Reopening the Question of Sakoku: Diplomacy in the Legitimation of the Tokugawa Bakufu

Toby, Ronald P.

doi:10.2307/132115

Cited by 44 publications

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“…48 It should be evident that I do not mean to suggest that those borders were hermetically sealed or that shogunal policies during the 1630s and 1640s were determined on economic grounds alone. For important new interpretations of the political and ideological aspects of the "seclusion" (sakoku) policy, see Toby 1977Toby , 1984Tashiro 1982. …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Some Observations on the “Seventeenth-Century Crisis” in China and Japan

Atwell¹

1986

J of Asian Stud

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Association for Asian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Asian Studies.Fernand Braudel issues this caution in his widely acclaimed work on the Mediterranean world in the late sixteenth century, "When discussing the rise and fall of empires, it is well to [avoid) the temptation to-. . . discover too early signs of greatness in a state which we know will one day be great, or to predict too early the collapse of an empire which we know will one day cease to be" (1975, vol. 2:661). Although Braudel is primarily concerned with the Spanish and Ottoman empires, he probably would not be surprised to learn that students of late Ming history (c. 1580-1644) have tended to keep one eye firmly fixed on 1644, the year the Ming dynasty fell and Manchu rule began in China. For some, at least, the origins of the Ming collapse may be clearly seen in the irresponsible behavior of the Wan-li emperor (r. 1573-1620), in the enormous costs incurred fighting the Japanese in Korea during the 1590s, in the crushing defeat of Ming forces in Liaotung by the Manchus in 1619, or in the "reign of terror" conducted by the eunuch Wei Chung-hsien (1568-1627) in 1625-1626. However, Wei died nearly seventeen years before the first Manchu troops appeared on the streets of Peking, and therefore there must be some doubt as to whether his activities, or these other factors, had much to do with the final demise of the Ming dynasty.In marked contrast to the gloomy picture usually painted of seventeenth-century China, studies of Japan at this time often celebrate such "positive" developments as the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, the great construction projects of the Keicho (1596-1614) and Genna (1615-1623) periods, the "completion of Tokugawa institutions" during the 1630s and 1640s, and the flowering of urban culture during the Genroku era (1688-1703). It is possible therefore to gain the impression that the first century of Tokugawa rule in Japan was a time of peace, stability, and virtually uninterrupted economic and demographic growth. Recent scholarship (YaWilliam S. Atwell is Associate Professor of History, Hobart and William Smith Colleges.Some of the research on which this article is based was made possible by awards from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science as part of its exchange agreement with the British Academy. The author takes this opportunity to thank them for their generous assistance. None of these organizations, however, assumes any responsibility for the author's conclusions.An earlier version of this article was presented at the 31st Interna...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For important new interpretations of the political 48 It should be evident that I do not mean to and ideological aspects of the "seclusion" (sakoku) suggest that those borders were hermetically sealed policy, see Toby 1977Toby , 1984Tashiro 1982. wished to do the same thing.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some Observations on the “Seventeenth-Century Crisis” in China and Japan

Atwell¹

1986

J of Asian Stud

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“…Complete closure was believed to be the necessary precondition for the stability of the Tokugawa system (Toby 1977 ). Complete closure was believed to be the necessary precondition for the stability of the Tokugawa system (Toby 1977 ).…”

Section: Pre-modern To Modern Japanmentioning

confidence: 99%

The International Handbook of the Demography of Race and Ethnicity

Sáenz¹,

Embrick²,

Rodríguez³

2015

International Handbooks of Population

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The International Handbooks of Population offer up-to-date scholarly summaries and sources of information on the major subject areas and issues of demography and population. Each handbook examines its particular subject area in depth, providing timely, accessible coverage of its full scale and scope, discusses substantive contributions for deeper understanding, and provides reliable guidance on the direction of future developments.Volumes will explore topics of vital interest: Population Aging, Poverty, Mortality, Family Demography, Migration, Race and Ethnic Demography and more. Each volume will provide a state-of-the-art treatment of its respective area. The series will quickly prove useful to a broad audience including demographers, practitioners and scholars across a range of disciplines.

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“… 23 Ronald Toby discusses Japan's relations with the non-Japanese world in a number of works, see inter alia Toby 1977 and 1991.…”

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Performing International Systems: Two East-Asian Alternatives to the Westphalian Order

Ringmar¹

2012

Int Org

121

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AbstractThis article provides a framework for the comparative study of international systems. By analyzing how international systems are framed, scripted, and performed, it is possible to understand how interstate relations are interpreted in different historical periods and parts of the world. But such an investigation also has general implications—inter alia for a study of the nature of power, the role of emotions in foreign policymaking, and public opinion formation. Case studies are provided by the Sino-centric, the Tokugawa, and the Westphalian systems. As this study shows, the two East Asian systems were in several respects better adapted than the Westphalian to the realities of international politics in the twenty-first century.

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Reopening the Question of Sakoku: Diplomacy in the Legitimation of the Tokugawa Bakufu

Cited by 44 publications

References 0 publications

Some Observations on the “Seventeenth-Century Crisis” in China and Japan

Some Observations on the “Seventeenth-Century Crisis” in China and Japan

The International Handbook of the Demography of Race and Ethnicity

Performing International Systems: Two East-Asian Alternatives to the Westphalian Order

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