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The Edo Experience and Japanese Nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

W. G. Beasley
W. G. Beasley
Affiliation:
University of London
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Extract

It is generally accepted that nationalism has two frames of reference. One is external: the pursuit of national independence, asserting the nation's freedom from domination by other states or groups. The second is internal: a commitment to national unity, requiring political and social cohesion. Both are associated with awareness of cultural identity, which is the nation's image of itself in terms of those characteristics that are held to be common to its members.

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Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 1984, pp. 555 - 566
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 On Yamaga Sokō, see Earl, David M., Emperor and Nation in Japan (Seattle, 1964), pp. 38–51.Google Scholar Tokugawa views of China's cultural centrality have recently been discussed in an article by Harootunian, Harry D., ‘The functions of China in Tokugawa thought’, in Iriye, Akira (ed.), The Chinese and the Japanese (Princeton, 1980), pp. 9–36.Google Scholar

2 See especially Masao, Maruyama, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan (Princeton and Tokyo, 1974), pp. 135–85.Google Scholar

3 Much of the argument that follows is based on material I have used in two earlier books: Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy 1853–1868 (London, 1955),Google Scholar especially the introduction; and The Meiji Restoration (Stanford, 1972), chiefly chapters 3 to 8. Since both works are heavily annotated, I propose to be sparing with bibliographical references in this paper.

4 Shigeo, Inobe, ‘Sakuma Shōzan no taigai iken’, Kokugaku Zasshi, vol. 30 (1924), pp. 624–8.Google Scholar

5 Discussions concerning this are summarized, and the text of the final Bakufu decision given, in Kokushi Daijiten (Tokyo, 1936),Google Scholar under kokki.

6 Translated in Tsunoda, R. et al. , Sources of Japanese Tradition (New York, 1958), p. 528.Google Scholar See also on this point Harootunian, ‘Functions of China’, pp. 26–36.

7 Maruyama, Studies, pp. 287–8.

8 Chang, Richard T., From Prejudice to Tolerance. A Study of the Japanese Image of the West 1826–1864 (Tokyo, 1970), p. 144.Google Scholar

9 Memorial of 1 Oct. 1853, in Beasley, Select Documents, pp. 117–19.

10 Maruyama, Studies, p. 344.

11 Memorial of Jan. 1858, in Beasley, Select Documents, pp. 174–6.

12 Maruyama, Studies, p. 358.

13 Letter of Sept. 1846, quoted in Akira, Tanaka, Meiji ishin seiji-shi kenkyū (Tokyo, 1963). PP. 56–7.Google Scholar

14 Memorial of Aug. 1853, in Beasley, Select Documents, at p. 105.

15 Maruyama, Studies, p. 310.

16 Letter of May 1862, in Junnan Rokkō (3 vols, Tokyo, 1933), I, 346–9.Google Scholar

17 Blacker, Carmen, ‘Ōhashi Totsuan. A study in anti-Western thought’, Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan, 3rd. Ser., vol. 7 (1959), pp. 147–68, at p. 165.Google Scholar

18 Memorandum of Dec. 1857, in Beasley, Select Documents, at p. 167.

19 Chang, From Prejudice to Tolerance, pp. 172–3, 178, 181. For a more extended analysis of Sakuma's ideas, see Harootunian, Harry D., Toward Restoration. The Growth of Political Consciousness in Tokugawa Japan (Berkeley, 1970), ch. 3.Google Scholar