of

civilizational

rogress

n

Japan

hat ranscended he

provincially

ounded dea of he

Russian

commune.He

was

struck

y

the

cooperative

elf-organization

e observed

among

commoners

uring

he

Ishin.

Cooperativepractices

nabled the

people

to

have economic

nd

social

stability

n their

ives

t a

timewhen

hey

were

xperiencing

tremendous

olitical nstability,

lack

of

organizational

uidance

from

bove,

and

sudden dislocation o urban reas. Mechnikov oted

the commoners' onsciousness

of

and

pride

n

their

ontribution

o the

arger

ociety,

with

ecognition

n turn f

others'

contributing

ole.

Japanese

called

this

organizing

thicforthe conduct

of

everyday

ife mutual id."

He

observed hat he

principle

f

mutual ssistance

had

the

capacity

o

extend

beyond

he confines f

the

mmediate

amily,

he

neighbor-hood, and eventhe

nation,

nd was marked

y

an intense ffort o learn fromnd

interact

with

he

outside

world,

whichhe saw

happening

n

many

evelsof

society.

Mechnikov iewed his thic

s

essential or

he advancement

f

humanity.

he de-

veloping

visionof

progress

nd civilization

nspired

y

the

encounter

etween he

Japanese

ideas

of

ishin

and

Russian

populist

notions

of

revoliutsiia

revolution)

would ater

onstitute

ne of

themost

mportant

ntellectual ases for

Kropotkinism,

a

leading

current

f

modern narchism.

Not

only

s Mechnikov's

ncounter

evealing

with

respect

o

the

open

and un-

settled

nature

f

the

early

meanings

iven

o

the

"beginnings"

f

modern

Japan,

ut

the

alternative

meanings iven

o those

beginnings

ere salientforfurtherction.

Japanese

ntellectuals ouldturn hevisionof

cooperatist rogress

ntoone of the

most

mportant

onceptual

foundations ormodern

ultural ife

n

Japan.

For

ex-

ample,

t

heavily

nfluenced hewomen's

movement,

henon-war

movement,

nd

the

spheres

f

education,

eligion,anguage,

iterature,rt,

nd

even

primatology.

rans-

forming

he dea of time

tself,

articipants

magined

nd

put

nto

practice

coop-

of

cooperation

not

imited o the

enterprise

f the

cooperative,

society

f

persons

or

he

distribution

of

goods.

4

While

Mechnikovhad

conspired

withBakunin n

revolutionary

ctivities

n the

1860s,

he ac-

knowledged

hat heir

elationship

as

fairly egative.

Hoover nstitutionf War and Peace

Archives,

Stanford, alifornia, . I. Nicolaevsky ollection, ox 183,#34,Letterfrom . Mechnikov o Vasilii

Danilovich,

January

9,

1884.

AMERICAN

HISTORICAL REVIEW FEBRUARY 2007




4/31

Reopening

he

"Opening fJapan"

103

eratist

narchist

modernity," temporal elonging

hat

transcended

thnic, acial,

gendered,

national,

nd

other

means of modern

belonging.5

Our

understanding

f

Japanese

anarchism s

a

product

f Western ntellectual

traditions

as

helped

to

prevent

s from

eeing

cooperatist

narchism s a

form

f

modernity

n

Japan.

We have

ong

defined

narchy,

he absence of state

governanceand

legal

order,

s

characterizing

hemost

primitive

tage

ofhuman

progress

nd

civilization.

y

extension,

he

history

f

nineteenth-century

narchism as

often

on-

ceived narchism

s an

ntellectual

nd

cultural

egacy

f

the ocial

fury

f the

French

Revolution,

nd

thereby

ssociated

t with

terrorism

nd

the formless reams of

utopianism. imilarly, apanesehistoriography

as viewed

anarchism

n

Japan

as a

reactionarympulse gainst

the Western

ivilizational

rder,

expressing

n emo-

tional

preoccupation

ith traditional"

nd

"conservative"moral nd

spiritual

al-

ues threatened

y

the

West.6

Common

o both

of these characterizationss the no-

tion hat

narchism,

hether

y

ts deals or

in

practice,

was

opposed

to

modernity.

The

idea of Western

modernityrovided

he

starting

oint

fromwhichwe have

arrived t much four

scholarship

n modern

Japan.

While

existing xplorations

f

an

"alternative

apanese

modernity"

ave

attempted

o

examinehow

Japanese

re-

configured

nd

retranslatedWestern

modernity

nto

"indigenous"

r

"Japanese"

national

forms s

historical

ifference,

he

modernity

f the "West"

nonetheless

remained

or

historians he source

that

defined he terms f

modernity

n

Japan.7

Studies

f thediverse

rajectories

f alternative

orms

f

modernity

n

thenon-West

have tended

to

speak

of

"hybridity"

etweentwo

ultimately oreign

lements,

n

oil-and-water

mixture

etween

he traditional nd

the

new.

The

"multiple

moder-

nities"

n the non-West

ave

qualified

s

such

through

he

ndigenous evelopment

or

reconfiguration

f

major

modern

lements

lready

defined

by

the West and its

historical

xperience,

uch s the

public phere,

apitalism,

nddemocratic

olitical

institutions.8

hile our

emphasis

n these

historical

rajectories

ill

undoubtedly

continue o advanceour

historical

nderstanding,

t the

same time t has

caused us

to overlook he creative

ransnational

roduction

f a

cooperatist

narchist

ision

of human

progress

nd

civilization utside he

epistemological

imits

f "East"

and

"West."

Proceeding

rom similar

ogic,

we have

long

studied

the

modern

elationship

betweenRussia and

Japan

rom he

perspective

f

tate-to-state

elations,

eginning

with he

Russian

expedition

o

Japan

n

1853 ed

by

AdmiralEvfimii

utiatin. he

story

f the

expedition's

ontribution

o

the

"Opening"

of

Japan,

followed

by

the

5 For

a

theoretical

iscussion n the

reimagination

f time nd the

possibility

or

lternative

den-

tities,

ee Lawrence

Grossberg,History,magination

nd the

Politics

f

Belonging:

etween heDeath

and the

Fear of

History,"

n

Paul

Gilroy,

awrence

Grossberg,

nd

Angela

McRobbie,

eds.,

Without

Guarantees:

n Honour

f

Stuart all

(London,

2000),

148-164.

6

See F. G. Notehelfer's

mportant

ontributiono our

earlier

knowledge

f

Japanese

narchism,

Kitoku

Shuisui:

ortrait

f

a

Japanese

adical

(Cambridge,

971).

Other,

more recent

works hat

have

similarly

escribed narchismn

Japan

ncludeGermaine

Hoston,

The

State,

dentity,

nd theNational

Question

n China

nd

Japan

Princeton,

.J.,

994),

137-148;

nd

Steven

G.

Marks,

How Russia

Shaped

the

Modem

World: romArt o

Anti-Semitism,

allet to

Bolshevism

Princeton,

N.J.,

003).

7

See,

for

xample,

ulia

Adeney

Thomas,

Reconfiguringodernity:oncepts f

Nature n

Japanese

Political

deology

Berkeley,

alif.,

002).

8

For

example,Dipesh

Chakrabarty,

rovincializingurope:

Postcolonial

Thought

nd Historical

DifferencePrinceton, .J., 000);ShmuelN. Eisenstadt, d.,Multiple odernitiesNewBrunswick, .J.,

2002).

AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW

FEBRUARY

2007




5/31

104

Sho

Konishi

Russo-Japanese

War

(1904-1905),

which demonstrated

apan'srising ower

and

permitted

ts

entry

nto

the Western nternational

ommunity

f

nation-states,

s a

familiar

ne.

With

the

narrative f Western

modernityepeated

s

essentially

he

sole historical

meaning

nd value

embedded

n

the

history

f

Russo-Japanese

e-

lations,

our

accountsof that

relationship

ave

often

been written

romwithin he

cultural oldof Western

modernity.ronically

nough,

he morewe have

expanded

the

ways

o ook

at their

nteractions,

hemorewe have solidifiedWestern

modernity

as

themaster

arrative

or

nternational

istory

nvolving

odern

apan.

While

mak-

ing

n

enormous

ontributiono thevolume f

our

historical

nowledge,

his

has ed

us

all

themore o overlook he

phenomenon

nder xamination. ven studies

n

the

fields

f

iterature,

heater,

nd

art,

whichhave

added

significantly

o our

knowledge

of

Russo-Japanese

relationsfrom non-state

perspective,

ave been

construed

largely

within he

conceptual

frameworkf

Russia's

mpact

n

Japan

within

larger

West-East

binary

nd

its unidirectional

low f culture.9

The

purpose

here

s not to

provide singleoverarching

haracterization

f the

rich nd

variegated

history

f

Russian-Japanese

elations.10

ather,

xamining

he

interlocking

ransnational etworks f

intellectuals hat formed n the

non-state

level,

beyond

he cultural

onstruct

f the encounter etweenWest

and

non-West,

enables

us

to take a new

approach

to the

"Opening"

of

Japan.

As alien as the

Rus-

sian-Japanese

evolutionary

ncounterwas to

the

mid-nineteenth-century

ulture

f

international

elations

f

Western

nation-states,1

t

provides

s

with

n alternative

lens

through

which o read kaikoku s a moment

f

rupture, hereby iving

t

new

historical

meaning

nd value.

From the

standpoint

f Western

modernity,

uropeans

and Americans

n

Japan

during

he shinbelieved

hat

modern

Japan

owed

ts

birth o the

ivilizing resence

of the Westernnation-states.MerchantFrancis Hall observed he events

argely

through

he ens

of his business

nterests

n

Japan

and the Western

iplomatic

c-

tivities hat

upported

hem.When he described

he

progress

hat

foreigners

ere

bringing

o

Japan

as an eventual

good,"

he

meant

the

extent

f

capitalist

evel-

opment

s the

measure

f

that

rogress.

rom nother

erspective,

sabella

Birdwas

one of

the

very

ew

Westerners

o travel

widely hrough apan

n

the

earlyyears

of

Meiji.

She

described

n

minute

etail

he

echnologies

f

everyday

ife

during

er

rip

to

Japan

n

1878,

revealing

he

"hopeless

darkness" f the Oriental

easant's

prim-

itive

ifestyle.

er

descriptions

eferredo a

hierarchy

f

peoples

based

on their

evel

9

Since the discussion

f

the

"Western

mpact"

f Russian iterature

n

Japan

nd

the

resulting

emergence

fmodern

Japanese anguage

nd literaturen

Marleigh

GrayerRyan's

1965work n Rus-

sianist

utabatei

himei,

ur tudies f he

opic

havenot

departed

much rom he

onceptual

ramework

of

Russia's

impact

n the East.

Ryan,

Japan's

FirstModem

Novel:

Ukigumo

f

Futabatei himei

New

York,

1965);

Nobori

Sh6mu

and

Akamatsu

Katsumaro,

he

Russian

mpact

n

Japan:

Literaturend

Social

Thought,

d.

and

trans. eter

Berton,

aul

F.

Langer,

nd

George

O.

Totten

Los Angeles,

981);

Marks,

How Russia

Shaped

the

Modem

World;

nd Thomas

Rimer, d.,

A

HiddenFire:

Russian nd

Japanese

ultural

ncounters,

868-1926

Stanford,

alif.,

1995),

collection

f

essays

y wenty

chol-

ars from

Russia,

Japan,

nd

the U.S.

10

RecentRussian

anguage

tudies

have

successfully

nearthed ew rchival

indings

n relation o

Russian-Japanese

ultural elations.Muchwork

y

Russian

cholars n this ield as reflected

renewed

interest

n

the

history

f the Russian Orthodox hurch ia

ts

activities

n

Japan

nd East Asia.

See,

for

example,

he nformative

eports

n V. S.

Belonenko, d.,

z istorii

eligioznykh,

ul'turnykh

politicheskikh

vzaimootnoshenii

ossii

Iaponii

v

XIX-XX

vekakh

St.

Petersburg, 998).

11On this ulture f internationalelations,ee Beate Jahn,The Cultural onstructionf nterna-

tional

Relations

New

York,

2000).


FEBRUARY

2007




6/31

Reopening

he

"Opening

f

Japan"

105

of

development

n

science,

technology,

nd

Christianity.

rom

a

diplomatic

per-

spective,

measuring

modern

progress

y

a

nation's

capacity

or

mpire-building

n

the nternational

rena,

British

mbassy

ecretary

rnest atow assessed

during

he

Ishin

hat

Japan

would

never

getbeyond

third r fourth

ate

position."

atow saw

the

generalpopulace

as a

major

reason for

Japan's nability

o

improve

ts inter-

national

anking,

ecause

they

seemed to be too muchmere

mitators,

nd

wanting

in

bottom."'2

The

idea

that n interest

n

taking

rom

he outsideworld

was a

sign

of

backwardness

ontrasted

tarkly

with

assessments

y

Russian observers.

Hall,

Bird,

nd

Satow

provide

s with

xamples

f how

Europeans

and

Americans-male

and

female,

rivate

nd

public-shared

a

vision f Western

ivilization nd

progress

that

ncluded

lements

f

tate- nd

empire-building,

ationality

ia

science

nd tech-

nology,

apitalism,

nd

Christianity.

In

contrast,

Mechnikov ttached remendous

meaning

o the ntellectual

chieve-

ments

f the

Tokugawaperiod

1600-1868).

He saw

progressivespects

of

the shin

as the

product

f

social

and cultural

developments

hatwere

alreadyapparent

n

TokugawaJapan.

As someonewhohad been

directly

nvolvedn

revolutionary

ove-

ments cross

Europe,

Mechnikovwas

uniquely

ositioned

o

compare

the

shin at

the

moment

f ts occurrencewith

adical

movements

n

the

West.

His

fascination

with he

"Revolution

n

Asia"

led

him

to

examine

t

meticulously

nd

to

cultivate

an

extensive etwork

f

personal

relationships

ith shin

participants

nd

intellec-

tual

figures

n

Japan.

He furthertood out

in

terms f his

preparedness

n

the

Jap-

anese

language.13Having

attained

fluency

n

Japanese

before

he

went to

Japan,

Mechnikov tudied historical

exts,

iterature,

opular pamphlets,

nd

scholarly

works nmediated

y

ranslation

o

deepen

his

knowledge.

urthermore,

istancing

himself rom he

diplomatic

nd merchant

ommunities

f

the

treaty

orts,

e

based

his observations f Ishin

Japan

on his

experiences

s a

private

visitor

ssentially

without

itizenship,

t

a

timewhenWesterners

ho came to

Japan

wereunder

trict

diplomatic

rotection

nd

patronage.

Mechnikov's shinwas both

rooted

deologically

n

Russian radical

thought

nd

influenced

y

the

perspectives

f those

n

Japan

who had lived

through

t.

Thus,

as

much s Western

nterpretations

f

the shin

were

pecific

o thehistorical

ime nd

space

from

which

hey

merged,

Mechnikov's

ccountswarrant istoricization.

MECHNIKOVADBEENNSTRUMENTALnforminghe argerdiscursivepace ofpop-

ulism,

radical

Russian

political

octrine

f

the 1860s o 1880s.

With

he

heightened

state

of

political

repressions

n

Russia

at

the

time,

Russian

political

dissidents e-

12

Francis

Hall,

Japan

through

merican

yes:

The Journal

f

Francis

Hall,

1859-1866,

ed.

F. G.

Notehelfer

Princeton,

.J.,

1992),

414-415;

Isabella

Bird,

Unbeaten

racks

n

Japan

Boston, 1984);

Ernest

atow,

Letter o

F. V.

Dickens,"

n Tetsuo

Najita,

ed.,

Readings

n

Tokugawa

Thought,

rd ed.

(Chicago,

1998),

297-299.

13

Fully

ntending

o travel

o

Japan

n

order

o

observe he revolution" s it

unfolded,

Mechnikov

went o

the

Sorbonne n 1872 to attend he

onlyJapanese

program

n

Europe.

Mechnikov,

Vospomi-

naniiao dvukhletnei

luzhbe

v

Iaponii,"

n

Shcherbina,

aponiia

na

perelome,

5. Dissatisfiedwith he

poor

quality

nd

slow

pace

of

education t the

Sorbonne,however,

e left orSwitzerland o

seek out

Oyama

wao,

a

military

eader

of the

shin,

for

ne-on-one

tudy.Oyama

was on

assignment

here o

studymilitaryffairs nd French. et he selected he Russianrevolutionaryo be his teacher.The two

became so close that

hey

ecided to room

together.

AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW FEBRUARY

2007




7/31

106

Sho

Konishi

siding

n

Europe provided mouthpiece

or he

populist

ause. Mechnikov

layed

a

leading

role

n this mallbut

ctive

ommunity

f

6migr6s.

e

served

s thetactical

organizer

f the

group's

dissident ctivities

nd as an articulator f ts deas

through

his

many

writings.14

is actions also extended

far

beyond

he immediate

Russian

community;

n

the

1860s

nd

early

870s,

he

participated

n or assisted

evolutionarymovementsnd

uprisings

n

Poland,

Spain,

France,

nd

taly.

n

Italy

he even

fought

and was wounded

s

a

lieutenant

n

Giuseppe

Garibaldi's

military

ampaign

or tal-

ian

unification.15

Impressed

with he

young

adical's

nsights,

he

widely

ead

6migr6

ocial critic

Alexander

Herzen

frequently

ad

Mechnikov

ontribute o his

journal

Kolokol',

which

was

banned

n

Russia. Mechnikov

versaw

he

opening

fthe

ournal's

branch

in

Switzerland.

nstrumental

n

maintaining

he

6migr6s'

irect

nderground

ies to

intellectual

ife

n

Russia,

he

created

nd

ran an

illegal

publications ransport

oute

from

urope

into

Russia,

which

rovided

Russian

readerswithworks rom

he

6m-

igr6 ommunity.16

echnikov's

teps

were

recorded

n

detail and stored

n a thick

file

kept

by

the tsar's ecret

police.

He used a number f rreverent

seudonyms

o

furtherttenuate

his

relationship

o the

state,

hoping

to remind

he Russian

gov-

ernment

s little

s

possible

of

my

xistence."'7

The

larger ommunity

f

Russian ntellectuals

hatMechnikov

elonged

o

ques-

tioned

the

narrative

f

civilizational

rogress

n the

West.

Widely

haring

he

per-

ception

f a

hierarchically

ound

Europe,

Russian ntellectuals

ncreasingly

elieved

that he

revolutionary

ovement

n

the

West

was

incapable

of

creating

n

equitable

and

free

ociety.

f some

had

anticipated

he

possibility

or

new social order

with

the establishment

f the Paris Commune

n

1871,

the

violent

uppression

f the

Communards olidified he beliefthat

much of

Europe

was immature

nd

ill-pre-

pared

fora successful evolution imed at

achieving

ocial

equality

nd

ustice.

Herzen's

influential

ritings

ad

earlier

provided

devastating

nalysis

f the

virtual

mpossibility

fa

revolution

n

much

fWestern

urope,

where

hierarchical

order and

a massive

entralized

overnment

tructure

o

rule over t

were

fully

n

place,

instituted

ver

centuries f

development.

he

problem

with

Europe

lay

not

in the

nstitutionalreation f

freedoms,

hich

he

Russian

ntelligentsia

enerally

considered

o be

successful,

ut

n

the

ngrained

ustoms f

daily

nteraction,

hich

were difficulto

alter.

Mechnikov's

wn account

f his

disenchantment

ith he

rev-

olutionary

movement

n

France echoed

the older Herzen's recollections

f his

ex-

periences

with he

revolutions

n

Europe

decades earlier.Mechnikov

escribed

he

suppression

f theParisCommune

by public

made

up

ofa

privileged

lass

seeking

14

The Russian

ecret

olice

considered

Mechnikov's

ritings

o be

as

dangerous

s

Nikolai

Cherny-

shevskii's What

Is to Be

Done?,"

the so-called

bible of

the

Russian narodniki.

olice

reports

tated

that What s to

Be Done?"

and

Mechnikov's

utobiographicaltory

Bold

Stride,"

which

were

pub-

lished n

the same

issue of

the

ournal

Sovremennik,

aused

the

andmark

ublication

o

be shutdown.

15

Gosudarstvennyi

rkhivRossiiskoi

ederatsii,

oscow

hereafter

ARF),

f.

6753,

op.

1,

d.

383,

1.

34; Mechnikov,

Bakunin

v

Italii,"

storicheskii

estnik,

o. 3

(1897):

824;

"Iz

perepiski

eiatelei

osvoboditel'nogo

vizheniia:

Materialy

z

arkhiva

.

I.

Mechnikov,"

n

Literaturnoe

asledstvo:

z istorii

russkoi

iteratury

obshchestvennoi

ysli

860-1890

gg.

Moscow,

1977),

463;

A. K.

Lishina,

Russkii

garibal'dits,"

n

S.

D.

Skazkin,

d.,

Rossiia

Italiia

(Moscow, 1968).

16

Mikhail

Bakunin,

is'ma

M.

A.

Bakunina

k A.

L

Gertsenu N. P.

Ogarevu

St.

Petersburg, 906),

258.

17GARF, f.5770,op. 1,ed. khr. 56.Among hepseudonymse often sed wereLeonBrandi nd

Emil'

Denegri.


FEBRUARY

2007




8/31

Reopening

he

"Opening fJapan"

107

to maintain

ower

nd the

uneducated,

radition-boundural

masses.18

oming

rom

two

generations

f Russian

ntelligentsia,

he

iterary

nd

theoretically

riented fa-

thers" nd the action-oriented

sons,"

Herzen's and

Mechnikov's deas

represented

a broad swath fRussian

revolutionary

xperience

n

Europe.19

The

European

rev-

olutionwas a failure"had become a cliche withRussian

intellectuals

y

the

early1870s.

For

many,

he source

of a new

revolutionary

ay

of life

ay

withinRussia.

Fol-

lowing

suggestion

y

Herzen

in

1855,

the

agrarian ifestyle

ssociated

with the

Russian

agricultural

ommune ame

to

provide

core

principle

orfuture evel-

opment

nd

revolution.

he Russian

state,

n their

iew,

was a

foreign

mport

hat

had been introduced

y

force,

withno roots n

native radition. he

path

to revo-

lution

n

Russia could

thus be

greatly implified.20

hile the

Russian

commune

served s an

example

f lternative

evelopment

or

he

populist

movement,

twould

be

in Ishin

Japan,

with ts

radical

openness

to

technological hange

and new

deas

from

broad,

thatMechnikovwould

dentify

universal

ossibility

or

cooperatist

anarchist uman

progress

hattranscendedhe

provincialist

laimsof

Slavophils.

Following

his

stay

n

Japan,

he would

acknowledge

he

severe

imitations

f

the

Russian

commune s a model for

ocialist

veryday

ife.21

For Mechnikov

n

the

early

1870s,

he revolutionn

Japanprovided

oth a

real

and a

metaphoric

lternativeo theconservativenessf old

Europe."

He

responded

to the

ongoingdevelopments

n

Japan

with udden

determination:

The

horizon,

hich ad

hung

eavy

nd foul ver

Europe,

hone

n

theFar

East with n

unexpectedlyrightight.

We hadbeen

ccustomedo

thinking

f

Japan]

s an

eternal ul-

wark f

mmobility,

nertia,

nd

stagnation

..

Japan uddenly

tirred,

wakened,

nd

with

unexpected

ife

ame

o meet white

ivilization,"espite heunwise ctions fEurope.22

Mechnikov's esolve o

go

to

Japan

thuswas

not

an

attempt

o

go

"to

the

people,"

in

the ense of

raveling

o

enlighten

hebackwardmasses nd

stir heir

evolutionary

instincts.

ather,

he was interested

n

studying

he

dynamics

f a

progressive

ev-

olution

hat

had

been

accomplished

n

the East.

Other Russians who visited

Japan during

he

Ishin

similarly

escribed

t as a

modern

evolution

nprecedented

n

Asia.

Generally

haring

moral

pprehension

about the conductof

foreigners

n

Japan,

Russians saw

the Western

presence

as

having

isturbed s

much

s

fueled he

progress

hat nsued.

They

describedWest-

ern

Europeans

in

Japan,

from ailors to

diplomats,

s

having

misguided

nder-

18

Hokkaido

University

orthern tudies

Special

Collections,

Hokkaido Colonial Office nd Its

Foreign

Employees,

Advisers,

nd Other

Foreigners:

Correspondence,

ev Mechnikov

eport,

La

France

Sous Mac-Mahon:

R6sum6

politique,"

November

6,

1873.

19

My

use

of "fathers"nd "sons" comesfrom van

Turgenev's

opular

novelon the ocial

problem

in

Russia,

Fathers nd Sons

1862),

which

epicts

wo

generations

f Russian

ntellectuals.Mechnikov

and

Herzen

mutually

espected

ne another.Herzen said thatMechnikovwas

"the

only

one

capable

of

thinking

nd

writing."

Mechnikov,

n

turn,

ften aid of Herzen

that "no man had left

deeper

impression

n his

ife."

A.

I.

Herzen,

obranie

ochinenii,

0 vols.

Moscow,

1954-1965),

28:

10;

and

Olga

Mechnikov,

he

Life of

Elie

Mechnikov,

845-1916

Boston, 1921),

47.

20

Herzen,

Sobranie

ochinenii,

4:

184;

6: 7. Mechnikov ad

similarly

ought

n

embryo

f future

socialist

development

n

the commune

n

the 1860s.

21

By

1881,

Mechnikov

would

criticize he

idealization

f

contemporary

ussia as

some kind of

"good kingdom

f imitless ommunalism."

echnikov,

Obshchina

gosudarstvo

Shveitsarii,"

elo

6 (1881): 227.22

Mechnikov,

Vospominaniia,"

3.

AMERICAN

HISTORICAL REVIEW FEBRUARY

2007




9/31

108

Sho

Konishi

standing

f civilization

nd

progress

nd

failing

o

incorporate

ocial

ustice

and

brotherly

ove

in

their

dea of universal

evelopment.23

ven

the

eading

Russian

Orthodox

missionary

n

Japan,

Nikolai,

who

theoretically

tood on

the

opposite

po-

litical

shore

from

Mechnikov,

eld

remarkably

imilar

iews.

Based on

his

excep-

tionalknowledge

f

theJapanese anguage

nd

history

nd

his

experiences

n

Japan

during

he

shin,

Nikolaiviewed he revolution"

s thedefinitive

eginning

f a new

era of

progress

redicated

n

religious

aith

n

which he West

had

played

only

peripheral

ole.

For

Nikolai,

he

shinwas

not

ust

theviolent

verturning

f an old

sociopolitical

rder,

ut thenatural

roduct

f

a

developed

ommoners'

ociety.

He

wrote

that

the "democratic"

rder of

Japanese

ife not

only

had

developed

over

centuries n home

oil,

butwas more dvanced

han

hat f

the

most

owerful

West-

ern

nations.

ike

Mechnikov,

e

described

he

Japanese

o Russianreaders

s

among

themost

ducated

nd

cultured

eople

in

the

world,

with

highly

eveloped

popular

culture

rooted

n

centuries-old

raditions f

peasant

education.24

GrigoriiBlagosvetlov,ditorof thepopulistournalDelo inSt. Petersburg,e-

lieved

that

Mechnikov ould

provide

n

account

of Ishin

Japan

thatwould

prove

stimulating

o the

publication's

road

readership.

n

a letter

o

Mechnikov,

e wrote:

Leaving

ehind ld

Europe

with er

outines

nd

prejudices,ou

re

etting

ut or

country

that

s

beginning

new

period

f ife. n

Japan,

verything

s

being

e-created

new.

Her

awakening

s a

great

nd

particularly

nteresting

ne for

urope

o

observe

..

Most

m-

portant

or

elo

would e to

give

goodgeneral

iew f

he

deep-seated

eforms

hat

apan

has chieved

nrecent imes.f

ubjected

oa

general

nalysis

nd

well

xplained,

hey

ould

be

edifying

or

s.25

In

keeping

with

he

meaning

f

the

Japanese

term shin s

a

vision

of

constructing

everything

new,

Blagosvetlov

ontrasted

evolutionary apan

with old

Europe.

Meanwhile,

Euro-American

oncepts

f

progress

elegated

he

geographical

pace

of

the

East,

which ften ncluded

Russia,

to

the

temporal

osition

f backwardness.

Karl

Marx,

for

example,objectified

he "East" as

eternally tagnant.

He

wrote

n

Capital

that true

picture

f ancient

r feudal

conomies

n

Western

urope

could

be

deduced

from

close

study

f

the

"primitive

orms" ound

n

contemporary

us-

sia

and

Japan.26

By

redirecting

he

apacity

or

rogress

way

rom he

West,

Russian

ntellectuals

in the1870sbeganto redraw hemapofdevelopmentnd hierarchical rder.With

Japan

een

as a locus

of

tremendous

rogress,

hedivide hatmarked

he

geography

of difference

etween

stagnant

ast

and an

advancedmodernWest

appeared

to

dissolve.

23

See

N.

Bartoshevskii,

aponiia (Ocherki

z

zapisok

uteshestvennika

okrug

veta):

Vzgliad

a

poli-

ticheskuiu

sotsial'nuiuhizn'naroda

St.

Petersburg,868),

nd

M.

Veniukov,

uteshestviepo

riamur'iu,

Kitaiu

Iaponii (Khabarovsk, 970),

271-280.

24

Iermonakh

Nikolai,

"Iaponiia

s

tochki

reniia

khristianskoi

issii,"

Russkii

viestnik

3,

no. 9

(1869):

221-222.

25

GARF,

f.

6753,

op.

1,

ed. khr.

3.

26

Karl Marx,SelectedWritingsIndianapolis,1994),237-239,and Marx,Kapital St. Petersburg,

1872),

616.

AMERICAN HISTORICAL

REVIEW

FEBRUARY

2007




10/31

Reopening

he

"Opening f

Japan"

109

MECHNIKOV'SSTABLISHMENTF

RELATIONSHIPSith

ikeminded

apanese

would ead

to a

meeting

f

shin

nd

revoliutsiian

Japan.

A

physical

meeting

ook

place

between

the Russian

revolutionary

nd

Japanese

radicals.

Simultaneously,

dialectical

re-

lationship

merged, meeting

etween

he

meanings

f shin

nd revolution. new

understanding

fthe shin

s

an

expression

f

cooperative

ivilization ould

develop

out

of

these

revolutionary

etworks.

In

the

years

efore is

departure

or

Japan,

Mechnikov ad

formed lose tieswith

a

number f former

hishi,

evolutionary

amurai

f

the shin

who had

been

sent to

Europe

to earn bout heoutsideworld.His

self-identification

s

a

wounded eteran

ofGaribaldi's

war n

taly,

raphically

llustrated

y

his

pronounced

imp

nd

wooden

heel,

led

his

Japanese

acquaintances

o

identify

im

as an

internationalistnd

a

populist

evolutionary.27

echnikov's

elationships

ith

he

hishiwere established

on an

interpersonal

nd

unofficialasis.He

recalled,

I

conducted ll

my

greements

with

Japanese

n

Europe exclusively

n verbal

fashion,

utside

of

any

official

etting,

andwithoutnywitnesses."28e wassecretlyiven privatenvitationogotoJapan

to

spend

timewith

Saig6

Takamori,

famous hishiwho had

become a charismatic

leader

in

the

new

Meiji government.

echnikovwas

assigned

to work

personally

under

Saigo,

who would serve s his sole

supervisor

nd

patron.

As

part

of

the

n-

vitation,

hich

was facilitated

hrough

aigo's

own

family

etwork,

aig6

Takamori's

younger

rother,

aig6

Tsugumichi,

nvited

Mechnikov o live

with

him n

his

Tokyo

home

during

he

atter's

tay

n

Japan.29

At the

time hat

he

extended he nvitation o

Mechnikov,

aig6

Takamori

had

been

protesting

he

Meiji eadership's ndignified

ureaucratic ssaults

n

the sam-

urai as

excessively

arsh,

articularly

heir

olicies

toward

he

already

oor

country

samurai.Saig6claimed hatbyattackinghewarrior lass thathadfueled hespirit

of the revolution nd

by

implementingverly

mbitious

Westernization

rojects

through reater

entralization

f

the state

bureaucracy,

he

Meiji

leaders had be-

trayed

he dealist

motives t the root

of

the shin. n an

attempt

o revive

sense

of

spiritual ignity

nd

idealism

mong

Japan's

future

eaders,

Saig6

created

spe-

cial school in

Tokyo,

he

Shugijuku,

o

simultaneously

evelop

warrior

thics

nd

teach

foreign nowledge.

e

used

the annual

stipend

he

was awardedforhis ead-

ership

n

the Ishin to foundthe school. The

Shugijuku

n

this

sense, then,

was

a

linkage

point

between

he

nationalfuture nd those who

had died in the

revolu-

tionary

ast.

Saigo

declared

n its

charter hat here

ould be

no

more

appropriate

wayto use hisstipend hanto support school to honorthememoryf thedead,

and to

help

the

iving

repare

o

follow heirnoble

example.30

s an

accomplished

revolutionary,

echnikovwas invited o serve as director

f the

Shugijuku

s

part

of

Saigo's

project

o

revitalize

he

spirit

f

the Ishin.

Mechnikov,

n

turn,

escribed

aigo

as

a

populistrevolutionary

eader

who

was

one of the common

eople.

He

recalledthat

aigo

had

givenup

his mmense

ower

to voice his

opposition

othe

policies

ofthe

Meiji

government

n

orderto

adopt

a

27

Kido

Takayoshi,

ido

Takayoshi

ikki,

ol. 2:

1871-1874

Tokyo, 1983),

337.

28

Mechnikov,

Vospominaniia,"

5.

29

Ibid., 44-45.

30

Ibid.,

28.

Saig6

Takamori,

Saigb

Takamori

zenshui,

6 vols.

(Tokyo,

1976-1980),

3:

333.

AMERICAN

HISTORICAL REVIEW

FEBRUARY 2007




11/31

110

Sho Konishi

simple grarian

ifestyle.31

aig6's

turn o an

agricultural

ay

f ife s an

expression

of

his

beliefs eemedto

fit

with

Mechnikov's

wn

expectations

f

revolutionary

ead-

ership

rooted

n democratic nd

populist

deals.

In

fact,

aigo

resigned

rom he

Meiji

government

ust

beforeMechnikov

rrived

n

Japan,

nd the

Shugijuku

was

closed.

Saigo

would be

propelled

to the head

of

the

nfamous

atsuma

Rebellion,

inwhichhe led

forty

housand

roops

ooverthrowhe

Meiji

government

oon after

Mechnikov's

rrival.

Instead,

Mechnikov

wouldfulfill

is

assignment

o

nspire

evolutionary

dealism

among

his

students s

an instructor

f Russian

at

the

Tokyo

School

of

Foreign

Lan-

guages

(TSFL),

a

major

center

for

Russian

anguage

training.32

s the

primary

n-

structor

or

upper-level

ourses,

he established

program

hat

aught

istory

rom

below

and

the Russian

iterary

raditions

f

polemicism,

atire,

nd critical

ealism,

a curriculum hatwould

be maintained

or

years

thereafter

y

fellow

Russian rev-

olutionaries

who

came

to

teach at

the

school.33

fter

Mechnikov's

rrival,

he

pro-

gram

became

an autonomous

pace

within

he

university

hat

ome students

den-

tifiedwith s an

expression

f

revolutionary

dealism.

Many

tudentsame to view

this

space

as

separate

from he state

and its

nation-buildingrojects.

While an instructor

t

TSFL,

Mechnikov

eveloped

extensive

elationships

ith

people

whom

he

described

s "the

most

mportant

eaders

of the

Japanese pro-

gressive

movement."34

hey

were

eadersofthe

Freedom

nd

People's

Rights

Move-

mentfor

ocial

equality

nd

popular

politicalparticipation,

hichwas

gaining

mo-

mentum

hroughout

apan.

Within

few

years

of

Mechnikov's

departure

from

Japan,

ctivists

n

the

movement

would

organize

lmost

two hundred

olitical

o-

cieties

cross

he

ountry.

ne

of

the

most

rominent

f

those

with

whom

Mechnikov

established

a

relationship

was the

theoretical

eader

of the

movement,

Nakae

Ch6min,

hen

president

fTSFL.

In

their

private

nteractions

ith

Mechnikov,

he activists

rovided

himwith

unique

source

of

knowledge

bout

theirmovement.

s he

himself

ould

acknowl-

edge,

much of

his

understanding

f Ishin

Japan

depended

on both his

directob-

servations

nd his

private

elationships

ith

wide

range

of

Japanese

friends nd

acquaintances

rom

ll

walksof

ife.

His

interpretation

f

the shin hus

would come

as much from

his

acquaintances

s

from

his

own

expectations

nd

personal expe-

riences. Mechnikov

escribed

he

extraordinary

are

his

Japanese

friends

ook

to

guide

him n

developing

is

knowledge

f

shin

Japan:

I

affectionatelyuarded

my

acquaintances]every

day

and

exploited

hem

unscrupulously

or the

profit

f

my

studies."35 is interaction ith

Japanese

from nonhierarchical

erspective

haped

31

Mechnikov,

Vospominaniia,"

4-45.

The

scholarship

n

Saig6

has

neglected

his

spect

of

his

thoughts

nd activities etween

873

and 1877.

Scholars

have

treated

aigo

during

his

eriod

s either

preparing

or ivilwar

or

retiring

ompletely.

harles

L. Yates

suggests

hathis nterest

n

adopting

n

agrarian

ifestyle

t this ime

ppears

o have

been

quite

erious.

Yates,

Saigb

Takamori:

he

Man

behind

the

Myth

London,

1995).

32

Peter

Berton,

aul

Langer,

nd

Rodger

wearingen,

apanese

raining

ndResearch

ntheRussian

Field

(Los

Angeles,1956),

16.

3

Thanks

o the staff t

the

Municipal

Archive f

Hokkaido

for

helping

me to

photograph

ojima

Kurataro's

lass

notes of Mechnikov's

ectures

held

in the

Kojima

Kurataro

Collection.

34

Mechnikov

etter

o

Mikhail

vgrafovich

altykov-Shchedrin,

n

Saltykov-Shchedrin,

iteraturnoe

nasledstvo,

02

vols.

Moscow,

1931-2000),

13-14: 361-362.

35Mechnikov,Vospominaniia,"2-34,and LevMechnikov,'EmpireJaponaise: ays-Peuple-His-

toire

Geneva,

1878),

v.

AMERICAN

HISTORICAL

REVIEW

FEBRUARY 2007




12/31

Reopening

he

"Opening

f

Japan"

111

his

knowledge

f

the

event s a revolution rom

within,

nd

informed im

of

the

corresponding

xpectationsmong

many

n

Japan,

ooted n

revolutionary

deals,

for

equality

nd

cooperation

n the

ndividual,

ocietal,

nd

international

evels. n

this

way,

Mechnikov's

riginal

dea

of

revoliutsiia,

ooted

n

the

claims

of

Russian

pop-

ulism,

fused

with

he

actualities

f

the Ishin

tself nd was

further

haped by

the

understanding

f shin

mong

those who had led or

experienced

t.

In

turn,

he TSFL

Russian

program

would

mpart

nowledge

bout the

Russian

revolutionary

ovement

o the Freedom and

People's

Rights

Movement.

After

Mechnikov ssumed the

directorship

f

the

program,

series

of former

opulist

prisoners

nd

political

xilesfromRussia took

teaching

ositions

here.36

ixty-five

books on Russian

populism

were

published

n

Japan

n

1881-1883

lone,

and

news-

papers

werefilled

with

eports

bout the

revolutionary

ctivitiesn

Russia.37

Among

the

bestselling

ooks in

Japan

during

his

period

was an

account of the

Russian

revolutionary

ovement ritten

y

Mechnikov's

lose friend

ergei Stepniak

hat

had been

translated or hose nvolvedwith

he movement n

Japan.

A

student f

Mechnikov's,MuramatsuAizo,would ead one of the most nfamousncidents f

the

movement,

he

ida

Uprising.38articipants

inked heir

wn

movement o

res-

urrect he

perceived

nfulfilled

romises

or

quality

n

the

Ishin

with

he

revolu-

tionary

movement

n

Russia.

Saigo's

concernwith

estoring

he

spirit

f the shin

had,

by

virtue

f

his

nviting

a Russian

revolutionary

o

Japan,

given

the

movement new

global

meaning

for

human

progress

nd

civilization.

n

boththe

physical

nteractions etween

Russian

and

Japanese

adicals

nd

the

resulting

oalescing

f

meanings,

shin

met

evoliutsiia.

Thiswas a

novel

meeting

hat

rose

n

the

particular

istorical

uncture

f

the

Meiji

Ishin and the Russian

revolutionary

movement

n

the

wider world

context. t

emerged

eyond

he

magined

ivide etween backward ndtraditional rient nd

a

progressive

nd

civilizedWest.

MECHNIKOV'S

IRST

AYS

N

JAPANere

an

unsettling

ncounter

with otal

nstability.

He heard

reports

verywhere

bout

an

outbreak f

uprisings

n

the

outh.

A

number

of

Ishin

leaders withwhom he had

associated in

Switzerland

were involved.

His

patron, aigo,

had

resigned

rom is

post

and

left

okyo.39

"My

situation

was

made

all

the

more

desperateby mycomplete

ack of

knowledge,

my nability

o

orient

myself,"Mechnikovwrote f thechaos he found nJapan.40What he knewabout

36

Watanabe

Masaji,

a

professor

f

Russian

at

Tokyo University

f

ForeignLanguages

formerly

TSFL),

documents he

"populist

pirit"

hat ontinued t

the school after

Mechnikov

n

"Mechinikofu

to Muramatsu

Aiz6,"

n

Hara

Teruyuki

nd

Togawa

Tsuguo,

ds.,

Surabu o

nihon

Tokyo,1995),

133-

156.

Andrei

Kolenko,

for

xample,

who

taught

t

TSFL for

more

than

ix

years,

had

been

imprisoned

and exiledforhis

political

ctivities.

n

his recitation

lass,

tudentswere

asked to memorize

nd recite

poems

subversive f the

existing

ociopolitical

stablishment,

ften

eflecting

adical

populist

hought

or

recalling

he ife

fthe

political

xile.Other

political

migr6s

ho

taught

n

TSFL's Russian

program

wereS.

Iu.

Gotskii-Danilovich,

ikolai

Gray,

nd

Aleksandr

tepanovich ogomolov.

okuritsu

obun-

rokumonbusho o

bu,

March

3,

Meiji

9

(1876),

2A-25-1768;

ecember

11,

Meiji

9

(1876).

37 Asukai

Masamichi,

Roshia dai

chiji

akumei o

K6toku

hilsui,"

hiso

520

October1967):

1328.

38

Watanabe,

"Mechinikofuo

Muramatsu

Aizo."

39Mechnikov,Vospominaniia,"2-47.

40

Ibid.,

45.

AMERICAN

HISTORICAL

REVIEW

FEBRUARY

2007




13/31

112

Sho Konishi

FIGURE 1:

Lev

Mechnikov

n

samurai dress.

Photograph

ourtesy

f the State Archive of the Russian Fed-

eration.

An

examination

f Mechnikov'sencounterwith shin

Japan suggests

hat he identifiedwith shin

samurai not as relics of

Oriental

difference,

ut as cohortsfor

revolutionary hange.

AMERICAN

HISTORICAL REVIEW

FEBRUARY 2007




14/31

Reopening

he

"Opening

fJapan"

113

the

shin

and

Japanesehistory

rom

eading

European

books

and

ournals

was

not

enough

o

prepare

himforwhathe witnessed nd

experienced

n

Japan.

Mechnikov

would be led to describe

he

shin s

a

conflict-ridden

nd

multilayered

xperience,

full

f

contradictions

nd

competing

laims

bout

ts

meaning

or

Japan's

future.

ut

of

theseobservations ouldcome his

particular

ascination ithwhat

he

saw

as the

social foundation or revolutionrom

within,

henature fwhich eemedtobe the

opposite

of the

path

of centralization

nd

bureaucratizationaken

by

Japanese

po-

litical eaders.41

Mechnikov iewed

Japan's

revolution s

offering

he West

a

model

for

radical

social reform.

e

observed he institutional

nd

social elimination f hierarchical

class structures

nd

the creation

f

vast arenas of social

mobility

orthe common

people.

He

further

oted that access to new

knowledge

had

opened

up

on

a vast

scale.42After

raveling

cross

Japan,

taying

t ruralhomes and

visiting

lebeian

quarters

f

the

cities,

s

well

as factories

nd the Ashio

copper

mine,

he

wrote,

It

is

impossible

ot to

be

surprised

t her unusual

transformation.

his

is a

completeand radical

revolution,

hekindwe know

only

from

istory

.. Not a

single

branch

of social and

political

ife

has remaineduntouched

n this

revolution."43

Mechnikov's iscussions fthehistorical

evelopments

ithin

apan

hat

had

led

up

to

the

shinwere

remarkably

etailed.

He noted

that

ommentators

ad

overly

exaggerated

he nfluence f American nd

European

interference

n

Japanese

af-

fairs.

He

also

refuted he testimonies f other

foreign

witnesseswho

explained

he

Ishin as

simply

reactionary

prising gainst

trade

agreements

with

foreigners.

Mechnikov elieved

that he shin had

arisen

out

of

cumulative

omestic

dissatis-

faction nd strife

nd

was

only

xacerbated

y

the

foreign resence.44

t was a

con-

scious

response

rom broad-based

onstituency

o theneed for

progressive,

iberal

reforms,hich

hey

elievedwouldbe instituted ith heoverthrowfthe

Tokugawa

government.

he so-called

patriots,

r

shishi,

who

emerged

rom he

educated class

had defined

heir

oal

as

overthrowing

he

shogunate

nd

the entire

olitical

rder

that ame with

t.

Mechnikov old his readers hat he hishi ame from

variety

f

economic

backgrounds,

nd

could

be identified

mainly y

their

iteracy

nd

edu-

cation.He

pointed

ut that

hey

ad a

shared ocial

consciousness,

nd were

willing

to

giveup

their tatus or

he

bettermentf

society

s

a

whole.45 he leaders of

the

revolution erecommittedo

"change

nd

replace

not

only

he

political

tructures,

but lso the

very

ocial

essence

of

Japanese

ife."46 he Ishinwas

thusnot

ust

about

41

For

example,

Mechnikov bserved hose

Japanese

lites

strolling

ownParisian

oulevards,"

nd

their

eaders,

"erecting rogress

nd

centralization

ccording

o

the

Napoleonic

model,"

as

"having

hardly

ny understanding

f the details and

particularities

f

Japanese

ife."

bid.,

31-32.

42

See,

for

example,

bid.,

67-68; Mechnikov,

Era

prosveshcheniia

aponii,"

76-77; Mechnikov,

"Era

iaponskogo rosveshcheniia,"

n

Shcherbina,

aponiia

na

perelome,

22-123.

43

Mechnikov,

Era

prosveshcheniia

aponii,"

76.

44

Mechnikov,

Vospominaniia,"

6-47; Mechnikov,

Era

prosveshcheniia

aponii,"

88.

45

In

Elis6e

Reclus,ed.,

Nouvelle

eographie

niverselle,

9

vols.

Paris,

1876-1894),

7:

847;

Mech-

nikov,

Era

prosveshcheniia

aponii,"

92-93.

Japanese

historians

ave

since found hat

considerable

number f revolutionariesn the shincame from

wealthy pper-class

arm amilies.

ee,

for

xample,

Haga

Noboru,

Bakumatsu

okugaku

o

kenkyiu

Tokyo,1978).

On the

development

f

Tokugawa-era

literary

etworks

hat

would

serve

to unite radicals nd revolutionariescross status

ines,

see

Eiko

Ikegami,

onds

of Civility:

esthetic etworksnd thePolitical

Origins fJapanese

Culture

New

York,

2005).46

Mechnikov,

Era

prosveshcheniia

aponii,"

80.

AMERICAN

HISTORICAL REVIEW FEBRUARY

2007




15/31

114

Sho Konishi

a

single

eader

seizing

power,

or

a

coup by

self-serving

lites,

s

most

Westerners

believed;

t was a social and

political

evolution

ith ll

the

attendant

emands

nd

expectations.

At

the

same

time,

herevolution

ecessitated

uccessful ocial

evolution.

apan's

arrival

n

the

stage

of world ivilization

as

not an

arbitrary

ctor a historical

c-

cident,

ut"an unavoidableresult f

Japanese

ife tself."47

hroughout

isvarious

writings

bout

the

Ishin,

for

example,

Mechnikov

repeatedly

drew

upon

Oshio

Heihachiro's 1837

"democratic"

prising,

s he

called

it,

as a

symbolic

ction that

disclosed

the accumulation f

ntellectual

evelopments

verthe course

of the To-

kugawa

period.48

t

was

the result

not of a

collisionbetween

primitive,

solated

society

nd an advanced

civilization,

e

said,

but of historical

evelopments

ithin

Japan

thathad

been under

way

for

centuries.

Mechnikov

iscovered hat

ven amid tremendous

olitical

nd social

chaos,

the

common

eople

were

able to

go

about

their

aily

ives

without

irection

rom bove.

He notedthat

physical

aborers

n

Japan

had

a

remarkably

eveloped

onsciousness

of social

participation,

qual

to that n other ectors f

society.

ne ofhis

strongest

impressions

as of the

proud

nd

confident

oatmenwho

had

greeted

his

ship

when

it first

rrived.

hey

were

"brilliantly

attooed

nd

stately igures,

hose

nakedbod-

ies

were

covered

with

bright

white,

lue,

and red

images

of

female

faces,

dragons,

flowers,

ossilized

n

fantastic

rabesques."49

ody

tattoos

or irezumi

ad become

popular

n the seventeenth

entury mong

aborers.

Usuallytelling

story

hrough

theirmulticolored

esigns,

hey

were

a

response

to

Tokugawa

aws

that dictated

clothing tyles

n thebasis

of

class.

Laborers

who

wanted

o

express niqueness

ften

shed their

government-sanctioned

ommoners'

arb

and instead

wore

nothing

t

all-except

for he tattoos

hat overed

heir odies.50

Mechnikov

ound

n

the tat-

toosan

expression

fwit, esthetic aste, nd social

pride.

He

conveyed

ohisreaders

that

these

people

were

not the

legendary

epressed

nd

cowering

ark masses

of

Oriental

espotism,

ut

vocal

commoners,

nthusiastic

ndividuals

ith

ride

n

their

labor

for

ociety.

Mechnikov eemed

to

have

stumbled

pon

the

bright

masses of

revolution.51

For

Mechnikov,

he shinwas the

revolution f

he

entury.

hat ocial revolution

was

the

result

f cumulative ocial

and intellectual

volution

was further

videnced

by

the

voluntary ooperative

ssociationsthat

he encountered

cross

Japan.

He

foundurban

groups

of volunteers

who worked

from

heir

home

regions

s

part

of

an

activenetwork

nvolvedwith

mutual id.

In this

oluntary

upport

ystem,

ech-

47

Mechnikov,

Era

iaponskogo

prosveshcheniia,"

16-117,

134.

48

Mechnikov,

Era

prosveshcheniia

aponii,"

86;

Mechnikov,

Era

iaponskogo rosveshcheniia,"

117.

49

Mechnikov,

Vospominaniia,"

7.

50

Mechnikov,

Era

prosveshcheniia

aponii,"

55-56.

Meanwhile,

merican

nd British ravelers

o

Japan argely

aw the tattoos

s an

exotic,

avage

custom

reminiscent

f

an

uncivilized,

f

dealized,

Nature.

ChristineM.

E.

Guth,

Longfellow's

attoos:

Tourism,

ollecting,

nd

Japan

Seattle,

Wash.,

2004),

142-158.

51

This

viewof a

developed

ocial and

political

onsciousness

mong

ommoners

uring

his

eriod

is echoed n morerecent

tudies fcommoners'

articipation

n theFreedom nd

People's

Rights

Move-

ment. rokawa

Daikichi and

Roger

Bowen attribute

widespread

olitical

onsciousness

nd

desire

for

social

and

political

equality

o substantial

opular

organization

nd

participation

n the movement.

Irokawa,TheCulturef heMeijiPeriod Princeton, .J., 984);RogerBowen,Rebellion ndDemocracy

in

Meiji

Japan

Berkeley,

Calif.,

1980).

AMERICAN

HISTORICAL

REVIEW

FEBRUARY 2007




16/31

Reopening

he

"Opening f

Japan"

115

II,

-A

?i

I: II

:i

E;_Jr.~

Pr ,

,"

i

7.}-

JAi'PO.\l

"'.TOUi.

bes,ilu de E. llonjnt, d'alrW6"

une

Photogrn.I'llie.

FIGURE : Tattooed laborer.

llustration or

he

entry

n

Japan

n

Reclus, ed.,

Nouvelle

eographie

niverselle,

7:

769,

which relied

heavily

n Mechnikov's ontribution.

nikov

aw therootedness f

cooperative ractice

n

everyday

xistence. e observed

thatwhen he new

Meiji government

ailed o

provide

nstitutional

upport

or he

demographic

hift o urban

enters,

he

economy epended

on these nformal

ocal

networksohelpthose nneed. Studentsttendingchoolsfarfrom omebenefited

from

oluntaryooperative

ssociations

ack n

their

ometowns,

hich

ooled

vil-

AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW FEBRUARY

2007




17/31

116 Sho Konishi

lagers'

money

o

help

pay

for heir tudies.

he

expressions

f

mutual

id

that

Mech-

nikov

aw

as

integral

o

the

revolutionary

mergence

f

modern

Japan

were rooted

in

Tokugawa

ntellectual raditions.52

Mutual aid

as a

progressive

endency

n Ishin

Japan

was indicated

y people's

tremendous

ill

o earn nd to

activelycquire

new

knowledge

nd

techniques

rom

others.The act of

learning

was thusnotan

expression

f

nferiority

nrelation o

the

object

of

study,

ut

an indication

f

progressiveness

f

thought.

Mechnikov e-

scribed the

active,

bold,

selective

acquisition

f

European

methods

nd

ideas as

evincing

cooperative

thic

that,

hrough

willingness

o learn

from

he

outside

world nd to establish

mutually

eneficial

elationswith

thers,

as nstrumental

or

civilizational

rogress.

e

emphasized

hat

cquiring

nowledge

as a conscious ct

that he

earner

electively

manipulated

s a tool

fornational

well-being,

ather han

an

inevitable ivineflow

f

reason

from ivilized o

uncivilized,

West to

East.53

n-

stead

of

serving

s

a

Documents

Sho Konishi - Russian-Japanese Revolutionary Encounter