Why the Emperor?

To understand Aizawa Seishisai’s position, we need to look deeper at the intellectual history of the Edo period. With the ending of the Sengoku, the new Edo Bakufu turned to administration and ensuring its own power, and so peace. One of the ways this was done was to import Confucianism, and Aizawa’s Mito Domain was one of the strongest advocates of Confucianism. Confucianism was, of course, a very Sino-centric philosophy. China was the Middle Kingdom, its place demonstrated by its superior (Confucian) culture. Surrounding it were uncivilized barbarians. This presents a problem for Japanese thinkers. While a few accepted China’s cultural superiority, naturally many more balked at the idea of debasing themselves as inferior barbarians.

One group of scholars found refuge in the interpretation of the Confucian Classics by Zhu Xi. Zhu Xi interpreted Confucius as saying that the barbarians were not inherently inferior, and if they had good rulers who practiced good culture and rulership they would be superior to China who (at the time) did not. By this interpretation, superiority was not determined by ethnicity but by proper cultural practice. Logically then, and with some clever re-interpretation of the Classics, the Japanese could say that while they were ethnically barbarian, they were not inferior, but in fact superior to China. What better proof was this than that the Japanese Imperial House was unbroken since 660 BC, while the Chinese one changed hands countless times? In accordance with Confucian philosophy, this must mean that Japan’s been better at following the proper way of culture than China.

Despite this, what the Confucian scholars still espoused was, of course the superiority of Confucian culture. It might not be practiced properly in China, but it was still superior. And it was through the practice of this superior culture was Japan brought into order. The implication was then that historical Japanese were uncivilized barbarians until they imported Confucianism. The scholars of kokugaku, who came to dominate the discourse of the 18th century, focused their studies on classical Japanese literature and held traditional Japanese culture as superior. To Motoori Norinaga, one of kokugaku’s most influential scholars, the historical Confucians (and Buddhists) talked big to compensate for they were inferior in reality. In contract, the traditional Japanese had no need to exaggerate things because they were inferior. What better proof was this than the fact that the Japanese Imperial House was descendent of the Sun Goddess and its rule unbroken since 660 BC? This must mean that the Japanese existed through divine will.

Who were the Barbarians?

Throughout all this time, European science and technology have entered Japan through trade with the Dutch. Indeed, the inaccuracies of Chinese knowledge, proven by rangaku (Dutch Studies), was one of the grounds that the kokugaku attacked the Confucians, though they didn’t accept the superiority of the Europeans either. Rangaku scholars, however, thought perhaps the Europeans weren’t so barbaric after all. In Kanrei higen, Maeno Ryōtaku espoused the idea that perhaps the Dutch were superior to China and even Japan. Maeno, as a doctor, believed the teaching of ancient sages, shared the common goal of taking care of the needy through government policy. Maeno believed that European states also don’t suffer from usurpation and dynastic change and at the same time controlled most of the world. To Maeno, this must mean European culture was superior. He identified the idea that Christianity was integrated into and propagated by the state as the reason for the success of European culture. Though the Kanrei higen was never published, as its ideas would’ve been illegal, its manuscript was widely circulated in rangaku circles.

Maeno’s idea of Christianity having the advantage of being the sole state religion, which in turn was an advantage of the European states, was shared by others. In the 1709 when Confucian Arai Hakuseki interrogated Christian missionary Giovanni Battista Sidotti who tried to smuggle into Japan, Arai though agreeing with Sidotti that Christian missionaries were not a fifth column for foreign invasion was still of the idea that Christianity would create disorder by fostering a loyalty among the Japanese independent of the Bakufu. In the minds Aizawa and others, however, in European nations Christianity as the sole state religion was a unifying force that allowed the government to mobilize commoners as well as nobles to do its bidding.

While it was still decades away from Perry’s expedition, Japan was already feeling pressured from foreigners. The Russians had been increasing their presence in the far east. Not only had the Russians sent out exploratory fleets and tried to request trade rights, they had taken over Sakhalin, skirmished with the Japanese, and took the other northern islands which, in Aizawa’s view, were part of Ezochi and therefore should have been Japan’s. The Dutch’s naval dominance in the far east had played a vital part in keeping the other European powers away from the south, and with the decline of the Dutch’s fortunes, so it meant that ships from other powers began to challenge to make it to Japan’s shores. By the 19th century, the Dutch were in such dire straits that they had to hire other ships to fly Dutch colours to trade with the Japanese, and between 1797 and 1817, of 22 western ships that went to Nagasaki, only 8 were Dutch, with 9 being American, 3 British, one Danish, and one from Bremen (Germany). While the Dutch tried their best to keep the Bakufu from finding out, the Bakufu had other sources in the form of shipwrecked Japanese sailors repatriated to Japan. Aizawa knew that the foreigners were lying to the Japanese to get in. In 1807, the British frigate HMS Phaeton went so far as to barge into Nagasaki harbour, take a couple Dutch traders hostage, demand supplies, and sailed off before troops from the neighbouring clans arrived. The Nagasaki authorities could do nothing but comply. British ships also came to the Japanese coast, as British ship Brothers in 1818 and Saracen in 1822.