On 8 July 1853, a US Navy warship anchored in the bay off the Japanese capital Edo. Its commander, Admiral Perry, had an important diplomatic mission – to deliver to the Japanese authorities a letter from US President Millard Fillmore, in which America made a “friendly” appeal to the Eastern Empire for international cooperation and the opening up of the country. “Friendship, trade, coal supply and protection of American shipwrecked men” were the demands Perry conveyed to the Japanese Shogun, the military ruler. He gave him time to think and promised to return soon. If the Japanese hesitated too much, he also assured him that the next time the fleet would be larger and much less friendly. Thus began the forced return of the Land of the Rising Sun from isolation and the transition from feudal to modern society.
For 250 years, Japan was almost completely closed off from the world, faithfully following the isolationist or “sakoku” policy it had imposed on itself in the early 17th century, fearing colonisation and Christianisation. During this period, despite its isolation, it achieved an incredible economic boom and national unification, while at the same time further developing its distinctive cultural and artistic characteristics. Tea ceremony, woodcuts, ceramics, origami, calligraphy, gardens, bonsai, kabuki theatre, sumo, traditional cuisine and on and on. All of this is why Japan continues to inspire and fascinate today, and why it has a very special charm among all Asian countries.
Not to be neglected, however, are the cultivation of the cult of the famous samurai warrior, the relations between strictly separated social classes and the unique character of the nation. The latter is perhaps most marked by the proverbial work ethic. “Get up early and work more and harder than others”, “Laziness is not good and whatever work you do, do it with enthusiasm” or “He who always works will never be poor” are all centuries-old principles that the Japanese have faithfully adhered to.
In a period when Japan was largely self-contained, the world was changing faster than ever. This was primarily due to technological advances, on the wave of which European maritime powers “discovered”, conquered and subjugated weaker and unprepared peoples and countries. Thus, the Portuguese were also the first Europeans to be accidentally drifted onto a Japanese archipelago in 1543 – to the surprise of both.
The Portuguese have finally been able to confirm the real existence of the mythical land of Cipango, which Marco Polo wrote about three hundred years earlier, but no European had ever set foot on. And yet, until his death, Christopher Columbus was adamant that it was here, and not in the Bahamas, where he had actually landed, that he had stumbled upon it on his first voyage across the Atlantic.
Even the Japanese were surprised by the unusual apparitions, unkempt beards with long noses and bad manners when they met the Portuguese. “They eat with their hands, never offer food or drink to others and don’t even wash,” they wrote of the newcomers. It was also the first time they had seen black people, as the Portuguese had African slaves on board. Slave-ownership and the slave trade were two of the other shameful European inventions of the modern era, which allowed it to rapidly enrich itself and dominate the world.
The Portuguese were quickly joined by the Spanish, then the Dutch, the English and the Italians. Despite the mutual culture shock, relations between Japanese and Westerners were initially cordial and profitable for both sides. The exchange of knowledge and, above all, trade were at the forefront of their spheres of interest. But not for long. True to their missionary mission, in which European Christians firmly believed, they immediately set out to convert the Japanese to the Christian faith. This mistake cost them dearly.
For it was at that time that Japan was experiencing an internal renaissance and unification after years of internal strife and a bloodthirsty civil war. It quickly realised that too much foreign influence would undermine this process and plunge the country back into disorder.
Military dictatorship and the golden age of the samurai
As in Europe, the Japanese Middle Ages were marked by constant infighting between the many clans, especially those that controlled major cities such as Osaka, Edo and Kyoto. The prelude to permanent civil war began around 1467 with the Onin War – Japan became a ‘sengoku’ or ‘land at war’. This was the bloodiest period in Japanese history, and one of its consequences was the marked militarisation of social elites and the rise of the samurai class.
It took a hundred years for the country to find peace again under the leadership of three strong warlords. The first to dream of national reunification and succeed in establishing dominance over the other dynasties was Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582). The second was his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and the third was the shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa. The latter was the founder of the absolute rule of the Tokugawa dynasty, which held the shogunate for 250 years. It became synonymous with the era of peace, also known as the Edo period, from which the Shogun ruled at that time.
The institution of the shogun, the supreme military commander of the land, who was initially entrusted with military affairs, evolved into a general managerial function and completely changed the Japanese political and social order. The Shogun slowly supplanted the Emperor in terms of importance, and his position became limited to a purely symbolic, ceremonial and religious role. The militarisation of the ruling class gave rise to a military dictatorship and thus to a political system unique in Asia.
The shogun was the absolute ruler, his vassals were the feudal chiefs of the provinces, and the daimyo, their vassals, were the samurai – the Japanese knights. The daimyo were powerful country lords, often rewarded with land by the shogun for their loyalty and military merit. They were divided according to power, prestige and wealth and had their own armies of samurai. Japanese feudal society was divided into four social classes, and the samurai had a special place in it.
Samurai, the unrivalled masters of martial arts, have been Japan’s most recognisable phenomenon for at least seven centuries. The famous code of samurai conduct and lifestyle was called the bushido, or way of the warrior, and it enjoined strict adherence to values and rules such as: complete loyalty, courage, ostentation, fulfilment of duty, renunciation, austerity, mercy, respect for the enemy, and so on. From the 16th century onwards, samurai status was transmitted only by birth.
However, samurai have made history mainly because of their attitude towards death. Not only did they not fear it, they glorified it, often plunging into it themselves for trivial reasons. “Everyone should expect death daily, so that when it does come, he can die in peace. /…/ Die every morning in your mind and you will not fear death,” wrote a samurai thinker. Many were obsessed with death.
The reasons for voluntary ritual suicide, an extremely painful abdominal incision or sepuku, were many: defeat in battle or just fear of defeat, disgrace, loss of honour as a samurai or a member of his family, death of the master. Some samurai even committed suicide out of benevolence, knowing that their descendants would be rewarded. Sepuku was not always voluntary, it also served as a death sentence for samurai.
Sepuku, also known as harakiri (but this term is supposed to apply to civilians, not combatants), was legalised and had to be carried out according to strict rules. If the scene was not a battlefield, spectators were allowed to attend the ceremony. The samurai, dressed in a white kimono, would take a short ceremonial knife in a sitting position, plant it in his abdomen and unsheathe it from left to right. If he was lucky, the cut was deep enough to cause a quick bleeding out, but often samurai would fight to the death in silent agony for hours. Sometimes they were saved from their torment by a severed head by their faithful fellow-soldiers. A samurai was always armed with at least two knives, one of which was intended for suicide.
When Europeans first witnessed the public sepuku, which was the first time in the late 19th century that Japanese authorities punished samurai who had executed some Frenchmen, they were so horrified that they stopped the ceremony in progress. This saved the lives of the nine condemned samurai. It was then that many legends of Japanese heroism and fearlessness began to spread around the world.
With the advent of the peace period of the Tokugawa shogunate, the role of samurai in society changed radically. However, their legacy is still a powerful force in the Japanese collective consciousness.
Tokugawa dynasty absolutism and the Edo period
The last years before the peace at the end of the 16th century were marked by a series of fierce battles that still rank among the greatest battles of history. In 1575, for example, Odu Nobunagi won the Battle of Nagashino with a newly formed corps of 3 000 musketeers using firearms. This also broke with the Japanese tradition of fighting with swords and spears and adopted the methods of European warfare.
They were introduced to the guns by their first European guests, the Portuguese. Hideyoshi, by effectively continuing Nobunaga’s mission, subdued most of the daimyo who had resisted the centralisation of power. Until then, Japan had been divided into some 250 autonomous regions, which belonged to the local lords, the daimyo. In 1582, Hideyoshi had 250,000 samurai under his command – musketeers, spearmen, archers and foot soldiers – one of the largest armies in the world at the time.
But it was his successor, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who achieved the previously impossible – he united the entire Japanese archipelago under his rule. After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, his dynasty took over the Shogunate and began the gradual closing of the country to foreign influences. The last battle of Japan’s pre-modern era, involving 210,000 warriors, was the Battle of Osaka in 1614. The Tokugawa clan was then no match for them. The time had come for Japan to embark on a distinctly unique and unique path.
The Tokugawa dynasty established a highly effective central authoritarian government and a true police state. The capital was moved to Edo, where a small settlement was transformed into a modern metropolis with mighty fortifications and a castle to rival the mightiest European mansions. Among other things, the Shogunate usurped the right to legislate, collect taxes and pass judgments, beginning an important process of state-building for Japan.
At the same time, the Tokugawa became immensely wealthy by seizing the territories of their defeated opponents, and by the time of the third shogun of the dynasty, they owned a quarter of Japan’s total agricultural land. They also managed the most important ports of Nagasaki and Osaka, and controlled gold, silver and copper mines. They developed a highly sophisticated bureaucracy to effectively control and direct the economy. They even controlled the powers of the court and further clipped the Emperor’s wings with regulations that left him completely isolated. He became a prisoner in a golden cage and ‘mere’ guardian of Japanese tradition, art and culture.
One of the more original moves was the way in which local leaders, or daimyos, were controlled. To ensure their loyalty and keep them in sight despite the geographical vastness of the archipelago, the shogun introduced the so-called ‘rotating residency’ principle. All daimyos, without exception, had to spend every second year in Edo with their entire entourage. Thus, they were only at home every other year, and most of the time much less, since, given the remoteness of their territories, some of them sometimes travelled for months at a time. They were accompanied by hundreds of servants and followers, while their families were forced to stay in Edo. It was the perfect recipe for unconditional loyalty. Such journeys also resulted in the rapid development of the transport network, the hospitality industry and the hotel industry, which of course accelerated economic development.
The Tokugawa governed all aspects of the lives of the social classes, merchants and craftsmen, farmers, and especially samurai. Before the Edo period, samurai were fearless fighters, skilled horsemen and swordsmen, loyal to their masters and ready to die at any moment. But as the need for military force declined, the question of their social utility arose. The days of historic battles were over.
The Shogunate issued new regulations for samurai, and they were required to become scholars, to practise music, poetry and calligraphy, to perform the tea ceremony, while continuing to diligently cultivate military ethics, mastering the hedgehog and marksmanship. They were not allowed to marry outside their class or engage in business, but they received a regular annual government stipend. At that time, as many as seven per cent of the total population were samurai, and many of them had been transformed into bureaucrats and civil servants. Many became great intellectuals, and many became ronin – samurai without a master, without a purpose, without land.
Parallel to the rise of the Tokugawa, Europeans discovered Japan and soon became the first victims of the new political system.
The first Europeans on Japanese soil were Portuguese
For centuries, until the arrival of the Portuguese, the Japanese had successfully defended themselves against too much influence and, above all, too many foreigners on the island. Throughout history, their geographical location has meant that they have been most closely linked to their neighbours, the Koreans and the Chinese. From the latter, they adopted most of the inventions of civilisation, such as writing – this was in the 7th century AD, when the Japanese could not yet read and write. Chinese was the official language of Japanese administration until the 19th century. They also borrowed art, the calendar, principles of bureaucracy and political organisation from their neighbours, and in the 12th century Buddhism came to Japan with monks who had studied in China and Korea.
But the Japanese were increasingly afraid of their big and powerful neighbour China and wanted to be as independent from it as possible, which dictated military power. Their fear was well-founded. For in 1274, the then rulers of China, the Mongols, under Kublai Khan, grandson of the mighty Genghis Khan, tried to subdue the archipelago. They sent a menacing 140 000-strong armada of several thousand ships. Kublai Khan’s army, which spread fear and trembling throughout Asia, was a small treat for the well-trained samurai. And when the hysterical Mongol ruler returned a few years later, the Japanese were saved by the hand of God. For a devastating typhoon had decimated the mighty Mongol fleet off the coast of Japan. The Japanese believed that they had been saved by the wind of God – the kamikaze.
Constant readiness for an external invasion required good military organisation and defensive fortifications along the entire Japanese coast, which was not cheap. But it did contribute to the militarisation of Japanese society and its constant readiness. Thus, Japan lived to see its next visitors some three hundred years later.
In 1543, on their way from Malacca in present-day Malaysia – then the heart of the world’s Oriental luxury goods trade – to Shanghai, the Portuguese missed a well-fortified route they had been using for half a century due to strong winds. The terra incognita on which they landed was Japan, which had captured the imagination of the world’s travellers and sailors for many years. Despite their initial surprise, they soon began to notice the similarities between European and Japanese feudal societies. The aristocracy, the strict social hierarchy, the vassal relationships, the imperial divine origin, the Japanese samurai knights, all reminded one in many ways of home.
The Japanese looked curiously at the Portuguese sailors and their junks (a special Chinese sailing ship), but were even more amused by the ridiculously accomplished and unshaven sailors with big noses, who were soon dubbed the Southern Barbarians because they came from the south. But soon the locals realised that the newcomers could be very useful. They were most impressed by firearms, and were so impressed by their power that they immediately set about learning how to make them.
Firearms were the first imported Western technology in Japan, and by 1556 there were reportedly 300,000 guns. They soon improved their technology and began to produce several types of firearms and artillery themselves. This fundamentally changed the way and the strategy of warfare. Compared to the samurai, who were armed ‘only’ with swords and knives, the common soldiers, who were usually recruited from among the common people without years of training, were now able to do much more damage than the prominent samurai.
The first European accounts of Japan were written by the Portuguese merchant Jorge Álvares. He wrote about a beautiful and rich country and was impressed by its people, especially by their refinement and polished manners. “In this respect they are superior not only to other Eastern peoples, but also to Europeans,” wrote an Italian missionary.
On their return to Europe, travellers spoke at length about this exotic country, its unusual culture and way of life. They spoke admiringly of Japan in glowing terms, praising the courage of its warriors, its work ethic, the role of honour in society. All this left a deep and lasting mark on European perceptions of Japan and has shaped its image to this day. The Japanese, on the other hand, have often had the opposite perception of Europeans, harbouring contempt and disdain for them.
Japanese people also learn about Christianity
While the Japanese were fighting among themselves and the centuries-old civil war was in its last gasps, the Portuguese and other Europeans, who soon followed, were discovering the island and establishing trade relations. Japan was quickly integrated into the commercial network of the Far East. By 1571, the Portuguese had already opened a new port at Nagasaki, which joined Goa in India, Malacca in Malaysia and Macao in China as a key trading base. The Portuguese were also important trade intermediaries between Japan and China, where Japanese ships were not allowed to sail because of frequent pirate attacks. For example, they bought silk in China, sold it to the Japanese and exported silver from there to China.
In addition to guns, Europeans imported many other inventions and unknown products, notably shipbuilding skills, navigation, medicine, cartography, tobacco and playing cards. The Japanese were introduced to new fruits such as watermelons and sweet potatoes, and learned to bake bread. Anatomy was a particular mystery for the Japanese. They did not know the inside of the human body, mainly for religious reasons, because they did not perform autopsies. For example, the Japanese did not even know that the Earth was round at that time. Even today, the Japanese language is still rich in at least 600 words of Portuguese origin.
But weapons, science and trade were not the only European innovations that Japan was introduced to. Christian missionaries were always aboard European ships to spread Christianity and convert followers of other faiths. Despite uncertain and harsh times marked by internal strife, more and more curious Europeans came to Japan, interested in the new culture and trade. These were mainly Spaniards, Italians, English and Dutch. The English and Dutch were called redheads by the Japanese, a name that still holds true today. Even the Japanese began to establish their own trading posts in the Philippines, Siam and Cambodia.
Six years after the first Portuguese landing, the famous missionary and co-founder of the Jesuit Order, Francis Xavier, founded the first Jesuit mission in Japan and was soon followed by dozens of other missionaries, mostly Portuguese. By 1600, 300,000 Japanese were believed to have been converted. Until then, Shinto and Buddhism were the dominant religions.
The local bigwigs, the daimyos, often welcomed the Jesuits with open arms – not because they were particularly enthusiastic about their religion, but because their presence also meant the presence of Western traders, which of course stimulated and enriched the local economy. Nagasaki, which was a major trading centre, soon became the seat of the Japanese Christian community.
But the central authorities, led by the Shogun, were becoming increasingly suspicious. When the civil war was over and the Tokugawa dynasty finally took power, bad times began to fall for most Europeans. By then, the Japanese were well aware of the fate of many countries where – often violent – evangelisation and colonisation had gone hand in hand. They were particularly horrified by what was happening in the Philippines, where the Spanish had taken control of the islands in a very short space of time, thus becoming part of the Spanish overseas empire.
Sakoku – a voluntary foreign policy of isolationism
In 1587, Hideyoshi issued the first decree ordering all Jesuit missionaries to leave Japan within twenty days. At first few strictly obeyed it, but within ten years the attitude of the Japanese authorities towards Christians, both foreign and native, had become immeasurably harsh and directed towards their complete extermination. Believers were often executed in public places, most often by crucifixion, but much more gruesome methods were also used.
In the following decades, hundreds of priests had to leave Japan. Many moved to Formosa (now Taiwan) and China. Those who resisted faced death or, at best, forced conversion to Buddhism. The story of Cristovao Ferreira, a leading Jesuit missionary, is very illustrative. First he was hung by his feet, then he was plunged up to his waist into a hole filled with rubbish, and then his temples were lightly cut to prevent the circulation of blood from stopping and causing him to lose consciousness prematurely, or even to die. The torture had to be prolonged to have the desired effect.
After five hours of torture, the missionary renounced his faith. He converted to Buddhism, took a Japanese name, married a Japanese woman and became a fierce opponent of Catholicism, even witnessing the trials of former Catholic brothers. Japanese Christians were also zealously persecuted by the authorities. For example, many of those thrown alive into the crater of Mount Uzen, an active volcano near Nagasaki, were women and children. In 1638, as many as 37,000 Japanese Christians were killed in the infamous Shimbara Massacre!
But many believers and missionaries persevered and continued their work and worship in secret. The Japanese Christian community also went into hiding, but it never really disappeared. Two hundred years later, when the country was once again in the throes of a rebellion, there were still some 30,000 Christians in Japan.
The Tokugawa not only continued to persecute Christianity, but also gradually hermetically sealed the country by increasingly restricting all contact with foreigners and banning their presence on the islands. The so-called Isolation Ordinances mark the official beginning of the ‘sakoku’ or closure policy. Foreign relations were limited to a few commercial ones, exclusively with the Dutch and the Chinese. As Protestants, the Dutch had no intention of religious conversion, but were primarily interested in trade. In addition to the total ban on Christianity, the decrees prohibited, among other things, the entry of foreigners, the departure of Japanese from the country and the return home of those who had settled abroad before the sakoku period. Children of mixed marriages were required to leave the country.
They even destroyed their own fleet with an endurance of more than 2,500 tonnes, which could have sailed too far on the high seas. Even the unfortunate castaways who were swept away from Japanese waters were not allowed to return home. Often they were rescued by foreign ships and tried to return them to the Japanese, who did not want their own people back. The penalties for those who tried to land on Japanese soil despite the ban were also draconian. In 1640, for example, a Portuguese diplomatic expedition disembarked in Nagasaki and no sooner had they stepped ashore than 61 people were arrested and beheaded in a public place. As a reminder, thirteen were allowed to live so that they could testify to the world the seriousness of Japan’s intentions.
The Sixth Isolation Decree limits the Dutch presence to the artificial island of Dejima in the bay off Nagasaki. Nagasaki remained an open port, with fully controlled international trade. Dejima Island was built precisely to accommodate foreigners who wanted to trade with Japan. The list of products that could be traded was limited and strictly controlled. An official of the Dutch East India Company reported:
“Before disembarking, every European is first visited by Japanese overseers on board, their pockets are searched, their clothes are searched, their body is felt, even the heads of black slaves are examined to make sure they don’t have anything hidden in their hair. Once, a parrot was found hidden in the trousers of a midshipman, and it began to talk when its master was searched.” The warders were changed regularly to prevent any friendship developing between them and the foreigners.
Shogun asked their representatives to visit him once a year in Edo. The main reason was that the Japanese still wanted to keep up to date with the main events in the world, but they also wanted to show their superiority to foreigners. So every year the Dutch regularly presented the Shogun with the latest scientific and technological inventions and told him about events in Europe and around the world. But the Shogun behaved in a very derogatory way towards the Dutch. The merchants who had to go to him for an audience testified:
“First we waited for at least an hour, then the farce began. We had to behave according to the ceremonial Japanese rules and crawl towards the shogun with our heads down /…/ then we answered many pointless questions, walked in front of him, danced, jumped, played drunken games, spoke broken Japanese, read Dutch, sang and so on. We felt like monkeys.”
The Japanese, however, have been more lenient with their Korean neighbours. By the early 17th century, relations with them had returned to normal, and Koreans were even allowed to enter the archipelago from time to time.
Japan in isolation
In general, the Japanese have adapted their sakoku policy prudently to their needs and have never been completely cut off from the world. To keep abreast of developments and advances abroad, they established what is known as the ranguku policy, or “Dutch study”. From 1720, even foreign books and scientific works were allowed, and they began to be translated, especially from Dutch into Japanese. It was remarkable that they were also able to translate from French, because they had never seen the French in person and had never heard their language. They also opened the first translation services. The Japanese were thus introduced to the microscope, advances in medicine, pharmacology, electricity, hot air balloons, among other things, and generally to the latest developments in most scientific fields. Much of the information and new knowledge reached even ordinary people.
At the same time, the Great Peace or ‘Taihei’ period saw incredible internal development and therefore still represents the golden age of Japanese civilisation. There was a true urban revolution and large and wealthy cities developed around lavish castles. Trade and culture flourished, agricultural capacity increased and the Japanese enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in general. Life expectancy was also similar to that of the most advanced Western powers. Schools were springing up like mushrooms, and tuition fees were very cheap, so even people from the lower classes could afford them. By the end of the early modern era, almost all adults were expected to be literate, and in 1859, fifty per cent of boys and fifteen per cent of girls had at least a basic education.
Japan also had a much larger urban population than Europe. The capital Edo, where the shogun and the samurai administration were based, soon had as many merchants and craftsmen as samurai. By the mid-18th century, however, Edo was the largest city in the world, with more than a million inhabitants. Only England and the Netherlands had a greater concentration of urban inhabitants than Japan.
The development of a culture of travelling around the country and learning about the common history was also important in consolidating a shared national identity. This was made possible by a well-developed transport infrastructure. When the famous artist Hokusai produced a collection of prints entitled ’36 Views of Mount Fuji’ in 1830, copies became indispensable in every home. They soon captivated the world and are said to have inspired even Vincent van Gogh.
But the West has never wanted to fully accept Japan’s decision on isolation. Time and again, various nations have tried to break the ice, mostly unsuccessfully. These attempts became more frequent and aggressive towards the end of the 18th century.
A forced return from isolation
First, France and Russia tried an official diplomatic delegation. A letter from Louis XVI, carried by a French delegation in 1787, was fruitless, as was a mission from Tsar Alexander of Russia in 1804, even though the latter had his hands full of gifts and his mouth full of good intentions. The Japanese kept the diplomatic representatives in the Gulf waiting for months, raising their hopes, and finally expelled them.
In 1808, the English tried again, but all they got was that the Japanese tightened the measures and passed a new decree that allowed them to execute any foreigner who dared set foot on Japanese soil.
Then the threats started. In 1844, King William II of the Netherlands wrote to the Shogun warning him that the invention of the steamship had made the world a smaller place and that it would be difficult for even the Japanese to remain isolated without offending those who wanted to trade on the world stage.
At that time, the Americans had been steadily sailing around the Japanese coast for several years. Since the conquest of California, their presence in the Pacific Ocean has increased dramatically – establishing trade relations and catching fish and whales. Japan could have provided them with an excellent base and a supply of coal for their ships and water and food for their sailors. So they were inconvenienced by its isolation.
It took a mix of coercion, diplomacy and internal factors to finally bring the Japanese down. The Shogunate was going through an internal crisis and was becoming weaker and weaker. Japanese society was divided towards foreigners, and the Shogun believed that international opening and trade could help the country out of the crisis. At the same time, the country was too weak to stand up to the mighty Americans. One of the negative consequences of the long period of peace was the diminished military strength and the softening of the samurai class. The latter were extremely conservative and were the most resistant to the opening up of the country. They feared that this would mean the decline of traditional Japanese culture. They therefore lost confidence in the shogunate and armed conflicts broke out.
This was the background to Perry’s arrival off the coast of Japan in the summer of 1853. A veteran of the Mexican army, he was as convinced as the American political establishment and the American people of the army’s worthy civilising mission. At that time, the US knew little about advanced Japan, treating it as a backward Asian country. In addition to Fillmore’s letter, Perry also had with him instructions from the State Department to be patient with the Japanese at the outset, and if they were too stubborn, to make it clear that the US was prepared for war. The Japanese were divided, but when Perry sailed back in February 1854 with an even larger fleet, the Shogun, despite his hesitation, agreed to sign a treaty of amity.
In it, the two countries promise each other, among other things, eternal peace, the establishment of diplomatic relations, care for shipwrecked ships, and permission for American ships to enter Japanese ports. By 1856, Russia, France and England had forced through similar treaties and they soon opened trade with each other. The trade treaties put Japan in a subordinate position, as they did not allow it to set its own customs duties. Japan has worked for years to change them and to achieve equality in their relations.
With the West forcing Japan to open the door to globalisation, the shogunate has finally lost its power. People wanted a new, modern Japan, but one that was not too influenced by foreign countries. After the collapse of the Shogunate in 1876, political power was once again vested in the Emperor after centuries. A new era in Japanese history began, the so-called Meiji era (1868 – 1912), or the period of the Japanese Enlightenment and the return of imperial hegemony.
From isolation to global economic and military power
With the Constitution of 1889, the Emperor was given new powers, for the first time in more than two centuries he went back to the people and took an active part in all major reforms. Japan was soon granted superpower status and completely shook off the shackles of isolationism. By the end of the 19th century, it already had conquering tendencies, which led to the creation of the Japanese Empire. It had dealt a severe blow to Russia and China in the wars and was again becoming increasingly militarised and extremely nationalistic. All this culminated in Japan’s shameful role in the Second World War.
To shake off economic dependence on the West, Japan’s elite began to speed up the process of learning about all the advances and inventions that isolation might have made them miss. Numerous diplomatic missions were established, the most famous of which was the Iwakura mission. During its almost two-year diplomatic tour (1871-1873) of the West, more than a hundred representatives of the Japanese political elite took a detailed look at every corner of the Western world, from the USA to Europe. The expedition was received by all the heads of state, the most successful economists, culturists and scientists. After their return, a great period of mission-inspired reforms began, but these were carefully tailored to the specific Japanese circumstances.
As it has shown throughout its history, Japan has always been capable of rapid transformation to its own advantage, while managing to preserve its distinctive national character. The long period of isolation in which it has confined itself has not prevented it from making enviable economic, social and cultural progress, but at the same time it has created and consolidated the Japanese mentality of otherness that it still fosters today.
And these days, the land of the rising sun is once again entering a new historical era, the era of ‘reiva’ or happy harmony. After the abdication of his father Akihito due to old age, Prince Naruhito became the new 126th Emperor. After the Second World War, the Japanese Emperor may again have ‘only’ symbolic significance, but Naruhito likes to take his cue from the monarchies of the West. He wants to restore a greater state-building role among the people and to the imperial function.
