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seimeinotakaFeel free to read this, I also missed a lot of people but I tried to make it easy to follow.
Also, any Tokugawa fan, well I’d advise you to thread carefully. Try to not take it to heart, I'm just bitter Western trash.
So I made this post because I kinda needed to give some context that couldn’t be explained so nicely in a terrible shitty fanfic about dog son, Sakamoto Ryouma and pals.
Before this a little of history LOL
Historical context~ Whoosh
OK so before 1600 there was a series of fights in a century because the Emperor’s image grew dumber and weaker with every passing year and a group of ambitious daimyou really wanted to rule Japan. After a series of stabbing, back-stabbing, front-stabbing and death by fire, Japan had been unified in 1590 by a dude called Toyotomi Hideyoshi. But fuck him, this isn’t about him and he died anyway. So when he died, there was the question of who would inherit the land.
Japan split in two camps, aptly called East and West because of the main honchos. No one gives a fuck about the losing West because they were back-stabbed and died of Sudoku and headlessness, the real deal is that the East WON. The East’s main guy was a tanuki by the name of Tokugawa Ieyasu and with that the Tokugawa Shogunate began. I’m very biased against him so if his name suddenly transforms, lol~
The Tokugaga shogunate lasted a fucking lot, the only first instance of rebellion was in 1614-1615 where the remaining Toyotomi forces lead by the bastard son of Hideyoshi and Lady Chachacha called Hideyori and Sanada Yukimura tried to fight but then they were decimated (HIDEOUS GROSS SOBBING IPOJP´0JLADSHJLKADLIHKA). After that, the Shogunate endured some kind of idyllic peace until the Shimambara Rebellion in Kyuushuu which is the capital of everything going wrong around 1630. Some fucker by the name of Matsukura Katsuie decided to increase the taxes to build a castle because he was boss and the peasants were like ok no we’re poor we can’t pay. So Katsuie was like Awww, I’m sorry, OFF WITH YOUR HEADS. I shit you not. Someone by the name of Amakusa Shiro, son of Christian converts, tried to fight Katsuie but Katsuie was a fucker and brought the Shogunate’s forces. Needless to say, this didn’t work out for Shiro and he and the rebels died.
OK why is the story of a dead Catholic important, well. IT KINDA IS VERY IMPORTANT.
So, back in the time before the Shogunate, Missionaries had arrived to Japan along with the Portuguese. People like Oda Nobunalga didn’t give a fuck about them and just wanted them for technologies and to badmouth the Buddhist that often criticized him, Kyuushuu was WILD with them and had a lot of converts. Hideyoshi thought they were bad news since along the message of Christ and Jesus and what not, there was a very subversive message in the system he had implemented, since Jesus was like Nah we’re equals and all that. And that notion kind of fucks up a system where there’s a hierarchy of boss, samurai, peasants and merchants. So Hideyoshi started to persecute them~ Kyuushuu still had a lot tho. When the Shogunate began, they didn’t mind them too much until around 1610 where Hidetada, Ieyasu’s son thought that maybe they were a bad idea. And surprise, they were!
So, forwarding to Shiro’s dead remains, the Shogunate was like NO CHRISTIANS and no Western Influence, since their ideas could be very dangerous to the stability of the land they had struggled like a century to unify. And well, no power. So time for Sakoku!
Sakoku is basically Japan shutting itself off the world for around 200 years. Other than the minor revolts mentioned before, the time was relatively peaceful WHICH WAS GOOD after many years of people killing each other. The problem was ~economy.
OK so the ranking system had merchants as the bottom of the class but they had the moneys. As time went on, many samurai did little-to-nothing but they had taxes to pay and the merchants had the moneys but no status. The class system was crumbling. Not to mention, Japan was technologically behind in pretty much everything. Their only actual contact ‘outside’ was with the Dutch ships that arrived to the only approved harbor in Nagasaki. BTW they actually gave one of the Tokugawa shoguns a bell with the Tokugawa symbol UPSIDE DOWN. No clue if it was done on purpose~ OK probably not. This bell is in Nikko, the place where Ieyasu’s remains lay for those curious about it.
Anyway, there was little commerce in the mainland but there were some provinces that were SUPER powerful because of commerce and they were in Kyuushuu, I swear everything bad is there, I LOVE THEM.
What’s the deal with Kyuushuu? Well, the thing is that Kyuushuu people were very strong, like too fucking strong. Hideyoshi needed a huge army to get them to give up peacefully back in the unification process and in the whole mess of Sekigahara, they sided with the West, lost a lot of things and needless to say, there were strong anti-Tokugawa feelings. The whole class system was adding salt to the wound.
Just some clarification that I actually love Kyuushuu, they are my boys and when I say everything bad is there, I mean for the Tokugawa forces~
Anyway, they didn’t do much (yet) so the Shogunate run “smoothly” for years until around 1841 when some minor boat drifting away would eventually bring a chain of reactions that end up with the fall of an empire that lasted a lot.
BTW, the Emperor is still here but as before, he serves more like a puppet than actual having power and the Shogunate was the one calling the shots.
THIS IS THE ACTUAL HISTORY THING
~In which a castaway makes history
So in 1841 there was a boy by the name of Manjirou, later named Nakahama Manjirou, who along with 4 brothers drifted away into a small island in the Pacific. They were stranded for 6 months until a whaling boat under command of Captain Whitman rescued them. By this point, the world was fully aware of the seclusion of Japan and Whitman couldn’t just bring the boys back, for they’d be executed in fear they were spies. The Sakoku was just that rough. He instead decided to bring them to Hawaii but he brought Manjirou with him to the US.
Manjirou had balls. He knew no English, was only 14 but he accepted happily to go to a completely unknown and foreign country that the Bakufu (Shogunate) wanted to pretend it didn’t exist. He lived in Massachusetts with Whitman for a year, learned English and then made a living of whaling for several years until he had to go back to Massachusetts, then tried his luck in San Francisco because of the Gold Rush and 10 years later, he wanted to go back to Japan with the money he had made.
He made it to Hawaii where he met with 2 of the castaways and they were brought back (one thought it was too risky so he stayed in Hawaii and the other had died). And they were welcomed by 70 days in prison in Nagasaki.
Because of their unusual circumstances, they couldn’t explain the story because they could no longer speak Japanese, so someone thought of bringing Kawada Shoryo. Shoryo had built a reputation since he had learned Dutch and had had exchanges with the Dutch in Nagasaki and was knowledgeable about the West. He was a scholar, very smart and really good at drawing. So with Manjirou, they made something unusual. Manjirou drew his travels and Shoryo redrew them and translated the story. He took Manjirou home where Manjirou relearened Japanese and Shoryo learned English. With this, Shoryo made a book from Manjirou’s almost magical adventure, called the Hyoson Kiryaku. Incidentally, this was 9 months before something else happened.
Of a man no one listened to~
In 1842 there was a man by the name of Sakuma Shouzan. He had studied Western Studies and was very smart because he used Dutch books to implement Western technology in Japan. In fact he was known for saying to “beat the barbarians at their own game”, not in those words but using the western technology and keeping a Japanese mentality. He also was among the first to foresee the chain of events that would befall Japan. Western countries had begun their imperialistic campaigns and they had targeted China. Around that time, China lost the First Opium War to the British.
Shouzan was among the first to be like “Ok Shogun, you need to make a navy”, because among the seclusion issues there were no military personnel organizations. Japan didn’t invade anyone BUT they also had no means to defend themselves.
Shouzan was close friends with a man called Katsu Kaishuu, in fact he married Kaishuu’s sister and gave Katsu the nickname Kaishu. Katsu’s real name was Rintarou but it’s like Sanada Nobushige-Yukimura so YEAH. Anyway, Kaishu was another smart cookie. His sword master literally told him “Lol don’t bother with the sword, fucking learn Dutch” and Kaishu was like Um what (The sword master was the smartest of them all). However, he soon understood that, when he saw a Dutch cannon in Edo and he realized that if he learned Dutch, he’d be able to read books in Dutch, learn how to use the cannon and technology. SO PROFIT! In other news, Kaishu himself was very curious and this curiosity made him eager to learn more about the West.
These people are important since:
DUN DUN DUN in 1853 Commodore Perry arrived in Japan~
When Perry strikes and everyone is I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO~
So in July of 1853 the Black ships LITERALLY sailed to Japan, into a small province area near Edo. Perry was like LOL open your ports or we shoot you with the cannons and many were like FUCK WHAT JUST HAPPENED. Shit had hit the fan. That’s what happened.
Shouzan was like I FUCKING TOLD YOU TO GET A NAVY and Kaishuu explained to the Shogunate that well, since Japan had no fucking navy, Perry literally waltzed in without any complications. He urged to get boats and some means of defense or they’d be fucked if any other western country decided to get in Japan. Boat building was forbidden so Kaishuu was like OK YOU REALLY NEED TO GET A NAVY. It is when Kaishuu started to show his very progressive thinking. He also urged the Shogunate to implement Western technology to make cannons and weapons and to honestly reform everything.
The Shogunate realized they were in deep shit, so they implemented some of Kaishuu’s ideas, got him to work with them and then he was sent to Nagasaki to make a Naval Academy.
Also guess who’s back?
Manjirou’s back.
Manjirou was among the interpreting people when dealing with Perry because Perry threatened to destroy Edo if he had to so that Japan opened its borders. In between 1853 and 1854 there was a Convention of Kanagawa where a pact was signed and it had the ports of Hakodate in Hokkaido and Shimoda of the main land open, promises of not treating bad Americans, commerce and so on. This at first worked well. Perry had gotten Japan to open its borders and break the Sakoku and Japan avoided impending doom.
(As for Shouzan, he had another friend by the name of Yoshida Shoin. Shouzan and Kaishuu had similar ideas, one of them was to have smart people learn from the Western countries so that they could use the knowledge to help Japan. Beat them at their own game indeed. In this mad idea, Shouzan was like “Ok Shoin, stow away in one of the American ships, learn a lot and come back.” Except LOL it didn’t work~ Shoin was discovered, the Shogunate accused him of treason but miraculously he wasn’t executed, just in house arrest. Shouzan also got shit, got exiled to Matsushiro. He wrote a book criticizing the way the shogunate had handled Perry, how they hadn’t realized the use of Western technology and so on.)
So from 1854 onwards, some treaties were signed that implemented foreigners being allowed to settle in Japan, concessions and MANY benefits that made obvious the unfairness and inequality of these treaties. Western influence was too much and anti-Western ideologies. Not to mention, it started to show holes in the Shogun’s power and influence. The fact that he was basically forced to open ports to trade, and the Westerners were clearly favored by EVERYTHING made the shogunate look weak. Also, because of the possibility of conflict, domains got weapons and the presence of the shogun grew weaker and weaker with time. The Emperor OTOH was like OK NO We shouldn’t make more treaties, so one side said a thing and the “ruler”, another.
This would get WORSE.
~The calm before the BOMB
The logical continuation to the anti-western feelings was the increased popularity of the already lingering sonno joi, which translated to revere the emperor (sonno), expel the barbarians (joi). Yoshida Shoin of failed-stowing away fame actually pressed on this, showing his true colors as Anti-Shogunate by saying that they had to take away the shogunate and put back the Emperor to true power.
In the later years of the 1850s there was some “stability”, with the treaties and the like except for one tiny bit. Things would be different starting the 60s.
First, the easier part:
The Shogunate actually formed a party including Manjirou and Kaishuu (Hi again!) to be sent to the US, first to show off the mad navigation SKILLZ~ Kaishuu had gotten from the Dutch but also to learn from the foreign countries (Little did they know that this would end up in a metaphorical shooting themselves in the foot situation). They went to San Francisco, stayed there for 2 months and traveled to Washington D.C. Kaishuu actually learned of the whole concept in the US about all men are equal, the whole democracy concept of the US and how literally any class was free to do shit (I am aware that just one year later the Civil war happened in the US and there was slavery but the Japanese group went to the free states and the president at that point was Abe Lincoln who was against slavery so yeah, I also have a soft spot for that man).
Meanwhile in Japan, tricky shits happen (this is the one tiny bit btw).
In 1858, Ii Naosuke was chosen to be the Tairou of the shogunate. Being Tairou meant being a BIG HONCHO in the shogunate and it was a position the close families to the Tokugawa could aspire to. The decision to pick Naosuke pissed the fuck out of many daimyou and this should have honestly been a sign of the impending doom that this would cause. Naosuke, my friends, is the beginning of the fall of the Shogunate.
~In which a bad decision fucks you over
So Ii Naosuke is the biggest honcho of them all in 1858. The shogun back then was T. Iesada but Iesada was very sick and frail and he probably got sick of cholera and died. He had no heir to appoint as successor so the shogunate helpers needed to choose someone to do something. There was a capable candidate in the name of Hitotsubashi Keiki (also known as Tokugawa Yoshinobu), son of T. Nariaki. There was another candidate, Matsudaira Naritami. But Naosuke had other plans. He wanted T. Iemochi to rule. Iemochi unlike the other two, was a brat of 12 years and unlike grown up men, he was thought to be easy to be persuaded.
Naosuke basically was like LOL SUCK IT to every supporter of the other two candidates and they got even more pissed when Naosuke flipped over the Emperor’s supposed right to say about the Harris treaty.
Naosuke had to deal with a man by the name of Townsend Harris. The first treaty with Perry had been ‘alright’ but Harris wasn’t fucking joking and he was more demanding about the unfair treaties and benefits he wanted for the Americans and commerce-trade in Japan. The treaties were a source of controversy. Many in the Tokugawa camp knew they had to open the ports. The fate of China was something they wanted to avoid because they knew they had no chance at the moment. It was the pesky of “How to not get wrecked too badly” that they couldn’t agree on. Some wanted to open entirely and others were like NO, SHOO BARBARIANS. The Kanagawa treaty was honestly an attempt to buy time and to keep things civil so that neither the US or Britain tried to attack them and it worked until Harris was around. With this fucker, things grew tense and Naosuke was honestly in a very rough spot… so he signed the pact.
Many got PISSED at this, though to be fair, between the options of total obliteration by the Western Armies or extremely pissed Japanese people because unfair bullshit happening to them, the less terrible choice was obvious. So that, along the thing with the Emperor and Iemochi made Naosuke very unpopular among his peeps.
Since people were angry and upset about it, Naosuke began the Ansei purge to get rid of everyone that didn’t agree with the treaties or anything he did. So what happens to a man that is EXTREMELY UNPOPULAR and everyone is pissed off at?
Unsurprisingly, Naosuke was offed by 17 samurai on 1860 and his death was the first signal that the time of the Tokugawa had run out.
Many realized that since Naosuke was head honcho and basically THE Shogunate since Iemochi was a brat, his assassination marked the impending doom and ending of the Tokugawa, something that other factions took advantage of.
Naosuke did try to fix shit before he was offed tho, albeit too late. He had tried to make up with the Emperor by having Iemochi marry the imperial Princess, not that it did good shit to any but he tried (This becomes later important).
BTW, the beloved non-Solid Snake Shoin had at one point tried to off Naosuke because Naosuke was fucking up bad and he had offed many of the followers-investigators Shoin had made while in exile. Except that Solid Shoin failed and he was executed. Meanwhile, even though this happens in 1864, Shouzan had continued his Western studies and advocated to the opening of harbors and the reconciliation between the imperial house and the shogun, like what Naosuke wanted to do. This didn’t end good for him since in 1864 he was assassinated.
Right now is a good stop because things will get w i l d ~ later on, so small recap and death toll
1841-1851 Nakahama Manjirou shipwrecks in an island, goes to the US and goes back
1853 PERRY SAYS HI
1854 Kanagawa treaty
1855 Katsu Kaishuu becomes a retainer and is sent to learn shipping in Nagasaki
1858 Ii Naosuke fucks up with the Harris treatment, imposes Tokugawa Iemochi and flips half of the Tokugawa loyalists off
1860 Kaishuu, Manjirou and other people are sent to the US to learn shit, Naosuke dies, attempt at having the emperor and shogunate to work together, Yoshida Shoin is assasinated
1864 Sakuma Shouzan is assassinated
Dead: Shouzan, Naosuke, Shoin, Tokuagawa Iesada
