Teacher request...

by Repulsive-Freedom-82

I have a passage that is used in one of my ELA lessons and I would love to know if there are any issues with this from a Japanese history and culture perspective?

"In 1633, Japan was being ruled by its final feudal government or "shogunate.” Shogunates were led by a "shogun," a military ruler who held almost absolute power. At this time, the shogunate was run by the Tokugawa family clan.

Up to this point, Japan had been a rising attraction for foreign trade. Though global attention had some benefits, it also came with problems. Trade with other countries invited piracy, which flared along Japan’s coasts. It also sped the arrival of Catholicism from Spain and Portugal. European influence soon took root in the south of Japan and was spreading.

The shogunate did not like this at all. They did not like the erosion of traditional Japanese culture. Perhaps more than that, they saw the colonial influence as a threat to their power.

The shogun in 1633, Tokugawa Iemitsu, took action. In order to stop this "cultural invasion,” he enacted a sakoku, a strict policy to isolate Japan from the rest of the world. The word "sakoku” means "closed country.” Under the sakoku, trade and migration were strictly limited. Most foreigners were not allowed into the country. Japanese nationals were not allowed out. The sakoku held for 220 years. It finally came to an end in 1853."

Thoughts?

ParallelPain

Not sure what ELA is, but yes there's lots of problems with that.

  1. "Feudal" is a loaded term, and most historians today would probably not say Edo-era Japan was "feudal."
  2. "Shogunate" is an English term. The Bakufu (the Japanese term) was strong and the Shōgun powerful, but no where near absolute. Also "absolute power" and "feudal" is contradictory.
  3. In the form of armed raiders pillaging the coast and attacking ships, piracy was not a problem for Japan in 1633 and had not been for some time. When piracy was a problem for Japan in the 16th century, it was caused by general instability and widespread warfare, not foreign trade.
  4. "Sakoku" as a term did not appear until the 1800s.
  5. The laws for "Sakoku" was not passed in 1633, but a series of laws passed in the 1630s and 40s, and could arguably be traced back as early as the first of the Bakufu's anti-Christian edict of 1612 and forward as late as 1825 with the edict to fire on and drive off all ships. 1633 was simply the edict to require all ships going abroad to carry official orders from the rōjū (government elders) on top of the already required red seals certificates and barred Japanese who had spent a long time abroad from returning.
  6. There was no restriction in the 1630s and 40s on the volume of trade. In fact, volume of trade from foreign ships continued to increase for some time. When restrictions actually were put in place in the late 17th and early 18th century, they were done due to Japan's mines drying up to prevent the outflow of bullions.
  7. The VOC (Dutch East India Company), and after it dissolved in 1799 the Dutch East Indies, continued to trade with Japan throughout the Edo period and brought it vital knowledge of the outside world. Even at its most strict limitation in 1743, the annual limit on Dutch trade with Japan was still worth 2 metric tonnes of silver and 308 metric tonnes of copper.
  8. The Dutch trade brought Japan so much knowledge that it formed its own school of learning and influenced Japanese philosophy.

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