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(★)(In Asia, as in the Western world, the middle decades of the nineteenth century were filled with unrest and violence. Movements were in progress whose end result was fully as momentous as were the ending of slavery in America and serfdom in Russia. But the differences were equally important, for the Asian developments were speeded and affected in varying degree by the intervention of the West. Even where, as in Japan, the West impinged on traditional society with no thought of conquest, its evidence of the vitality of progress, constitutionalism, and industrialization provided new formulations which attracted or repulsed men who wanted change. In India the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857-1859 brought on the full measure of English control. In China the great Taiping Rebellion of 1850-1864 utilized a bizarre version of Christian doctrine to try to drive out the Manchu rulers and erect a new theocratic and communist state. The Taipings failed to win the support of the Chinese elite, but their milirary successes produced a setting in which foreign technology first became acceptable, because it was essential, to Chinese leaders.／ At mid-century Japan too faced the Western threat. Japan´s crisis came after those of India and China, and foreign conquest was never as real a danger as Japanese leaders thought. The decade between the negotiation of a commercial treaty with Townsend Harris in 1858 and the fall of the military government of the Tokugawa shogun in 1867 saw animosities and tensions that had long been present burst into flame, however, and the intellectual and political ferment of those years produced the Meiji Restoration.／ The Restoration led to a unified national state which struggled to achieve international equality and leadership in Asia. The successes of the Japanese leaders had an effect on neighboring Asian societies as stimulating as was that of revolutionary France on Europe. Sun Yat-sen, K´ang Yu-wei, Kim Ok-kiun, Emilio Aguinaldo, Subhas Chandra Bose, and many others dreamed of creating in their own countries something of the drive and unity that had first established in Japan the equality of Asian with European strength and ability. Many of these men credited the Japanese achievements to the colorful and dedicated nationalists who had led the Restoration movement, and as a result the Restoration activists became heroes for Asians who aspired to approximate their deeds. Within Japan the Meiji Restoration leaders also served as examples of a new and ideal type in politics : that of the idealistic, individualistic, and courageous patriot who gave his all for the Imperial cause --the ´shishi´. In the days before World War II in Japan the young officers of the armed services laid claim to this tradition as they flouted conventional standards of morality and discipline in their efforts to carry out a twentieth century ´Shoowa Restoration´.／ In view of the importance and the interest of the Japanese revolution, it is astonishing that Western scholarship has given it so little attention. In recent years Western writers, following the lead of social scientists in Japan, have concerned themselves more with the ´motive forces´ and with the significance of the Restoration than with the changes themselves and the men who helped bring them about. These are certainly vital concerns, but they ought properly to come after, and not before, descriptions of the events themselves.／ In this book I have chosen to tell the Restoration story by examining the career and thought of Sakamoto Ryooma and, to a lesser extent, Nakaoka Shintaroo. Both men were from Tosa, one of the fiefs that played an important role in Restoration politics. Both were of relatively low rank, and neither was at all at home in the circles of Japan´s ´Western experts´. Tosa, their home, contributed to, but did not lead the Restoration process, so that regional power politics and ambition were at first less involved in their education in world affairs than was the case with their counterparts in more powerful fiefs. Sakamoto and Nakaoka were murdered shortly after the shogun´s resignation in 1867, and our view of their Restoration activities is not colored by their subsequent eminence or failure. Nevertheless they had important and exciting roles in the Restoration drama. Sakamoto´s colorful career, in fact, has drawn to it the talents of so many Japanese authors and playwrights that romance has to some degree come to overshadow fact. The foreign scholar, however, is less affected by this ; published sources, which retain enough flavor of personality to explain the man´s attraction for biographers and authors, provide abundant opportunity to sift fiction from fact.／ I first became interested in the ´shishi´, these ´men of high purpose´, in research on the Chinese revolution. In later Meiji days the ´China roonin´, as the Japanese adventurers called themselves, and their Chinese friends like Sun Yat-sen compared themselves to the Restoration heroes. Further investigation in the democratic movement of nineteenth century Japan, a movement dominated by men from Tosa, led me to the Tosa scene in Restoration days. It is an area of tremendous interest and opportunity, and one which has hardly been touched. So few historians have concerned themselves with this, one of the great themes of recent world history, that my subject, Sakamoto Ryooma, has hitherto been scarcely mentioned in the Western literature on Japan. In telling his story I have necessarily had to concern myself with the way in which the Restoration came about, instead of discussing, in the terms common in Japan today, why it had to come. No doubt some light on those reasons has nonetheless emerged ; the idealism, dedication, and courage of the shishi was usually combined with a practicality and desire for self-attainment that made for something of a pattern of response to the challenge that was brought by the West. The influences and opportunities of the day had first to work on individuals, however, and it has seemed to me that the late Tokugawa scene had in it enough variety and contrast in motivation and belief to make it unlikely that it could be summed up in any single theory of causation.／ Much of the material on which this study is based was gathered in Japan during 1955 and 1956 during a stay made possible by a Ford Foundation fellowship. While in Tosa I was fortunate to make the acquaintance of Mr. Michio Hirao, an authority on local history to whom all Japanese and many foreign historians are indebted.[from ´INTRODUCTION´]／ ▼CONTENTS／ ●INTRODUCTION ●I.SAKAMOTO´S JAPAN／1.The Tokugawa Setting／2.Tosa／3.Tosa at Mid-Century ●II.THE RESPONSE TO THE WEST／1.The Tokugawa Response／2.Reforms in Tosa／3.The Education of Sakamoto Ryooma ●III.THE LOYALIST YEARS／1.The ´Shishi´ Type and Ideal／2.The Tosa Loyalist Party／3.The ´Shishi´ in National Politics／4.The Decline of Loyalist Extremism ●IV.SERVICE WITH KATSU／1.Katsu Rintaro／2.Sakamoto and Katsu／3.The Hyoogo Naval Academy／4.The Dismissal of Katsu ●V.THE SATSUMA-CHOOSHUU ALLIANCE／1.Saigoo Takamori and Satsuma／2.Nakaoka Shintaroo and Chooshuu／3.From ´Shishi´ to Statesmen／4.The Alliance ●VI.THE KAIENTAI／1.The Attack in the Teradaya／2.The Second Chooshuu Expedition／3.Changes in Tosa／4.The Nagasaki Scene／5.Reinstatement and Support for the Kaientai ●VII.THE EIGHT-POINT PROGRAM／1.The Advantage of Tosa Support／2.The Shogun Yoshinobu (Keiki)／3.The Kyoto Conference／4.Program for a New Government／5.The Icarus Affair ●VIII.RESTORATION／1.Yoodoo´s Petition to Keiki／2.Preparations for War／3.The End of the Bakufu／4.Sakamoto and the New Government／5.The Warriors Become ´Kami´ ●IX.THE RESTORATION IN TOSA／1.The Stages of Response to the West／2.The Leaders and their Aims／3.The Problem of Class Interest) |
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