H381 Late Tokugawa Sense of Crisis

1. Recap of Mito Critique

A. Fujita Yukoku (1773-1826)

i. applied naiyu-gaikan phrase to Japan's situtation

-naiyu= crisis in managerial/samurai class

= popular unrest 400 incidents between 1813-1868

= financial problems

-gaikan=foreign penetration

ii. saw failures of his day as moral failures

-failure to provide jinsei or "benevolent government"

-failure of leaders to maintain taigi-meibun or correct

hierarchical relationships

iii. brought in sonno--reverence for emperor-- into vocabulary

B. Aizawa Seishisai (1781-1863) focuses on GAIKAN

i. Japan seen as weak and vulnerable: must unite & be strong

ii. must inculcate will to resist "put the entire nation in the face of inevitable death"

iii. responsibility of Tokugawa must be for all Japan, not just domain

iv. coined jo-i phrase: "Expel the Barbarian"

C. Fujita Toko (1806-1855)

i. brought sonno and jo-i together as critique of baku-han system

ii. calls for moral rearmament: restore vigor to samurai class

 

iii. but for this need new education, new leadership, "Men of Talent"

2. Limitations of Mito Critique

A. Thought in traditional terms, responded with classical formulae:

-promote the worthy

-reestablish hierarchies

B. Saw problems as moral, not social, political, economic or technological

3. Oshio Heihachiro's Urban Rebellion 1837

4. Opium Wars in China 1839-42

5. The notion of KAIKOKU or "Opening Japan"

 

A. Dutch scholars like Takano Choei etc & Sakuma Shozan (1811-64)

i. pragmatic: denied morals could help

 

ii. "Foreign learning is rational; Chinese learning is not."

 

iii. it's the technology, stupid! Coastal defenses lack method

 

iv. Japan must learn from west

 

v. coined the "Eastern Morals, Western Science" phrase

 

vi. alternative version of jo-i

 

6. Tempo Reforms 1841-43

7. The Coming of Perry 1853-54