1830 - 1844 Trying to Keep it Simple

Special thanks to arman for all his research and translations
In part some of this campe from Ito tetsuya's saito hajime nenpu
(since Im illiterate)

So as well al should know : japan was isolated. This didnt sit well with a lot of people. And Im not talking about the ones outsied of Japan eather. The Samurai had grown 'softer than women' and were the largest debters around. Merchants and wealthy farmers were the ones that usually 'govorned' the smaller provinces. The Pharon had pulled in with some shipwecked saiors, and a few missionarys (oh that couldnt have gone over well, esp when you consider WHY japan was isolated) and the bakufu was not in the mood for such things.

There wasnt much outside trade so you can imagine the market as more of a canabalistic thing that dog eat dog. So even though there was prospereity to a point, there was also civil unrest that couldnt be contained. Most of the Bakufu's power lay in the city so many of the land was rather unprotected (not satsuma though) so when the Pharon was turned away, people complained through publication. They were then arrested and questioned. Some ended up committing seppuku others were imprisoned.

It didnt hep that some people were extrodanarly paranoid about the russians. It wasnt with out bias, but a bit before its time. And its interesting when you look at the literature of these men in the early 1800's it was almost as if they were predicting the future, because all thier concerns seemed to come to pass.

There were some things in the western world that the schollers though would be rather beneficial to society, esp in the medical field. In all seriousness the only people the Japanese seemed to be able to tolerate were the dutch. Im sure I read about the chinese ships docking.

One thing I want to stress is that the foriegners who came to visit, stayed in one place far out of the public eye and their movements were controlled.

As far as the 'philosophy' of the day goes, we are looking at a synthasis between (in my mind anyway) of Confucionism, Buddhism and shintoism. I think to drastically simplify it would be LOYALTY to Emporer, Lord, Family in that order. The GROUP / WHOLE is greater than the individual.

As for the Samurai vs Ninja... another oversimplification would be Samurai was a RANK. The POINT of a Samurai was to die for thier lord at any given time and should be prepared for such. The Ninja were expected to survive and report back and was NOT a rank.

Around the time of the 1830's we see that rural leaders esp in the Shikoku domain of Tosa, who were snubbed not just bay Samurai of rank, but petty samurai of barely any rank, not to mention the more urban representatives, demanded surnames. Remember these leaders didnt exactally have rank. They had MONEY. After all of this in the 1840's these leaders (shoya) decided they were more prestegious than Samurai. To quote the Cambridge history of japan (insert copyrite data here) " Should we not say that the shoya, who is the head of the commoners, is superior to the retainers who are the hands or feet of the nobles?" (secret document)

T some point in time that my book is not mentioning, Aizawa talked to/questioned/interrogated some English whailer that had landed on Mito cost in Otsuhama. It says his suspicians of agression were confirmed, though he spoke no english and a small bit of Russian. "The Europeans, he con-eluded, "now endeavor to annex all nations in the world, The wicked doctrine of Jesus is an aid in this endeavor. Under the pretext of trade or whatever, they approach and become friendly with peoples in all areas, secretly probing to see which countries are strong and which are
weak. "9°

This might seem like an overblown xenophobic statement, untill you recall the fiasco where 'the church' attempted to anex a bit of japan. Also the Christian doctrine is directly conflicting to the beliefe system at its basic core of Honoring the Son of Heaven.



In the 1830's there was horrid weather bringing about famine. Even before this the Bakufu had been having to regulate prices of goods especially rice, This did absolutely nothing to help the matter. There was the added mass hysteria due to the every 60 yr eruption of Okagemairi. This time period is also known for its mass civil unrest. For example : 1831, in Choshu, for example, "a routin edemonstration against the domain's cotton monopoly suddenly spilled over into fourteen similar incidents, in which more than 100,000 people terrorized the entire area.1* In 1836, too, during the famine, the Gunnai region north of Mt. Fuji saw an incident involving an estimated 30,000 angry, hungry protestors - an event without parallel, according to one contemporary observer, "even in old military histories
and chronicles." Just a month later, another 10,000 demonstrators plunged the province of Mikawa into uproar, while in 1838 almost the entire island of Sado - some 250 villages in all - rose in anger.1'"

In 1837 The Morrison had a repeat of the Pharon... castaways, missionaries anchored in Edo bay. They were shot at, they were shot at again at Kagoshima a few days later. This same year, a rumor that Great Brittan was planning on annexing the Bonin Islands. (it was discussed yes, but was concluded to be a pointless endevor) As if people weren't paranoid enough. Then, in 1840 there was that bit o fighting in china. Im sure it didnt help much to quell people's feelings.

Keep in mind that nothing such as this had happened before under the Tokagawa Bkakufu. Perhaps here and there, riots or a civil unrest coupled with all this disturbing visitations not to mention 'information' sppeing in. There were roughly 1/2 million Samruai... all now beurocrats, not warriors. For the most part they were unable to protect thier nation. Whether in an insular way or from outsiders.

I think one of the lowest points if all the above wasnt enouth, there was the Rebellion of 1637. Most Samurai were much poorer than their ancestors; yeah they had stypends but infation happens. They couldnt afford things like equipment and such. It is said many resorted to drinking heavaly and gambling. Not only this but they borrowed money and never payed it back. Other problems included daimyo were not adiquitely utalizing thier own rescources as effectively, taxation was an issue. People moving into the city decreased the agricultural community. And when you think about it, many families produced much of thier own food, but now famers were more for commercial business. And it was the 'wealthy' land owners hiring laborers to work the land. Taxes just didnt work.

Even the Shogun was in debt. The political order was on very shakey ground at this time, and the bakun taisei was under question. "Under this system, political
authority was delegated by the emperor (whether he liked it or not) to
the shogun, the head of the Tokugawa house. The shogun in turn,
while commanding an establishment of his own to coordinate certain
national functions like foreign affairs and defense, delegated much of
the responsibility for local administration to 264 local rulers. These
daimyo (or their bureaucracies) governed their own domains, collected
their own taxes, and maintained their own armies. As vassals of the
shogun, they were obliged to give him whatever assistance he might
require, no matter what the cost to themselves, and so should they
prove negligent or miscreant, their lands and rank were to be forfeited"

To say the order had degraded by the Tempo era would be putting it mildly. Not to mentiont that the Shogunate, the Samurai could not protect Japan from outside invasion should it occure. They couldn't even keep the peace INside of the borders. Even now, while the Shogun enforced isolation, people were calling for an end of it, in the name of national security. I have not yet explained why it seems most Samuarai in the city ? Why were they now beurocrats?
Weren't they supposed to be ... everywhere???

Technically I suppose.... however, Tokagawa Iasha initiated the HOSTAGE system in order to enforce OBEDIANCE. So for one year the Samurai and his family, I beleive the diamyo's as well had to live in the city, and one year in their own domain.

There were many reforms around this time but one in particular stood out in my mind. The daimyo could now choose to repudate his depbts. Now 'comercial developements' were regulated, which cut taxes, not increased them. Oh wait, there is more ! Most do do with money, lack there of and monopolies. People of rank forcing people to give them loans. Business owners suffocating under regulations of what they can and cant produce and can and can't sell it. It was about this time that Satsuma, Choshu, Saga and Kumamoto, began to arm itself in a very proactive serious way. They were even sending people to be trained at Takashima Shuhan's school. The reforms sucked, no one was happy with them.

THe police were increased. Not that it helped
"The crisis in foreign affairs also was uniquely the shogun's concern.
His very title, supreme commander of the pacification of barbarians
{sei-i tai shdgun), made it impossible for that particular responsibility
to go to anyone else"
Keep in mind the port of Nagasaki was the ONLY port for outsiders.
Ineari Tokagawa retired in 1837 but with the help of his political friends, eps the ones refered to as: The Three spycophants. In 1841, Tokagawa Ineari, fell ill and died. Imediately the psychophants were dismised with in three months. Of all the senior officails only two remained.

In 1941 is where we see a major change in the Bakufu's isolation policy. This actually pleased quite a few people. They now allowed ships to dock and get supplies and retun cast aways. The ecconomic reforms at the time cenetered around the people leavign thier farms and seeking employment elsewhere. The bakufu became very strickt about staying in your POSITION there fore one's job reflected one's rank. The enforced monopolies were broken.

No tatooing !!! weird. The bakufu declaired war on imorality and frivolity. That probably didnt work very well. No senf indulgance for you !! The prostitution that was illigal (there was legally sanctioned prostitution by the way) was so out of controll that there were edicts issues as to restrict the occupations women in that profession would engage in as a cover for thie 'illicit' activities.

Then the bakufu 'retook' so to speak part of the daimyo's land. After ... two centruies, they were reminded the position of the Bakufu, this could not have been pleasant.

("you really arnt capturing the 'mood' All that is technical stuff. You dont mention the ......desolation there. We were all poor, we were frustraited. High ranking samruai were a flat pain in the ass, they treated lower ranks with the same disgust as ...well... everyone else. It was being locked into a desolate situation where you couldnt get above it no matter what you did. There was RAGE there. Sure you had the bussiness guys all puffy and offended and what that boiled down to was their money. But for us. we had no honor or pride. We were supposed to, but it just wasnt there. The whole time period was a keg filled with explosives for everyone. Everyone was paranoid, everyone looked down on everyone else. All people wanted was a better station in life and we COULD NOT have it !" )



greed, paranoia and a great desire on everyone part for changes, the only problem *is* what should those changes be? Its not like everyone could agree on anything. All of the politics, and decisions were not what the common man saw, just the results or lack there of. whether is was a lifting of a monopoly or a control on ethics. Lets just face it made it much harder to have fun and forget your troubles. What the common man worried about was not just putting food on the table but having the respect of those around him. While he watched people and thier greedey quest for power, he is on the sidlines toiling, sweat and tears. Bushido though unexplainable in western terms is tangible here, an achievement. Here almost every fascet of your life was governed by the rule of the Bakufu. Unfoturnately, even if the system was believed in, it was hardly effective. The bakuful could not keep the peace at this time nor put its people at ease. If I would describe this time period littered with woe, volcanoes erupting, famine running rampant, and wealthy land owners vying for power, that bakufu itself, had to show it was still strong by userping land from the daimyo. The drastic change of utter isolation to allowing ships to harbor for resuply and to bring back castaways. This is the way the age ends.