Kawai Tsugunosuke's 1859 Journey to Yokohama and Nagasaki
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by KnowledgeBank at OSU EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008 Encountering the World: ally unknown to English-language readership, making only sporadic appearances in texts de- Kawai Tsugunosuke’s voted, mainly, to other bakumatsu subjects. 2 1859 Journey to Yokohama Placing Tsugunosuke center-stage in an examina- tion of the debate over the “opening” of Japan in and Nagasaki the mid-nineteenth century means attuning our ears to that minority of voices which advocated a conciliatory position in regards to the issue of © Laura Nenzi, Florida International internationalism; it also means opening our eyes University* to (yet more) evidence that mass hysteria and rampant xenophobia, however prominent, were not the sole and inevitable outcomes of Japan’s encounter with the world. Tsugunosuke’s near- The samurai Kawai Tsugunosuke (1827– total absence from English-language scholarship 1868) is the subject of numerous Japanese- may indeed be attributed, partially, to the sheer language monographs, the protagonist of histori- number of sources dealing with the issue of Ja- cal fiction, the hero of TV dramas and documen- pan’s position vis-à-vis foreign cultures: virtually taries, and the main attraction in a Nagaoka (Nii- 1 everyone, from commoners to the educated elites, gata prefecture) museum. He is, however, virtu- from government diplomats to base-born rural 3 women, had an opinion and a suggestion. In this * I would like to thank Morgan Pitelka, Philip Brown, Gregory Smits, and the three anonymous 2 Harold Bolitho introduces Tsugunosuke in his readers for their encouragement, suggestions, “The Echigo War, 1868,” Monumenta Nipponica, and constructive criticism. Vol. 34, No. 3 (Autumn 1979): 259–277. The A note about dates: throughout the manuscript, article, however, is mostly a piece on military dates are provided using the lunar calendar em- history and Tsugunosuke appears only toward ployed in the early modern period. To facilitate the end. Moreover, Bolitho does not delve into cross-referencing with the western calendar, the Tsugunosuke’s earlier life experiences, focusing corresponding Gregorian dates are indicated in mostly on his actions in the year 1868, before parenthesis. and during the Echigo War. 3 For the sake of conciseness, I have chosen not 1 The foremost historian of Tsugunosuke is Andō to include direct quotations of the various Hideo, whose works include Kawai Tsugunosuke xenophobic voices of mid-nineteenth century (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha, 1973); Japan, mostly because they are readily available Chiritsubo: Kawai Tsugunosuke nikki (Tokyo: and generally well-known. Some of the works I Heibonsha, 1974); Teihon Kawai Tsugunosuke have in mind when I argue that virtually anyone (Tokyo: Shirakawa Shoin, 1977); Kawai had an opinion include the following: for the Tsugunosuke shashinshū (co-edited with reaction of commoners, M. William Steele’s Yokomura Katsuhiro; Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu “Goemon’s New World View: Popular Ōraisha, 1986); Kawai Tsugunosuke no shōgai Representations of the Opening of Japan” in M. (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha, 1987); Kawai William Steele, Alternative Narratives in Tsugunosuke no subete (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Modern Japanese History (London and NY: Ōraisha, 1997). For historical fiction, see Shiba Routledge Curzon, 2003), pp. 4–18. Studies in Ryōtarō’s novel Tōge (The Pass, 1968). TV the intellectual history of late Tokugawa Japan dramas and documentaries include Saigo no are simply too numerous to cite—see for samurai Kawai Tsugunosuke (1999) and Kawai example Harry D. Harootunian, Toward Tsugunosuke: Kakenuketa sōryū (2005). The Restoration: The Growth of Political museum dedicated to Tsugunosuke is the Kawai Consciousness in Tokugawa Japan (Berkeley: Tsugunosuke Kinenkan University of California Press, 1970) and Things (http://www.tsuginosuke.net/). Seen and Unseen: Discourse and Ideology in 68 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008 cacophonous chorus of cries for reform and calls mized Japan’s intellectual openness, ability for for the expulsion of the barbarians, of grandilo- tolerance, and quest for intelligent compromise quent declarations of intents and vitriolic verbal in light of the profound changes and great chal- exchanges, Tsugunosuke’s voice may have been lenges of the mid-nineteenth century. lost, but it was certainly not muted at the time. A poised, genuinely inquisitive, and broadminded Tsugunosuke’s Intellectual Journey participant in the debate over foreign encroach- Kawai Tsugunosuke (rarely read ment, Tsugunosuke used intellectual curiosity as Tsuginosuke) was born and raised in Nagaoka an antidote against irrational fears of the un- domain, Echigo province.4 With an income of known and, as a result, his reactions before the 120 koku, the Kawai family was moderately foreign are characterized by a refreshing degree wealthy and would have placed, as Ōta Osamu of openness and fearlessness. Whereas many of points out, “low among high-ranking samurai, his contemporaries demonized the foreign Other and high among middle-ranking ones.” 5 and prophesized catastrophic scenarios, crying Tsugunosuke’s father, Kawai Daiemon, had foul and plotting heroic actions, Tsugunosuke served the domain and its rulers, the Makino rejected fanaticism in favor of pragmatism. His family, in the Arms Office (obuki yakusho) and intellectual journey emerges more clearly from as Head of Accounting (kanjō gashira); not only the journal of his 1859 trip as well as from the a bureaucrat, he also practiced Zen and the tea letters he exchanged with his family members ceremony, and enjoyed composing Chinese-style while away from home. At a time when, by and poems. He was, like many samurai of the large, that which came from outside of Japan’s Tokugawa period, “a man of letters more than a borders was exorcised by way of mockery, stig- warrior.”6 matized by way of demonization, or exoticized Tsugunosuke received his formal education by way of “Othering,” Tsugunosuke came to em- in the domain’s academy, the Sūtokukan, where brace the foreign and to cherish the prospect of he was first introduced to the Confucian classics; cross-cultural exchanges. He actively investi- he was also trained in sword- and spear-fighting, gated, eagerly asked questions, meticulously archery, horse-riding, and administration. 7 In took notes, thoroughly considered the implica- 1852, at age twenty-six (by Japanese counting), tions of introducing foreign customs, and even- he traveled to Edo to further his education. He tually outlined the benefits of Japan’s encounter began training under Saitō Setsudō (1796–1865), with the world. His writings tell, by example, the whose academy was renowned for its Neo- story of a small group of thinkers who epito- Confucian studies. However, Saitō’s approach did not provide Tsugunosuke with the focus on Tokugawa Nativism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988). More recently, see Susan 4 The yearly income of the domain was 74,000 Burns, Before the Nation: Kokugaku and the koku, which placed Nagaoka among the top three Imagining of Community in Early Modern Japan wealthiest domains in the province. Harold (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003) and Bolitho, “The Echigo War, 1868,” p. 260. Mark McNally, Proving the Way: Conflict and 5 Ōta Osamu, Kawai Tsugunosuke to Meiji ishin Practice in the History of Japanese Nativism (Niigata-shi: Niigata Nippō Jigyōsha, 2003), p. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University 39. Asia Center, 2005). For diplomacy, see Michael 6 Ishihara Kazuaki, Ryōchi no hito Kawai R. Auslin, Negotiating with Imperialism: The Tsugunosuke: gi ni iki gi ni shinan (Tokyo: Ni- Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese hon Keizai Hyōronsha, 1993), p. 2. Diplomacy (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard 7 Inagawa Akio, “Hokuetsu no fūunji Kawai University Press, 2004). Finally, Anne Walthall Tsugunosuke,” Ryōzen rekishikan kiyō, 11 describes the political activities of a peasant (1998): 3–14. Dōmon Fuyuji, “Ore ga ore ga no woman in The Weak Body of a Useless Woman: kenka shitei,” Ushio 4 (April 2005): 222–227. Matsuo Taseko and the Meiji Restoration Ishihara Kazuaki, Ryōchi no hito Kawai (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). Tsugunosuke, p. 13. 69 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008 economics he desired, so he eventually dropped ars abound. In truth, many of them could be my out.8 The following year he enrolled in the Edo teachers, inexperienced as I am. But while many academy of Koga Sakei (1816–1884), an have made of learning their profession, those authority in Chinese and Western studies (he [devoted to] practical learning (jitsugaku), those would later become head of the “Institute for the who combine talent and virtue, are few and far Study of Barbarian Books,” or bansho between.”11 In the same letter he expressed his shirabesho). 9 At this stage he also became intention to leave Edo and travel to Matsuyama acquainted with Sakuma Shōzan (1811–1864), domain, in faraway Bitchū province, in order to from whom he received training in western continue his studies under Yamada Hōkoku military science and the use of firearms. (1805–1877), a scholar whose work he “truly During Tsugunosuke’s stint in Edo, admired” (jitsu ni kanshin tsukamatsuri sōrō).12 Commodore Perry paid his first visit, arriving at Hōkoku, a prominent Wang Yangming (Ōyōmei- Uraga on 1853/6/3 (July 8, 1853). On that gaku) expert trained under Satō Issai (1772– occasion Tsugunosuke submitted a memorial on 1859), had opened his private school in 1838.