Ii
Naosuke and Tokugawa Nariaki’s demise signaled the start of a rocky
relationship between the Bakufu, the Imperial Court, and the Daimyos. Explore
the attempt to unite the Shogunate and the Emperor.
Kobu Gattai
Unity
between the Court and the Shogunate or Kobu
Gattai followed after the brutal repression under Ii Naosuke’s regency. All
three faction decided to mend their ties together and unite during the
prevailing aggressive western incursions to Japan. The unity symbolically materialize in the form of marriage in 1862 between the sister of the Emperor – Princess
Kazunomiya – and the young Shogun Iemochi.
Satsuma
played a significantly vital role in this unity between three factions. Satsuma, a large domain located in Kagoshima and ruled by the Shimazu
Clan, belonged to the class of Tozama
Daimyos or Outsiders. Edo forbid them from any government participation, yet allowed them to keep their large size of Kokudaka/Koku
(Feudal Japan based the sizes of domain on potential rice production
measurement called Kokudaka rather than land area). The domain also commanded
influence due to its large tax base along with its large numbers of samurais
serving as retainers.
Shimazu
Hisamitsu/Saburo, father of the Daimyo of Satsuma and wielded great influence in political affairs, strongly persevered to maintain the precarious Kobu
Gattai. He voiced moderate and centrist opinions, yet he remained traditionally weary and critical towards the Tokugawa Shogunate. He worked for the amnesty of members of the Mito Clan, for the wedding of the Shogun and the Emperor’s sister, and for the balance of traditionalist and reformist within the Bakufu. On the latter, he mended
the two factions by securing the appointment of Hitotsubashi Keiki (Yoshinobu)
and Matsudaira Keiei/Yoshinaga of the Echizen Domain to important and powerful positions within the
Bakufu in July 1862. By the following month Hitotsubashi served as guardian of
the minor Shogun Iemochi and as head of the state council, wielding great powers that made him a prime mover within the Bakufu.. Matsudaira Keiei meanwhile supported Hitotsubashi in the state council also acquiring great influence
as well. Both men, reformed the Shogunate to adjust to the changing times and
to uphold the Kobu Gattai.
Sankin
Kotai or alternate attendance, a system of visitation by daimyos to Edo as
a means to control and to watch over them by the Shogun, faced reform under
Hitotsubashi and Matsudaira. This went on grounds of
giving Daimyos time to strengthen their defenses in preparation of any conflict
against the foreign barbarians. On the other hand, it signaled the
Shogunate’s attempts to distribute power to the Daimyos and to secure their
support. However, on the negative note, the change also implied the weakening of Tokugawa central authority as it allows Daimyos, like Choshu, who oppose the Shogunate to move and to plan freely.
The reform also freed the families of the Daimyos from staying in Edo under virtual hostages. As a result, Edo’s population suddenly dropped and Kyoto’s population instantly rose as many Daimyos supporting imperial restoration or at least, the Court’s stand in support of Jo-I or expel the barbarians, gathered around the Imperial Palace.
The reform also freed the families of the Daimyos from staying in Edo under virtual hostages. As a result, Edo’s population suddenly dropped and Kyoto’s population instantly rose as many Daimyos supporting imperial restoration or at least, the Court’s stand in support of Jo-I or expel the barbarians, gathered around the Imperial Palace.
The
Kobu Gattai, however, faced
challenges from situations they never had faced before. The effects of trade
with the foreigners caused disturbances in uncontrollable scale.
Immediate Effects of
Trade
Inflation
caused by trade with foreign countries hampered Japan, challenging the sensitive Kobu
Gattai and causing violent social and local unrest.
Opening
ports to foreign trade instantly altered the Japanese economy. Rise in demands for
commodities like rice and exportation of silk without any growth in
production caused rising prices. The issuance of additional currency and its
readjustment exacerbated conditions. Worse, government spending in research and
defense further inflated price; hence, it brought hardship to many poor
Japanese. Furthermore, the sudden need for defense and research spending took
much of the budget and reduced the allocation of money meant for stipends of samurai. Penniless samurais took their
frustration violently against the Shogunate and foreigners as seen later.
Importation
of ready-made and cheap cotton goods strongly competed against local cottage textile
industries, resulting to lose of income in many villages. The impoverished peasants and merchants negatively affected by the opening began to lose confidence to Bakufu.
The Bakufu attempted to ease problems by curtailing
foreign trade. In May 1860, Edo gave few chosen Edo wholesalers right to sell
commodities to foreigners, which seemed to be a virtual monopoly. Foreigners vehemently protested against the law due to its parallelism to the Cohong System imposed in
China before. Eventually, the Bakufu experienced difficulty in enforcing the
restriction, resulting to the continuation of prevailing problems.
As
a result of the sudden changes in public finance and the economy, samurais
known as Ronins vented their anger
towards Bakufu officials and the hated foreigners.
Ronins
Emperor Komei |
Ronins
provided the arm wing of each of the faction within the Japanese political
arena during the turbulent Bakumatsu. Ronins were masterless samurais who
wondered around the country and rendered their service to anyone who hires
them.
They
“were fiercely proud people who understood themselves by virtue of birth and
training to be servants of their lords and, beyond that, of a larger and
vaguely defined realm of Japan epitomized by the Emperor” as Andrew Gordon in A
Modern History of Japan wrote. Clearly, ronins, although masterless, knew their
highest loyalty and purpose resided with the Emperor as dictated by the Bushido or the way of the samurai.
Sonno Jo-i or “exalt the
Emperor, expel the barbarians” profoundly defined the slogan of the ronins. In addition to economic
reasons, ronins also terribly saw foreigners threatening Japan’s society and religion
(Shinto and Buddhism) with Christianity. The loyalty of the ronins towards the
Emperor earned them names of shishi
or ishin shishi – men of purpose.
Domains
of Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, Hizen, all which belonged to the Tozama Daimyos, in
addition to Kyoto, served as havens for these disgruntled ronins. Choshu hired
ronins as part of units called Seighi.
The
Shogunate, nevertheless, also hired some ronins to form its notorious secret
police called the Shinsengumi or new
units.
Ronins' wrath against the Shogunate and foreigners resulted to terrorist attacks,
including assassinations and arson. Ii Naosuke and the scholar Sakuma Shozan
who quoted “Western Science with Eastern Ethics” fell to their swords. Even
simple Japanese with interest in foreign relations and studies also faced
threats from ronins. Yukichi Fukuzawa, a famous Japanese scholar said, “Any
person who showed, by any will or deed, any favor towards admitting foreigners
into Japan – indeed, any person who had any interest in foreign affairs was
liable to be set upon by the unrelenting ronin.”
Violent actions by ronins also strained the Kobu Gattai as their methods and attacks came to question by the
Shogunate and the Court on its nature and effects.
Terrorism
Multiple
attacks by ronins worried foreigners and the Bakufu.
Death
of Russian sailors in Yokohama in 1859 disgusted Japan’s foreign community.
Rutherford Alcock wrote how Count Nikolay Muraviev, Governor General of Eastern
Siberia, told him the events that transpired in Yokohama. He wrote:
“… one morning he (Count Muraviev) came to breakfast with me…. In a few moments he told me, he had just received some deplorable intelligence from Kanaga. An officer, with a sailor and a steward of one of the Russian ships, had been on shore about 8:00 the previous evening to buy some provisions, and on their way to the boat, close to the principal street, in which many of the shops were still open, the party was suddenly set upon by some armed Japanese, and hewn down with the most ghastly wounds that could be inflicted. The steward, though mortally wounded it was feared, still lived, having, after the first onset, succeeded in rushing into a shop. The other two were left in a pool blood, the flesh hanging in large masses from their bodies and limbs.”
Killings
continued with an assassination of a Chinese servant serving in the French
Legation in November 1859 followed by the death of two Dutch captains of
merchant ships on February 1860. About a year later, on January 15, 1861, Henry
Heuksen, secretary of the American legation and Consul Townsend Harris, brutally
fell in the hands of 6 to 7 ronins that terrified the foreign community.
Alcock narrated the last moments of Heuksen as he had heard:
“He succeeded to all appearance in breaking through the band, unconscious at the moment of being severely wounded and was able to ride on hundred paces when he felt that he was grievously injured, and calling to his horse-boy, still in sight, though some distance ahead, he endeavored to dismount, and fell to the ground in the attempt. He had received a frightful gash across the abdomen, from which the bowels protruded, besides several other thrusts and cuts of less moment. There he lay, wholly deserted and weltering in his blood, it is not known exactly how long.”
Illustration of the attack on the British Legation, 1861 |
On
July 5, 1861, Alcock himself stratlingly experienced firsthand the attack of 14 Mito ronins
on the British legation in Tozenji, Edo, killing 14 Japanese guards and
wounding 2 British namely Laurence Oliphant and George Morrison, the British consul
in Nagasaki. Alcock resolutely demanded protection from the Bakufu, to which they responded by making foreign legations like prisons for its defense.
Nevertheless, another
attack occurred on the British legation in Tozenji in June 1862, just a
year after the previous attack, with 2 British guard casualties. The attack finally convinced the foreign community in Edo to retreat to the safety of Yokohama. Shogunate
authorities insisted that they could not prevent ronins from attacking
foreigners. The British then sent in troops to secure their legations. Alongside the landing of troops, they
also demand £10,000 worth of indemnity from the Bakufu for the death of two British guards.
The
actions of the ronins pressured the Kobu Gattai. Edo wanted to stop the attacks to prevent the
possibility of armed conflicts and retaliations. The Court, however, did not
wanted to reprimand the ronins because much of its supporters came from their
ranks and they served as its virtual army. Not to mention, they viewed the actions of the ronins aligned to their Jo-i view. Shimazu Saburo, the mediator between
the Court and the Bakufu, sympathized with the ronins yet he remained cautious
with them. Attacks of the ronins once again created as divide in opinion
between the Court, the Bakufu, and the Daimyos, but not enough to end the cooperation between the three.
But
in September 1862, a killing of a British merchant brought Japan on the brink
of war and altered once again the dynamics of domestic politics.
Explore also:
Bibliography:
Books:
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Website:
Lord Elgin. Edited by Theodore Walrond. "Letters and Journals of James, Eight Earl of Elgin." In Project Gutenberg. Accessed on June 19, 2016. URL: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10610/pg10610-images.html
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