UNIT 5 JAPAN ON THE EVE OF THE

MEIJI RESTORATION
Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Feudalism in Japan : 1600-1868 (the Tokugawa Era)
5.2.1 Economic and Political Structure
5.2.2 The Agrarian Basis--Rent and Tax
5.2.3 Structute of the Japanese Village
~ v i l u t i o nand Change under the Tokugawa Peace
5.3.1 Specialisation and the Growth of Exchange
5.34 Sankin-Kotai and the Merchant Class
5.3.3 Rise in Productivity-Sources and Effects
The Question of the Burden on €he Peasantry and Indices of Peasant
Discontent
The Impact of the West on Japan
Let Us Sum Up
Key Words
Some Useful Books
AnswedHints to Check Your Progress Exercises

5.0 OBJECTIVES

After reading this unit yb~rwill have an idea of:

the structure of J a p a n e e edonomy and society before the age of I$odern
economic growth starting in 1868
the changes within this structure which led to capitalist production and
social tensions conducive t o change
the catalytic efrect of the impact of Western penetration.

5.1 INTRODUCTION

The study of Japanese industrialisation has been of great interest to students

of economic history and of development problems alike, owing to twc
factors. First, Japan has been the only Asian country to achieve an
independent route to capitalist industrialisation starting in the third quarter a

of the 19th century. Second, an unprecedented speed of transformation of

economic and social structure has marked this process such that within a few
decades Japan was challenging the established European and N. American
powers not only at the economic but also at the political level; while its post
second world war recons~uctionand growth has been so rapid that it now
ranks as the second largest econoyy in the world after the U.S.A.

Scholars of Japanese development from the west tended to adhere at first t o

a somewhat simplistic view that it was the coercive impact of the western
powers on Japan which shook it out of its feudal lethargy and initiated the
process of modern development. Recent research substantiates the more
Eccmomic Hbtory of Japan-] rCAistic propokition, however, that very significant trends of growth of
exchange relations, of productivity, and of capitalist enterprise marked the
late Tokugawa era and provided the conditions which w e 5 conducive to
change. The specific timing of the political transition known as the Meiji
~ e h o r a t i o nmay have been determined by the Western impact, but it is
necessary to go back to a study of the developments in the Tokugawa period
in order to appreciate the long-term basis of the transformation.

5.2 FEUDALISM IN JAPAN 1600-1868 (THE

TOKUGAWA ERA)

The origins of Japanese feudalism go back to the 8th century A.D. We take
up the story however, only in 1600, when the Battle d Sekigahara was
fought, in which Tokugawa Iyeyasu led a confederation of clans to victory
against an opposition coalition of clans and established the Tokugawa
Shogunate (or Regency) in 1603 which was to rule Japan for the next two
and a half centuries. The clans which had fought alongside Tokugawa were
known as the fudai while those which had comprised the opposition were the
tozama or 'outside' hans.

5.2.1 Economic and Political Structure

The economic basis of Japanese feudalism as indeed of feudalism anywhere,
was the appropriation of the agricultural surplus from the peasantry without
payment, by a class of overlords. The details of the system of estimation and
collection of the agricultural surplus are discussed in the next section. Here
let us consider the overall structure of Japanese society in this period.
About four-fi fths of the entire population consisted of the peasantry, who
cultivated the land, which they held in units of varying size, on the condition
of payment of fifty per cent of rice output to the overlord, known as daimyo.
The whole of the area of Japan was divided into a few hundred hans or
territorial units, each under the control of a hereditarily ruling clan led by a
noble, the daimyo. At the beginning of the Tokugawa era the daimyo
numbered 194, while at its end the number of hans and of daimyo had
increased to 266. The daimyo maintained large bands of armed warriors, or
samurai apart from their personal retainers. All were maintained out of the
surplus produced by the peasantry, the samurai being given stipends in rice
by the daimyo.

About 75 t o 80 per cent of the total cultivated area was under the various
hans of the daimyo while the remaining 20 to 25 per cent was under the
direct control of the shogunate, a part being assigned for the maintenance of
the Emperor's establishment. Although the titular head and sovereign in
Japanese society, the Emperor was in practice powerless and led a shadowy
existence surrounded by the kuge or nobles of ancient lineage, in Kyoto. The
Tokugawa ruled in the Emperor's name from the capital city, Edo (known as
Tokyo in modern times), through the Bakufu (loosely translated as 'military
dictatorship'). The Shogunate maintained its own troops, known as hatamoto
out of the rent-cum-tax collected from its territories.
The samurai class was quite numerous, making up 6 t o 7 per cent of the
population: while if the other members of the ruling class and their personal
retainers are added, some 9 t o 10 per cent of the population can be said at
that time to be engaged in no productive work contributing to material
output. The remaining 10 per cent of the non-peasant population was made
nn nf artisans a n d merchants. ranging from the small-scale pedlars t o the
Feudaksociety in Japan was characterised by a very rigid hierarchy. Only the Japan on the Eve o f
the Meiji Resloration
ruling classes-the nobility headed by Shogun and Emperor, and the warrior
class of Samurai-had any social status and political rights within the
system. Merchants, artisans, peasants and those providing services were
without any political rights and were assigned a very low social status. The
formal division under the Tokugawa was into four classes by rank (known as
the shi-no-ko-sho structure), considering the population other than the
Emperor, Shogun and diamyo: shi referred to the samurai, no to the
peasants, ko to the artisans and manufacturers, and sho to the merchants.
Beneath these four-groups however there were further divisions of people
considered so 'sub-human' such that they were not fitted into the formal
categories: these were termed the 'hinin' o r literally, non-people, and below
them in turn were the burakumin or outcastes who were the ethnic Japanese.
None other than the daimyo and samurai were permitted to carry arms.

The daimyo with his warriors resided in a fortified'castle, around which

clustered the habitations of the civilian population providing goods and
services for the consumption of the nobles and their establishment. The
castle-town, orjoka-machi was also a centre for the activities of the merchants
trading in agricultural and manufactured goods. Few villages in Japan were
more than 20 miles away from a joka-machi.

As Japan is a system of four islands, ports dealing in trade had developed

such as Osaka, Nagasaki, Yokohama and Kagoshima. In the early Tokugawa
period Japanese traded extensively with the Asian mainland countries and
piracy along the coast of China by Japanese ships was common. Alarmed by
the irriursions of the European missionaries and traders, the Shogunate
forbade by 1638 any external trade and also banned travel abroad by the
Japanese. In consequence Japan became virtually a closed economy, with
only a handful of Dutch missionaries and private traders being permitted by
the local daimyo to remain on a small island, Deshima in Nagasaki bay.
Shipping therefore became restricted to coastal trade within Japan.
Manufacturing production was on an artisanal basis. Cotton and silk textiles
and articles of everyday use were produced. The artisans were organised into
gilds, as were the merchants. The town of Nishijin was an important centre
of silk textile production. Osaka was the main centre for the activities of the
merchants or chonin. It was estimated that nearly three-quarters of the
mercantile wealth of Japan was concentrated in Osaka. A fairly high level of
urbanisation had been reached by the 18th century in Japan. By 1730, Edo
was probably the world's largest city with over half a million inhabitants
while both Osaka and Kyoto reached this size by 1800. With several large
ports and castle-towns, it is not surprising that urban population was about
22 per cent by 1800.

5.2.2 The Agrarian Basis-Rent and Tax

The main crops grown in Japan were rice-accounting for over 75 per cent of
cultivated area-millets, cotton, hemp, oilseeds, and mulberry on which silk
worms were raised. At the beginning of the Tokugawa period each village
was more or less self-sufficient in producing nearly every other crop besides
the basic foodgrain, rice.
The agricultural surplus was extracted from the peasantry in the form of a
rent-cum-tax paid in rice. It was a rent t o the extent that the decentralised
feudal domains, the han, were under the .hereditary proprietorship of the
daimyo who collected this surplus. It could be called a tax t o the extent that
upto a quarter of the territory was controlled by the central government of
the Shogunate which similarly collected the surplus in kind. Unlike in
 European feudalism, labour-services contributed by peasants for cultivating
land directly under the daimyo or Shogunate, was never prevalent. (However
some labour services wer: performed by poorer peasants for better-off
holders of land within the village, as will be discussed below in sub-section
5.4.3).

Although the daimyo obtained their feudal revenue in the form of rice, they
naturally needed to convert a part of it into cash for purchasing their
requirements of manufactured goods. Quite a substantial part of their rice
revenue was distributed in kind as stipends to their samurai, from whose
ranks the han administrative staff were also drawn. The remainder was partly
retained for consumption and the bulk was sold to merchants. Under the
Tokugawa, periodic surveys were carried out at intervals of several decades,
to estimate the area under rice and its yield per cho (one cho equalled 2.45
acres). Half of the estimated rice output was taken as the rent-yielding
capacity. Each han therefore had an estimated revenue measured in physical
volume units of rice (the Koku, dqual t o 4.96 bushels). The size and
importance of a han was measured by this index. While the average han
enjoyed about 10,000-Koku of revenue, Satsuma, one of the largest hans, had
70,000 Koku in rice revenue.

The rise in productivity in agriculture which occurred during the later part of
the era meant that as a proportion of the actual rice output, revenue t o the
daimyo was declining below the fifty per cent estimated on the basis of
earlier, lower levels of production. This enfailed certain economic
consequences which are discussed in sub-section 5.3.3.

5.2.3 The Structure of the Japanese Village

We have referred t o the village population as 'the peasantry', but in reality
the holders of land in the Japanese village were highly differentiated. There
were those who held substantial area, known as the jinushi, forming a
minority of leading families; while the majority comprised medium to small
and very small holders of land known as the kosaku. By 'holders of land' we
should not understand modern forms of landownership with rights of
mortgage and transfer. Such concepts arise only with capitalist production.
The landholders in the Japanese village had a hereditary right of occupation
and cultivation of the land subject to payment of the rent-cum-tax t o the
overlords who represented the feudal proprietory class.

The jinushi were generally sufficiently well-off not to cultivate the land with
their own manual labour, but employed the labour of farm servants in
various forms of tied or bonded status (the fudai and genin), or gave their
land and sometimes also livestock and implements, to poorer peasants from
the kosaku lacking both, in return for labour services provided'by these
customary tenants or nago. The output was then shared in a proportion
highly favourable to the jinushi.
Among the kosaku there were those medium scale holders of land who
possessed enough implements and land to cultivate on an independent basis.
Large numbers of the kosaku however had too little land to be able to obtain
a subsistence. They were obliged to take some land as tenants (nago) from
the better off cultivator in return for the performance of labour services ih
cultivating the land retained by the jinushi and sometimes they also used the
latter's equipment. The poorest households provided the genin or farm
servants working for life for the richer households, and in times of harvest
failure the very poorest were obliged even to sell their children as slaves th
the latter. This was probably the origin of the fudai who had the status
virtually of slaves in the hereditary service of the richer households.
Although the system was a paterhalistic one based on personal relationships,
and the children of the genin and fudai grew up with their master's children, Jspm on the Eve of
the Meljl Restoration
the basis for the system was ultimately the unequal distribution of land
within the village. With the growth of production for the market, the
dominant households in the village had an advantageous position and
developed capitalist type operations as we will discuss in sub-section 5.3.3.
The burden of payment of the rice rent-cum-tax imposed on the village as a
whole was distributed over the households in proportion to the land they
cultivated. This p.rocess is likely to have been regressive in the sense of
imposing a larger relative burden on the small peasants, because the
dominant families in the village were in a strong position to conceal the
actual extent of land under them and to give underestimates of their
production to the officials during the surveys.

Check Your Progress 1

1) Briefly describe the salient features of the economic and polltical
structure during the Tokugawa era.

Distinguish between rent and tax in the context of Japan's agrarian

structure.
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i
3) Write a brief note on the agrarian relations during the Totugawa era.
Eammie History of JapabI
5.3 EVOLUTION UNDER THE TOKUGAWA PEACE

The period 1600-1858 was marked by relative peace. Hence the term
'Tokugawa Peace'. This period witnessed increased specialisation and
productions for the market which gradually eroded the self-sufficient han
economy. Also, the old feudal set-up, while retaining its rigid, hierarchical
social structure, was changing to give rise to new powerful economic
categories from the socially backward strata. Let us now look at all these
issues in a greater detail.

5.3.1 .Specialisation and the ~ r o w t hof ExChange

The self-sufficiency of the hans gave way to increasing specialisation in
production in the course of the 18th century. The long period of peace was
conducive t o this. Areas particularly suited to growing particular crops like
cotton, or hilly areas suited for mulberry, devoted a higher proportion of
area to these specialised crops while other areas with a larger proportion of
valley land, increased paddy production. The corollary of specialisation in
agricultural production was rise in the extent of commoditisation of products
(a higher share of a given crop being sold) and a rise in inter-regional trade.

The source of information for changes in the cropping pattern, input use and
yields for the 18th century are the detailed farm budget records kept by the
literate section of the village population, namely the leading landholders
controlling the bulk of the area. These records provide valuable insights into
the nature of technical changes taking place in agriculture as well.
It appears that the position of all those who employed the labour of others
in production, not only in agriculture but also in other sectors, must have
improved substantially owing to the inflationary trend in the Tokugawa
period. Rice prices rose more than 11 times between 1620 and 1850, mainly
owing to the successive debasements of the currency which were undertaken
by the Shogunate to meet recurrent financial crises. These crises arose owing
to the fact that revenues from customs were non-existent and from excise
very low, so the predominant source remained agricultural production, which
could show periodic downturn thus reducing $ate revenue which was a share
of the output.

Under the conditions of secular inflation and increasing market-orientation,

the traditional agrarian relations tended to be modified over time towards
more impersonal, even contractual relations. The status of the hereditary
fudai and genin changed from the customary basis increasingly towards
bondage on account of debt: the nago's status approximated towards that of
the contractual tenant. The landowners and employers found it less paying to
continue with kind payments to workers or with giving share of the output in
kind to these tenants and slowly tried to substitute cash payments. Given
stagnant output price inflation thus meant a downward pressure on the real
earnings of labour and a profit inflation for all employers.

The well-to-do in the village started investing in the processing of agricultural

products on a wider scale. These activities included hulling paddy, ginning
cotton, pressing oilseeds, and the numerous stages of silk textile produetion
from raising the worms on mulberry leaves to winding the thread in filatures '
and weaving the cloth.

Brewing of 'sake', an alcoholic drink made from rice, was another important
activity. A rural dispersion of textile manufacturing and other activities thus
marked the later half of the Tokugawa era. Artisans continued to engage in
t m v t i l m n~ncliirtinnin +he mainl cities. oarticularlv to meet the requirements of
 the aristocracy for fine silks and brocades. But the increasing demand arising Japan on the Eve of
the Meiji Restoration
from the prosperity of the chonin (merchants) and the rural minority of well-
to-do, was met through the development of an extensive 'domestio' or
'putting-out system' under which the merchants financed production by
village cultivators-cum-artisans to whom they gave out the raw materials for
spinning and weaving, or to whom they advanced cash for purchasing raw
materials.

5.3.2 Sankin-Kotai and the Merchant Class

In order to maintain control over the great daimyo particularly of the tozama
hans, the Shogunate had instituted a system of 'alternate attendance' known
as sankin-kotai. The daimyo had to spend some time attending the Shogun's
court at Edo in alternate yeais, and wheythey returned to their castle-towns
they had to leave their families as hostages at Edo. This system was designed
to discourage revolt by the daimyo, each of whom had a territorial base and
armed contingents at his command and could potentially pose a political
challenge.

Owing to the sankin-kotai, each daimyo had to maintain two establishments,

one of the joka-machi and the other at Edo, and incur the costs of regular
travel to and from Edo, (which could be substantial for the more distant
han). This system had several consequences. Roads and communications were
developed and well maintained from the more than 250 han to Edo. A
trading and associated financial system developed under which the merchants
purchased a large part of the rice-rent of the daimyo for cash,.and arranged
to store it in warehouses and transport rice supplies as required to urban
areas. Sometime the daimyo required cash for meeting his expenses at Edo
even before the rice-rent had been obtained; the chonin concerned would then
.give a promissory note on the security of the future rice rent, against which
cash could be obtained by the daimyo from the merchants' offices at Edo at
a discounted rate. Thus bills of exchange and cheques came to be widely
used in the late Tokugawa period. The richer merchants engaged in banking
activities, accepting deposits and advancing loans. iu'ot only the daimyo but
the Shogunate itself was dependent on the leading merchant houses for
financial accommodation in times of difficulty. Despite the growing
economic importance and wealth of the merchants, especially of that section
engaged in urban trade and banking, within the feudal system their social
position remained very low. There was no legal protection for the chonin
against forced loans (goyokin) exacted by the aristocracy, or against seizure
of their assets. This contributed t o the growing dissatisfaction of the chonin
with the system. Even though they did not try t o assert themselves, this
discontent found expression, when the opportunity arose from the 1850s, in
supporting the movement for political change which culminated in the Meiji
Restoration of 1868.
The samurai, as part of the warrior-base of aristocratic rule, enjoyed a high
social status even though the economic position of a large section of them
was declining. This occurred because owing to the long Tokugawa peace
there was no occasion for the samurai to use the martial skills in which they
continued to be trained. They represented increasingly a functionless class.
and the daimyo felt the samurai to be a drain on their rice-rents. Many
daimyo started reducing the rice stipends of the samurai under them so as to
have more income available for themselves to maintain ever higher standards
of conspicuous consumption. While the chonin were becoming wealthier but
had no political rights and low social status, the samurai on the contrary
were increasingly impoverished though with a continuing high social status
within the rigid structure of feudal society. Not all samurai were equally
badly off: those engaged in administrative tasks on the han maintained their
k o n o m k ~ i s i o r yof ~apan-I economic status. But numerous samurai became ronin leaving their original
ban and wandering as masterless peripatetic warriors. Large numbers
congregated at Nagasaki and Kagoshima.

5.3.3 Rise in Productivity-Sources and Effects

The farm budgets maintained by well-to-do households in the village indicate
that along with specialisation and the growth of exchange, the nature of
agricultural production was also changing from the mid-18th century. Firstly,
the farm budgets show that expenditure on wages paid to hired labour went
up compared to total expenditures, indicating that the customary employer- ,
labourer relation of hereditary fudai and genin providing only subsistence,
were giving way to payments made to hired workers.
Secondly, a rising trend is observed in the proportion of outlays on
purchased manures and fertilisers. These do not refer to chemical fertilisers
which were unknown at that date, but to fishmeal and urban sewage which
was treated and purchased on a commercial basis by farmers for spreading
on their fields.

he increase in use of inputs which had to be purchased required a

corresponding increase in the fraction of output which had to be sold in
order to finance these purchases. With the more intensive application of
commercial manures and possibly also of labour, yields of the major crops
definitely showed an upward trend.
There is also evidence of increasing attention being paid to measures of
water-conservation in order to increase the area under irrigation which
permitted a more widespread cultivation of rice. Improved varieties of rice
were being evolved slowly through selective breeding. Technical changes
which raised labour productivity included more efficient seed-drills and a
simple instrument for threshing.

To sum up, a series of changes were taking place-a larger area under
irrigation, more output of irrigattd crops, higher yields from land owing to
this factor and to more intensive use of commercial manures and labour, and
higher labour productivity. The net effect was to raise land productivity
considerably; the rate of rent-cum-tax however continued to be estimated on
the basis of earlier, lower levels of rice production.

Because of the growing divergence over time between the rent-cum-tax as a

fraction of earlier estimated output (one-half) and the rent-cum-tax as a
fraction of actual output (about one-third by the end of the Tokugawa era),
the village landlords benefited greatly. They could keep the benefits of rising
production for themselves and in fact this must have been a major
motivation for their undertaking more intensive cultivation in the first place.
As an example, suppose that a well-to-do big landowner produced one
thousand koku of net rice output earlier on which 500 koku had to be handed
over to the daimyo. As a result of more irrigation, shifts in cropping pattern
and more intensive cultivation with manures, production rises to 1,500 Koku.
but this is not recorded officially. The landowner continues to pay 500 koku
to the daimyo, keeping now 1,000 koku for himself compared to 500 koku
earlier.
The prosperity of the well-to-do minority of big landholders showed itself in
their investing their surplus increasingly in the agro-based processing sake-
brewing and textile manufacture to which reference has been made in 5.2.2.
The landowner of this type increasingly also became a landed entrepreneur
or oyakota.
Check Your Progress 2 Japan on the Eve of
the MeUi Restomti-m

1) What -was the impact of inflation on the traditional agrarian relations

during the Tokugawa era?
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2) What is the 'putting-qut system?

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3) What were the consequences of Sankin-Kotai on the Japanese economy?

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4) What were the sources of a rise in productivity in the Japanese

economy? Who reaped its benefits?

5.4 THE QUESTION OF THE BURDEN ON THE

PEASANTRY AND INDICES OF PEASANT
DISCONTENT

Even though the land rent-cum-tax as a proportion of the (rising) rice output
was declining, the benefits of this does not seem to have gone to the majority
of the peasants who operated medium and small holdings. Rather it was the
better-off minority in rural areas who enriched themselves and went ih'for
rural entrepreneurship as we have seen.

Indeed the majority of the peasantry appeared to be more discontented and

under greater economic pressure, as the effects of price inflation and
monetisation of the economy affected them adversely. There were two main
indices of peasant discontent and resistance during the late Tokugawa period.
First were ~ a s s i v eforms of resistance like infanticide. the incidence of which
Economic History of Japan-I increased so much that the Shogunate felt obliged t o promulgate a law
banning it. It is very likely that many more female babies were killed by their
poverty-stricken parents than were male babies, given the gender bias
towards males which is prevalent in all Asian societies. Mere legal bans
however could have little effect where economic necessity drove people to
these acts.

The second form of resistance was peasant revolts. These were quite frequent
and took the form of attacks on money-lenders and o n landlords, the
burning of documentary evidence relating to indebtedness and attacks aimed
at corrupt officials. There were 71 separate cases of peasant jacqueries in
different provinces during the period 1844 t o 1859 alone. Over t h e entire
period of Tokugawa rule more than 600 peasant uprisings took place.

The larger section of the peasantry thus formed a discontented a n d politically

mobilisable force, and it supported the moves for a change in the old feudal
order which were to be initiated in the 1860s by leading samurai and
progressive daimyo of the tozama han.

The position of the poorer section of the peasantry was worsened by the
tendency towards greater concentration of land ownership which is clear
from the records. The price inflation contributed t o this, for those poorer
cultivators who did not produce enough rice for their needs and had t o
purchase it o n the market using wages earned through labour, found it
difficult t o make ends meet. They borrowed and on failure t o repay the use
of the land in their possession, passed to their creditors. They themselves
became tenants of their creditors who were often the leading landholders of
the village.

5.5 THE IMPACT OF THE WEST ON JAPAN

Economic historians from the Western countries generally-with very few

exceptions-interpret the impact of the West o n Eastern societies as being
oliberating for the latter, in breaking down outmoded feudal institutions and
initiating modern gr0wth.A radically different interpretation is provided in
the following perspective from the pen of MaoZedong, a leading Asian
revolutionary of this century.
"What is the 'impact of the West'? It is the effort of the Western
bourgeoisies .... to remould the world after its own image by means of
terror" (1949).
In fact, the effects of the 'impact of the west; have varied depending on
whether the Asian country experiencing, the impact, came under Western
colonial domination, o r not. The unique feature of the relationship of Japan
and the Western powers was that the latter attempted t o dominate Japan, '
but did not succeed because the internal social structure in Japan underwent
an upheaval leading t o the establishment of a nationalist regime committed
t o rapid development and modernisation.

The Western powers' drive during the first half of the 19th century t o acquire
colonial territories in Asia was aimed mainly at India and China, both
populous countries with rich natural resources and ancient civilisations.

Japan was a far less attractive prize from the Western point of view. The
Japanese feudal aristocracy had the advantage of learning from the unhappy
experience of the other Asian countries, and they could see the tide of
Western domination approaching closer while themselves being subject t o
The highly educated section of the Japanese nobility mainly belonging to the Japan on t h Eve 0;
tozama han and the ronin among the samurai, learnt of Asian developments tbe M ~ URestoratloo
I
at the same time that they read books o n 'western science'. They saw most of
India by the 1820s passing under the control of the British East India
Company, which seized Rangoon in 1819 and embarked o n the annexation
of Burma. An illegal trade in opium grown in India was carried on by the -.
British with China despite the Chinese imperial ban o n such trade. When the
ban was sought t o be implemented seriously, Britain launched the Opium
Wars from 1842 to 1844 t o bombard with warships the Chinese ports like
Canton, and forcibly opened them t o trade. Since Japan was so near the
Chinese mainland, the opium wars and British victory particularly worried
the Japanese aristocracy, t o whom it was clear that Japan's turn could not
I
I
be far off once China was colonised. The Unequal Treaties which the
I
Chinese feudal regime'was forced t o sign, resulted in the ceding of Shang
Jian (mispronounced Hong Kong ever since) t o the British, the granting of I
I
'extraterritoriality' (foreigners in the Treaty ports were not subject t o Chinese
law), and began the process of the major western powers 'vying t o carve u p
China into their spheres of influence. Apart from the European powers, the
USA too had launched an expansion across the Pacific, seeking to obtain
refuelling facilities in countries like Japan with the main objective being the
vast Chinese market.

The first attempt t o penetrate Japan commercially was the voyage of

Commodore Perry of the USA in 1853 and the signing of a treaty with the
Bakufu the next year which did not mention trade, but effectively allowed
American ships the use of two Japanese ports. The U.S. interest in Japan
was renewed four years later when Townsend Harris extracted a trade treaty
in 1858 from the Bakufu o n very harsh terms for Japan. The other Powers
scrambled t o d o likewise and a series of Unequal Treaties followed in quick
succession in 1858 itself, with Holland (Aug. 18) Russia (Aug. 19) Britain
(Aug 26) and France (Oct. 9). The Bakufu simply could not resist the
pressure of the colonising powers who had acquired a territorial foothold in
China.

The unequal treaties obliged Japan t o turn herself into an open economy,
through a clause which forbade her t o raise tariffs above 3 per cent. In the
Treaty ports the foreigners were not subject t o Japanese law,
('extraterritoriality rights'), as in the case of the Chinese treaty ports. The
Treaties were extremely unpopular within Japan and the fact that the Bakufu
was obllged t o sign them, exposed its bankruptcy t o the Japanese people.

Japan was fortunate however that a sustained effort by the Western powers
either singly or in combinadon, t o colonise her, did not take place during the
crucial decade 1858-1868. For during this time the Bakufu was tottering,
internal movements for change had not emerged in a c o t :rent form, and any
hypothetical Western military assault o n Japan at this time would certainly
have led t o he^ political subjugation. A very important period of grace was
provided by the international conjuncture. The great rebellion in India, 1857-
59 (which Britain called 'the Mutiny' and the Indians later called their First
War of Independence) kept the British occupied, as did the consolidation of
their position in China. Before that the Crimean War of 1854 had absorbed a
great deal of British military energies. France was busy colonising Vietnam
and was also tied down in Mexico. The USA could not follow up its initial
lead vis-a-vis Japan owing to the outbreak of its long and bloody civil war
from 1861 which effectively diverted its attention from foreign expansionism
for some time.

All that the Western powers could d o in Japan, given this background, was
to mount a few small scale naval expeditions which fired on Japanese ports
bonomk Hbtory 01 ~apan-I and had the effect of galvanising a section of the anti-Shogunate nobility into
mobilising for far-reaching political and structural change. In the summer of
1863 a British fleet shelled Satsuma han and burnt to the ground one third of
Kagoshima, its main port. In 1864 the han leaders of Choshu closed the
Shimonoseki Straits to foreign shipping and in punitive retaliation a joint
force of the British, Dutch, French and Americans shelled Choshu heavily.
The superior firepower of the Western imperialists convinced the leaders of
Satsuma and Choshu that Japanese capitulation was-inevitable unless Japan
modernised militarily, a necessary condition for which was industrialisation,
which lay behind the West's apparent invincibility. It was also clear to them
that industrialisation a d modernisation was not possible within the existing
I
S
feudal political and ec nomic structure.
I

In the' decade 1858-@3,rthe Shogunate too recognised the need for

modernisation and on 'the basis of foreign loans, set up dockyards, ironworks
l
and other industrial pbnts modelled on western lines. Warships and
merchant vessels were,purchased from abroad and envoys were sent to study
foreign conditions. The lords of Satsuma and other tozama han also invested
in iron foundries, mining enterprises and shipyards.
With the unrestric.ted entry of manufactured goods from abroad after 1858,
there was displacement of the Japanese producers of textiles and some
,.household goods,'causing unemployment. There was a steep rise in the prices
of goods in responsq to demand abroad including in prices of raw silk, rice,
tea etc. Thus the domestic consumers of these goods as well as textile
producers faced more difficult times, though a section of the well to d o rural
producers benefited from increased export demand.

The number of peasant revolts increased markedly during this period. A total
of 86 cases of pea$ant uprisings in different parts of the country are recorded
during 1860-67 compared t o 71 during the period 1844-59 according to
Kokusho Iwao, and 600 during the 265 years of Tokugawa rule.

The Emperor had emerged as a focus of anti-Bakufu and patriotic feeling

when, in an unprecedented action, he had refused to ratify the 1858 Unequal
Treaty with the USA. 'Revere the Emperor, expel the Barbarian' became the
rallying cry of those who thought in terms of political change. The
Tokugawa had promated Buddhism, so a revival of Japan's ancient Shinto
practices was also associated with this movement.

Towards the end of 1867 both the old Emperor as well as the Shogun passed
away from natural causes. This provided the opportunity for a shift in the
locus of power without civil war. The heir to the Shogun was a minor and
was persuaded to step aside for the nominal restoration of the young
Emperor, itr 1868, but real power passed to a group of noble statesmen of
the erstwhile tozama han aided by able samurai and supported financially by
the great merchant.house like Mitsui. The reign of the new Emperor was
termedLMeiji, hence the term 'Meiji Restoration' to denote this event. The
reign of the Emperor Meiji' was to last from 1869 to 1912, a period which
saw Japan emerge as an industrialising economy and an aggressively
expansionist State recognised by the Western powers as a force to reckon
with.

Check Your Progress 3

1) Discuss the indices of peasant discontent during the,Tokugawa era.
.................................................................. o...............................................
 Japan oa the Eve of
the MeUL Restoratloo

..................................................................................................................
2) Why were the Western powers unable to colonise Japan?
..................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................
3) Why is the 'Opium War* so called?
..................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................
4) Briefly discuss the term 'Meiji Restoration*.

5.6 LET US SUM UP

The year 1868 marked the beginning of the era of modernisation in Japan.
This unit dealt with pre-modern Japan starting from the year 1600 when the
Battle of Sekigahara was fought initiating the Tokugawa Shogunate. Feudal
Japan had a rigid hierarchical social structure. Appropriation of the
agricultural surplus by the ruling class formed its economic base. The ruling
class consisted of the Shogunate, and the daimyo who maintained the
samurai. They exacted rent amounting t o half of gross rice output from the
peasantry which was the most numerous class with a low status. Even lower
were the merchants and the artisans. At the bottom were the burakumin or
outcastes. On a geographical basis, .Japan'was divided into over 200 hans
each under the control of a daimyo.
The self-sufficiency of the feudal economy in the 17th century gave way to
increasing specialisation in production in the 18th century modifying the
agrarian relations based on tradition and custom towards more impersonal
and contractual relations. This period also witnessed an increase in economic
inequality between the owners of labour and property. However, status still
continued to be determined by rigid feudal hierarchy.. Thus the merchants
fPhnn;n\ incnite nf their epnnnmir nrncnerit~rernnineA inferinr tn the
conomic History of Japan4 During the Tokugawa era, the emperor was virtually power less and the
Tokugawas were de facto rulers. The clans which had fought alongside
Tokugawa in 1600 were known as the fudai. The tozama daimyos comprised
the opposition in the Battle of Sekigahara. T o maintain control over the
daimyos, particularly the Tozamas, the Tokugawa Shogunate created a
system known as Sankin Kotai so as to discourage revolt by the daimyo.
This system indirectly accelerated the pace of economic development through
an improvement in transport and communications and by developing the
financial and the banking system. Agrarian productivity also rose from the
mid-18th century with increasing cropped area coming under irrigation, more
intensive use of commercial manures and labour and higher labour
productivity. This increase in productivity coupled with the increasing
proportion of post-rent-cum-tax to output retained by the landowners over
time led to the prosperity of the well-to-do minority of the landowners who
invested their surplus in agrobased processing and in setting up industries.
There emerged in the village economic scene a new category of landed
entrepreneurs called oyakata.

However, the majority of peasants operating medium and small farms could
not reap the benefits of a declining land rent-cum-tax as a proportion of the
rising agricultural output-especially rice. A marked rise in economic
hequality within the agrarian structure led to peasant discontent, often
manifested in peasant revolts. They formed a politically mobilisable force
which supported the moves for a change in the old feudal order.

The impact of the West was also conducive to a change in the old feudal
order. Unlike in the case of China and India, the Western powers were
unable to convert Japan into their colony. The USA was the first country to
make an attempt to penetrate Japan commercially in 1853. The other powers
to follow suit and impose a series of Unequal Treaties were Holland, Russia,
Britain and France. These treaties led t o the opening up of the Japanese
economy leading to the unrestricted entry of manufactured goods from abroad
after 1858 causing domestic unemployment and export of raw materials and
agricultural goods leading to a steep rise in the domestic prices. Peasant
unrest, as a result, gathered momentum. The Tokugawa was the Japanese
partner to the Unequal Treaty. The Emperor, who virtually enjoyed no
power in the Tokugawa era generated massive patriotic feeling by refusing to
ratify the I858 Unequal Treaty with the USA, In 1867, both the old Emperor
and the Shogun passed away leading to a nominal restoration of the
Emperor with the real power at the hands of the tozama han. The reign of
the new Emperor was termed Meiji, hence the term Meiji Restoration.

5.7 KEY WORDS

Bakufu : military dictatorship.
burakumin : 'outcastes'.
Cho : unit of measurement of area of land equalling 2.45 acres.
Chonin : 'merchants'
daimyo : 'overlord' o r 'noble'
fudai : clans which had fought alongside Tokugawa in the Battle of
Sekigahara, in 1600. Another meaning of fudai is farm servants having tied
o r bonded status, working virtually as slaves of the richer households.
genin : farm servants working for life in various forms of tied o r bonded
-A-A--- ---a > L-- A L - ::----I-:
goyokin : forced loan which the aristocracy often exacted from the chonin .lapan on the Eve of
the Meiji Restoration
han : a territorial unit under the control of a hereditary ruling clan led by a
noble, the daimyo
hatamoto : troops maintained by the Shogunate
hinin : 'non-people' : they were considered t o be sub-human.
jinushi : section o i the peasantry holding substantial land for cultivation.
They enjojled a hereditary right of occupation a n d cultivation of land.
joka-machi : 'castle-town' where the daimyo with his Warriors resided
ko : artisans and manufacturers
\
koku : unit of measurement of physical volume of rice equalling 4.96 bushels
kosaku : section of the peasantry comprising occupiers of medium to small
and very small holdings of land
kuge : nobles of ancient lineage,'based in, Kyoto
nag0 : customary tenants. A large number of kosaku took some land from
the jinushi as nago.
no : peasants
oyakota : landed entrepreneur who invested their surplus in agro-based
industries and manufacture of textiles
ronin : wandering masterless samurai during the Tokugawa Peace
samurai : 'armed warriors'. They were maintained by the daimyo
sankin kotai : A system of 'alternate attendance' instituted by the shogunate
t o maintain control over the great daimyo, particularly of the tozama hans.
shi : samurai
sho : merchants
Shogunate : Regency
Tokugawa : de facto ruler of Japan, the actual Emperor being powerless.
tozama : 'outside' : the clans which opposed Tokugawa Iyeyasu in the Battle
of S'ekigahara in 1600

5.8 SOME USEFUL BOOKS

Halliday, J. 1975 : A Political History of Japanese Capitalism, Pantheon

Books, New York.
Moore, Barrington, 1973 : Social Origins of ~ i c t a t o r s h and
i ~ Democracy
(Penguin University Books).
Norman, E.H. 1975 : Japan's Emergence as a Modern Stare in J.W. Dower
(Ed.) Origins of the Modern Japanese State : Selected Writings of E.H.
Norman. Pantheon Books, New York.
Smith, T.C. 1959 : The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan, Standford
University Press, Stanford.
5.9 ANSWERWHINTS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
, EXERCISES

Check Your Progress 1

1) Read sub-section 5.2.1 and answer
2) Read sub-section 5.2.2 and answer
3) Read sub-section 5.2.3 and answer
Check Your Progress 2
1) Read sub-section 5.3.1 and answer
2) Read sub-section 5.3.1 and answer
3) Read sub-section 5.3.1 and answer
4) Read sub-section 5.3.2 .and answer
Check Your Progress 3
1) Read section 5.4 and answer
2) Read section 5.5 and answer
3) Read section 5.6 and answer
4) Read section 5.5 and answer