INTERNAL CRISIS, EXTERNAL PRESSURE Keywords + other notes Flashcards
Kansei Reforms
1787-1793
The Kansei Reforms had a profoundly negative effect on the popular literature of the time.
Targeted at books that were deemed as promoting immoral or anti-authority material were banned. including pornography
Trying to control ideology
the man behind it: Matsudaira Sadanobu (1759-1829), the chief senior councilor of the Tokugawa
Shogunate from 1787-1793.
Waning of Neo-Confucianism in favor of the “new schools” (such as Sorai school)
Promotion of Neo-Confucianism as orthodoxy — ban on “heterodox learning”
Neo-Confucianism is the foundation for the SPAM system;
while new schools/movements launched outright attacks
against it.
Sadanobu defined scholarship (learning) as the activity
whereby a person learns to become a full human within SPAM — other movements were against this.
Controlling medical technology, Dutch learning, and limiting it to “approved” scholars
Kansei Reforms — Ban on Heterodox Learning
Waning of the Hayashi school of Neo-
Confucianism
Limiting medical teachings and Dutch
learning
Shogunate staking its claim to ultimate authority over academic/technological
development
Tenpō Crisis
1830-1844
one of the most important in the fragmentation of the Tokugawa system
Despite being one of the greatest periods of cultural flowering in the arts as well as intellectually, it was also the period that exposed the Bakufu’s increasing inadequacy in dealing with crises
Massive starvation and inflation across Japan.
Civil Disorder and many instances of popular protests
Mass pilgrimages called okagemairi (Ise Shrine - happened every 60 years)
Rural unrests cutting across SPAM
Urban unrests called “ee janai ka”
Perry’s Black Ships
July 8, 1953
By demanding that Japan open its ports or otherwise face a military assault, Perry’s demand would eventually be called “gun-boat diplomacy”
Shogun Directed Perry to
Nagasaki
Opening of Ports in 1859
Inability of Shogunate/Bakufu
to deal with trade control
Perry’s Black Ships — Harris Treaty
Perry’s opening of Japan will eventually lead to the Harris Treaty of 1856, which contained a series
of unequal treaties
Other “Western” nations would eventually also be given the same privileges.
Japan entered the world trade system at the high point of greatest growth, when English industrial revolution was spurring on great trade expansion
the Opium War between the British and the Qing dynasty, were of
critical importance for the “opening” of Japan
Bakumatsu Period
the opening of the ports to “western” traders brought a flood of foreign goods and coinage as well as a large new market for Japanese tea and silk
Bakufu efforts to monopolize the profits from the trade — drew opposition from powerful vassals who were able to draw on foreign protests and speeded the erosion of confidence and
control
Ultimately, external imperialism critically crippled the traditional bases of the Tokugawa strength
Bakumatsu Period — Shishi
“Men of higher purpose”
Rōnin who then began gathering in Kyoto and other major cities
Outer fringe of SPAM
Loyalism wedded with anti-foreignism: sonnō jōi
Xenophobia and ignorance amongst the two-sworded shishi meant that experts of foreign knowledge were constantly targeted.
Bakumatsu Social Protests
From 1831-1836, wave of
unprecedented social protest
From 1830-1844: 465 Rural disputes,
445 peasant uprisings, 101 urban
riots
Kansei Reforms — Economical
Based on Kyōhō reforms
Increase Productivity of the farms in the countryside
Rebuild rural production
Curb countryside-city migration
Policies targeting families / populace
Targeting corruption
Removal of incompetent countryside officials and appointing
new ones
Cancellation of Samurai Debt
Enlisting Merchant Allies
Promoting Frugality and Proper Moral Order (i.e. respect the
hierarchy)
Result: unsuccessful – treated the surface issues without touching
the root structural problems
Lead up to Meiji Restoration
Gradual collapse of Tokugawa shogunate rule
Bakufu tried to mend relations with the tozama clans and also with Kyoto
Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Named after Emperor Meiji
Growing concern with Kokugaku
Aizawa — National essence, National Character, National (Natural) State
