Bakumatsu

The fine of the Shogunat Tokugawa or Bakumatsu ( bakumatsu ) is the period of 1853 with 1867 during which Japan put an end to its isolationist policy called Sakoku and modernized the feudal system shogunat to give rise to the government Meiji. This period thus marks the end of the time of Edo and precedes the Meiji era. The principal ideological factions and involved policies were on the one hand holding them pro-impérialistes Ishin Shishi (Nationaliste S patriotic) and on the other hand by the forces Shogun ales, which included/understood the elite Shinsengumi . If these two groups were most powerful, of many other factions tried to benefit from the chaos of this time to seize the capacity.

Moreover, two other currents accentuated the dissensions: initially the dissatisfaction growing with the Tozama daimyo (exiled lords), then the feeling anti-Westerner growing vis-a-vis the arrival of Perry. The first came from the lords having fought against the forces of Tokugawa to Sekigahara (about the year 1600) and which had then been exiled definitively far from the decisive positions during the shogunat. The second expresses himself by the currency Sonnō jōi (“révérer the Emperor, to expel the barbarians”). The decisive moment of the bakumatsu took place during the Guerre of Boshin and the battle of Toba-Fushimi, where the forces of the shogunat were overcome.

The convention of Kanagawa (1854)

The arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and of its squadron of four vessels in bay of Edo in July 1853 plunged the bakufu (shogunat) in the storm. The chief of the higher advisers, Abe Masahiro (1819-1857), was charged to negotiate with the Americans. Without precedent to manage such a threat for the safety of the country, Abe tried to reconcile the desires of the advisers who wanted to find a compromise with the foreigners, those of the emperor which wanted to return the foreigners, and those of the Daimyo (feudal lords) which wanted the war. In the absence of consensus, Abe ends up accepting the requests of Perry by opening Japan with the foreign trade, while making military preparations. In March 1854, the Convention of Kanagawa, while maintaining the prohibition of the trade, opened three ports (Nagasaki, Shimoda and Hakodate) with the American boats in the search of provisions, guarantees to a good treatment the American sailors shipwrecked men, and made it possible an American consul to be installed in Shimoda, a port on the Péninsule of Izu in the south-west of Edo.

Political disturbances and modernization

The damage on the bakufu was considerable. To discuss on the policy of the government was unusual, and had made emerge critics of the bakufu . In the hope to find new allies, Abe, with the great consternation of the Fudai , also consulted the shinpan and the tozama daimyo , which undermined even more the bakufu already weakened.

During the reform Ansei (1854-1856), Abe tried to reinforce defenses by ordering warships and armaments Dutch, and by building new harbor defenses. In 1855, with the assistance of the Holland, Japan accepted its first warship to vapor, the Kankō Maru , which was used for the drive, and opened the center of naval drive of Nagasaki, with Dutch instructors; a military academy based on the Western model was also opened in Edo. In 1857, Japan acquired its first propeller ship, the Kanrin Maru . The scientific knowledge took for base the Western notes or rangaku .

The opposition to Abe became extensive within the fudai , where the advisers of the bakufu opposed the tozama daimyo , and it was replaced in 1855 by Hotta Masayoshi (1810-1864). The chief of the dissenting faction was Tokugawa Nariaki, which combined a great honesty with the emperor with strong feelings anti-foreigners, and who accepted the load of national defense in 1854. The purpose of the Mito school, which combined principles Shinto and néo-Confucianists, was the restoration of the imperial institution and the reference of the Westerners.

The Treaty of friendship and trade (1858)

After the nomination of Townsend Harris at the post of consul of the the United States in 1856 and two years of negotiations, it was signed in 1858 and applied to semi-1859. Thanks to a skilful diplomatic operation, Harris had abundantly commented on the aggressiveness of the France and the Great Britain vis-a-vis in China in the Second war of opium (1856-1860), suggesting that these two countries would not hesitate to declare the war in Japan and that the United States offered a pacifist alternative. The important points of the treaty were:

exchange of diplomatic agents
the ports of Edo, Kobe, Nagazaki, Niigata and Yokohama opened with the foreign trade
the American citizens were free of living and to trade in these ports (only the trade of Opium was prohibited)
a system of Extraterritorialité made it possible to the foreign citizens to be judged according to the laws of their countries instead of the Japanese laws in the commercial courts
of the weak taxes to export and with the importation étient fixed, under the control from abroad, thus depriving the Japanese government of control on the international business and protection of its own industries (the taxes went down to 5% in the years 1860)
Japan could buy ships and American weapons; three steamers were delivered in 1862

Japan was to also apply these conditions to the other foreign nations, subject to agreement of the United States. Quickly, several countries obtained similar treaties with Japan (Great Britain, France, Russia…) Commercial firms were installation in the ports opened abroad.

Crises and conflicts

Political crisis

Hotta lost the support of principal the daimyo , and when Tokugawa Nariaki was opposed to the new treaty, Hotta required an imperial sanction. The imperial judges, guessing the weakness of the bakufu , rejected the complaint, mixing Kyoto and the emperor with the policy for the first time since several centuries. When the shogun died without heir, Nariaki called upon the court to support his/her own son Tokugawa Yoshinobu says Keiki for the succession of the shogun , a candidature supported by the shinpan and tozama daimyo . The fudai ends up gaining this fight to be able, installed Naosuke II as a shogun , made stop Nariaki and Keiki and made carry out Yoshida Shoin (1830-1859), a powerful intellectual sonnō-jōi who had opposed the treaty and projected a revolution against the bakufu . New treaties with the United States were signed, putting an end to more than 200 years of isolationism.

Modernization, economic crisis and risings

The opening of Japan to an uncontrolled foreign trade involved a strong economic instability. Whereas certain tradesmen thrived, much of others went bankrupt. The Chômage increased as well as the Inflation. In same time, strong famines enormously made increase the price of food. Incidents took place between foreigners and of the Japanese.

The Japanese monetary system collapsed. Traditional foreign exchange rate between money and gold in Japan was of 1 per 5, while the foreign rates turned rather around 1 per 15. This gave place to massive purchases of Japanese gold by foreign investors, who forced the Japanese authorities to devaluate their currency.

The foreigners also brought the Choléra to Japan (probably of India) and made hundreds of thousands of died by disease.

In the years 1860, the country revolts ( hyakushō ikki ) and urban violences ( uchikowashi ) multiplied. A movement of “revival of the world” ( yonaoshi ikki ) appeared, as well as other movements of hysteria as the Eejanaika (“this is not marvellous”).

The bakufu set up various missions, having for goal to learn some more on Western civilization, to make revise uneven treaties, and to delay the opening of the cities and ports with the foreign trade. However, these efforts remained largely unfruitful.

A Japanese Embassy in the United States was sent in 1860 on board the Kanrin Maru and the WORN Powhattan . A First Japanese Embassy in Europe was sent in 1862.

Murder from abroad and armed conflict

Violence grows against the foreigners and those which traded with them. Naosuke II, which had signed the Treaty of friendship and trade and which had made eliminate the opponents with occidentalization during the Ansei reform, was assassinated in March 1860 with Sakuradamon. Henry Heusken, the Dutch translator of Townsend Harris, was killed in January 1861. This same year, the British delegation of Edo was attacked, which made two dead. For this period, approximately a foreigner was killed each month. In September 1862, the Incidental of Namamugi, known as Richardson business, obliged the foreign nations to make violent decisions to protect their citizens and to guarantee the application of the treaties. In May 1863, the American embassy with Edo was burnt.

The opposition armed to the Western influence degenerated into armed conflict when the emperor Kōmei, breaking with centuries of imperial tradition, took an active role in the businesses of State by proclaiming the March 11th and April 11th, 1863 his “Order to expel the barbarians” (攘夷実行の勅命). The Chōshū clan based in Shimonoseki, under the orders of the lord Mori Takachika, followed the orders of the emperor and started to drive out the foreigners starting from May 10th. Defying the shogunat openly, Takachika made draw without warning on all the foreign ships which tried to cross the strait of Shimonoseki.

Under the pressure of the emperor, the shogunat had to proclaim the end of the relations with the foreigners. This order was transmitted to the foreign delegations by Ogasawara Zusho No Kami on June 24th, 1863: The orders of Shogun, receipts of Kyoto, are to make close the ports and to make leave the foreigners, because the people of our country do not wish relations with the foreign countries. The lieutenant-colonel Neale, chief of the British delegation, answered in very believed terms, interpreting the order like a declaration of war: It is in fact a declaration of war by Japan against all the forces of the Treaty, and if one does not put at it fine immediately, Japan will have to undergo of them the consequences by a punishment of most severe and more deserved. One Second Japanese Embassy in Europe was sent in December 1863 with an aim of obtaining the support of Europe to close Japan with the foreign trade again, and in particular to block the access from abroad to the port of Yokohama. But the embassy was a total failure, Europeans not seeing any advantage to reach these requests.

Western military interventions

The American influence, very important at the beginning, declined as from 1861 with the beginning of the American Civil War (1861-1865) which mobilized all the American military resources. This influence was quickly replaced by that of Great Britain, France and Holland.

The two heads of the opposition to the bakufu were the clans Chōshū and Satsuma. As the first was related to the attacks of foreign ships in the strait of Shimonoseki and the second with the Richardson business, and that the bakufu was declared unable to punish them, the allied forces reflect in place of the direct military actions.

American intervention (July 1863)

The morning of July 16th, 1863, under the order of the Pruyn minister, apparently to answer the attack of the Pembroke , the frigate WORN Wyoming , ordered by the MacDougal captain, began in the strait of Shimonoseki and attacked the rebellious fleet, built in the United States but equipped with a reduced crew. In nearly two hours of battle without retirement, MacDougal ran an enemy ship and damaged two others seriously and made of them nearly forty dead among Japanese, while the Wyoming also suffers heavy damage, with fourteen dead or wounded team members.

French intervention (August 1863)

On the traces of MacDougal and Wyoming , two weeks later, two French ships, the Tancrède and the Dupleix , containing 250 men ordered by Benjamin Jaurès, engaged in the strait of Shimonoseki and destroyed a small town and at least a station of artillery.

British bombardment of Kagoshima (August 1863)

August 15th, 1863 took place the bombardment of Kagoshima, in response to the Incident of Namamugi and the murder of the British tradesman Richardson. The Royal Navy bombarded the town of Kagoshima and destroyed several ships. Satsuma negotiated thereafter and paid 25.000 books in repair, but did not give the murderers of Richardson to the British, who however agreed to provide warships to vapor with Satsuma. The conflict became the starting point of a close relationship between Satsuma and the British, who were combined thereafter during the Guerre of Boshin. Since the beginning, the Province of Satsuma was generally favorable to the opening and the modernization of Japan. The incident of Namamugi did not form part of the strategy of Satsuma, but later, it was shown wrongly like a typical example of feeling sonnō jōi anti-foreigner and like a justification of Western repressions.

Allied bombardment of Shimonoseki (September 1864)

Naval forwarding of Hyōgo (November 1865)

The bakufu being unable to pay the 3 million pounds requested by the Westerners after the intervention of Shimonoseki, the foreign nations accepèrent to reduce the amount, in exchange of a ratification of the Treaty of Friendship and Trade by the Emperor, of a lowering of the taxes of customs to 5%, and opening of the ports of Hyōgo (today Kobe) and of Osaka to the foreign trade. In order to make pressure to make accept their request, the Westerners sent a squadron of four British ships, Dutch and three French with Hyōgo in November 1865. Several incursions had him, until the Emperor agrees to put an end to his opposition to the Treaty, by authorizing Shogun officially to lead the negotiations with the foreign forces.

These conflicts led Japan to realize that a direct conflict with the Western forces was not a solution. While the bakufu continued its efforts of modernization, the daimyo of the West were intensively modernized in order to build stronger Japan and to establish a more legitimate government under the supervision of the Emperor.

Revival and modernization of Bakumatsu

The last years of the bakufu , or bakumatsu , transfer the bakufu to take strong measures to try to restore its influence, whereas its implication in modernization and occidentalization made of it the main target of the resentment anti-Westerner which reigned in the country.

Sailors were sent to study in the Western naval colleges during several years, marking the beginning of a tradition of senior officers trained abroad, like the admiral Enomoto. The naval engineer Leonce Vermy was charged to build arsenals, of which those of Nagasaki and Yokosuka. At the end of the shogunat Tokugawa in 1867, the fleet of Japan had eight warships to vapor with Western around the Kaiyō Maru , which were used against the pro-imperial forces during the Guerre of Boshin under the command of the admiral Enomoto. In 1867, a Military French Mission in Japan was sent to modernize the armies of the bakufu . Japan sent a delegation to take part in the World Fair of 1867 in Paris.

Venerating the Emperor as a symbol of the unit, of the extremists channeled violence against the bakufu and the foreigners. The foreign reprisals of the bombardment of Kagomashi led to the signature of a new commercial treaty in 1865, but Yoshitomi was unable to make respect this new treaty. In 1866, the army of the bakufu was overcome while trying to subdue the rebellion of the clans Chōshū and Satsuma. Finally, in 1867, the Kōmei Emperor died and was replaced by his second Mutsuhito wire, known under the name of Empereur Meiji.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu says Keiki took, unwillingly, the head of the Tokugawa clan and the shogunat after the brutal death of Tokugawa Iemochi in the middle of the year 1686. It tried to reorganize the government under the supervision of the Emperor while preserving the role of leader of the shogun , a known sysème under the name of kōbu gattai . Fearing the rise to power of the daimyo of Choshu and Satsuma, others daimyo claimed that the shogun returns its capacity to the Emperor and a council of daimyo . Threatened by an imminent military action of Chōshū and Satsuma, Keiki gave up part of its authority.

End of the bakufu

Whereas Keiki had temporarily avoided the conflict, the anti-shogunat forces sowed panic in the streets of Edo thanks to groups of Rōnin . The troops of Satsuma and Chōshū went then on Kyoto, pressing the imperial court to establish fine edict putting at the shogunat. According to the council of the daimyo , the Emperor proclaimed such an edict which withdrew all forces with the shogunat with the end of the year 1867. However, the clans radical Satsuma, Chōshū and other chiefs rebelled, took by storm the imperial palace and proclaimed their own restoration on January 3rd, 1868. Keiki accepted the edict and left the imperial court for Osaka while giving up its title of shogun .

In fear that the shogunat made pretense accept the edict to consolidate in secrecy its capacity, the confrontations continued and degenerated into military confrontation between Tokugawa and the allied forces of Satsuma, Tosa and Chōshū, in Fushimi and Toda. Whereas the battle turned in discredit of the forces shogunales, Keiki left Osaka for Edo, putting fine at the capacity of Tokugawa and the shogunat which had directed Japan during 250 years.

After the War of Boshin (1868-1869), the bakufu was abolished and Keiki reduced to the role of simple daimyo . Resistance persevered in North in 1868 and the naval forces shogunales of the admiral Enomoto Takeaki resisted for six months Hokkaidō, where transitory the République independent of Ezo was founded. The war ended at the time of the battle of Hakodate, after one month of engagements.

See too

Important personalities

Ōmura Masujirō
Sakamoto Ryoma
Kondo Isami
Hijikata Toshizo
Takasugi Shinsaku
Matsudaira Katamori
Saigo Takamori
Tokugawa Yoshinobu
Yoshida Shoin
Katsura Kogoro
Nomura Motoni
Matthew C. Perry

Matsudaira Yoshinaga, Date Munenari, Yamanouchi Toyoshige and Shimazu Nariaki are often gathered under the name of.

Foreign observers:

Ernest Satow in Japan of 1862 to 1869
Edward and Henry Schnell
Robert Bruce Van Valkenburgh

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