Rangaku and Westernization

8/16/2019 Rangaku and Westernization

1/14

Rangaku and WesternizationAuthor(s): Marius B. JansenSource: Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 18, No. 4, Special Issue: Edo Culture and Its Modern Legacy(1984), pp. 541-553Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/312333 .

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2/14

Modern

sian

Studies,

8,

4

(I984),

PP.

541-553.

Printed

n Great

Britain.

Rangaku

and

Westernization

MARIUS B.

JANSEN

Princeton

University

THE

continuities

between

the

study

of

the

West

through

Dutch

in

TokugawaJapan

and

the

program

of

modernization in

the

Meiji

period

seem

self

evident.

The

influence of

Holland

through

Deshima

became

the focus

of

the life

work

of Itazawa

Takeo and

others

well

before

the

war, and it received detailed discussion from Charles Boxer in 1936.

Nevertheless

issues of

the

importance

and

influence

of

Tokugawa

rangaku

ontinue to

be

debated,

and

that

debate

greatly

enriches our

feel

for

Japanese

society

then and

now.

Rangaku

was one

of

the

products

of a

Tokugawa

seclusion

system

that

made it

difficult

and

intriguing

to

secure

knowledge

of

the

Western

world.

Seclusion

heightened

awareness

ofJapan's

position

on the

edge

of

two

world

orders

and it

made

for

nervousness

as

well as

curiosity.

In

some

sense

the

very

consciousness

of

the

system

came

rather

late

and,

as

Ronald

Toby points

out,

was

a

product

of the

Dutch

influence.

The

word

sakoku

was

coined

by

Shizuki

Tadao in

180I

when

he

was

ordered

to

translate

Kaempfer's

defense of the

system

by

the

authorities.'

It is

important

to

note with

Toby

that the

seclusion

system

was far

from

total.

In

fact,

limiting

the

apertures

from

which

the

West

could

be

observed

probably

had the

effect

of

attracting

viewers to

those

apertures

and

sharpening

their

focus.

The visits

of

the

Dutch

provided

structured

access

to the

import

of

books and

information.

Even

Kaempfer,

writing

at a time when interest in the West was minimal, could see 'scarce any

other

purpose'

in

the

Dutch

presence

'but that

the

Japanese might

be

by

their

means

informed

of

what

passes

in

other

parts

of

the

world.'

The

Dutch

were

obliged

to

submit

regular

reports

(filsetsugaki)

about

the

outside

world.

In

examining

these

one

realizes how

imperfect

and

1

Ronald

P.

Toby,

'Reopening the

Question

of

Sakoku:

Diplomacy in

the

Legitimiza-

tion of

the

Tokugawa Bakufu',

Journal of

Japanese

Studies

3:

2

(Summer

1977),

p. 323.

Kaempfer's

conclusion

was

thatJapan's

peace

and

prosperity

must

persuade

its

citizens

'That

their

Country

was

never in a

happier

condition than

it now

is,

governed

by

an

arbitrary Monarch, shut up, and kept from all Commerce and Communication with

foreign

nations.'

Kaempfer's

History of

Japan

(tr.

J.

G.

Scheuchzer,

Glasgow,

19o6),

Vol.

III,

p.

336.

oo26-749X/84/o70o8-090205.oo

?

1984

Cambridge

University

Press.

541


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3/14

542

MARIUS B.

JANSEN

inadequate

their contents

were.

Particularly

where

Holland itself

was

concerned,

the

self

interest of

the

reporters

made for

dishonesty

and

distortions.

Thus

the

American

and French

Revolutions

and

the

Napoleonic

invasion of

Holland were

reported

belatedly

in the

hope

of

concealing

the fact

that Deshima

authorities were

having

to.charter

American

ships.2

Where

the self interest of the

Hollanders was

not

concerned,

however,

and as

the

Japanese began

to

develop

additional

sources with

which to

check these

reports,Jfisetsugaki

ncreased

in

value.

Nevertheless it can

be

said that this sort of

consistent,

structured

access

to

knowledge,

and the

willingness

to take note of their

information,

provided

a

striking

contrast to the state

of

contemporary

affairs in

Korea

and China. Korea, despite formal diplomatic relations with Japan and

China,

was

truly

closed,

and

China,

while not

formally

closed at

all,

was

made so

by

the indifference of

its

elite.

In

some

respects

Holland

was

an

ideal

bridge

to

the

West for

Tokugawa

Japan;

small

enough

to be

unthreatening,

and central

enough

to serve as

funnel for

European

learning,

most of

which

was

speedily

translated into

Dutch. The

Nagasaki post

also made

the East

India

Company

an

attractive

opportunity

for

remarkable

Europeans-

Kaempfer, Thunberg,

von

Siebold--who

wished

to learn

aboutJapan.

One can

deplore

with Donald

Keene the lack

of intellectual

curiosity

on

the

part

of

many

of the

Hollanders,

but

one must

note their

service

in

providing

the

channel for

so much of

quality

in

the

reports

of

surgeons

and

occasional

chief

factors.3

The facts

and

chronology

of

the

spread

of

rangaku

are

not

in

dispute,

and

its

relationship

to

the broader

stream of

Tokugawa

intellectual

life

becomes

more clear

with the

development

of

scholarship

in

Japan.

Techniques

and

knowledge

transmitted in

the

sixteenth

and seven-

teenth centuries were used throughout the century that followed, and

that

contribution

remained an

integral

part

of

Tokugawa

medical

knowledge.

A

large-scale

import

of books

from China

included

much

of

scientific

importance,

and the

flow

increased

in

value after

Yoshimune's

relaxation

of

regulations

in

I720.

Dissections

brought

awareness of

the

2

Sat6

Shasuke,

rYgakushi

no

kenkyu

(Tokyo:

Chfi6

K6ron,

I980), pp.

146-8.

The

French

Revolution

was

reported,

though

most

inadequately,

in

1794.

American

independence

became

known

only

in

1808 when

Doeffwas

interrogated

after

the

Phaeton

incident,

and when

it

became

important

for the

Dutch to

separate

themselves from

any

association with

England.

Fisetsugaki

never clarified

these

problems.

Honda

and

others

took the

American

ships

for

English.

For

the

fusetsugaki,

Iwao

Sei'ichi

(ed.),

Oran

fusetsugaki

shisei

(Tokyo,

Nichiran

gakkai,

Vol.

2,

1979),

PP.

98ff.

3

Donald

Keene,

The

Japanese

Discoveryof

Europe

(Stanford:

Stanford

University

Press,

1969),

PP.

7-8.




4/14

'RANGAKU'

AND

WESTERNIZATION

543

inadequacy

of Chinese

anatomical

lore before the

celebrated

day

when

Sugita Gempaku

and his friends stood

watching

at

Kotsugahara

in

177I,

though

the earlier cases

did

not lead to a determination to work

from

experiment

and

observation

in the future.

Sugita

himself

was

influenced

by Ogyii

Sorai's

discussion of

military strategy,

with its

emphasis

on the need to allow for the

topography

of the battlefield.

'Sorai',

he

wrote,

'writes that true warfare is

very

different from what

so-called masters of the art

of

war teach us.

Topography

may

be

hilly

or

flat,

and armies

may

be

strong

or weak. One cannot make identical

cut-and-dried

preparation

that will be

right

for

all

times and

all

places..

.'.4

Received wisdom was to be checked

against

experience

and

observation, and by that test Tafel Anatomia proved its superiority.

There followed the famous translation

exercise,

and

many

more

by

many

others.

By

the

time

Sugita completed

his

Rangaku kotohajime

n

1815

he

could observe that

'Today rangaku

s

very

widespread.

Some

people

study

it

earnestly,

and

the uneducated

talk

about

it

thoughtlessly

and with

exaggeration.'"

Its

products,

he

thought,

could

be

compared

with the vast

corpus

of Chinese

learning

that had

required

much

longer

and more official

sponsorship

for transmission. Yet

even

Sugita

was

willing

to

grant

that

'Chinese studies

prepared

our mind.' One can take

all this as reminder

of

the

need

to

consider

rangaku

as a

branch

of,

and not

a

departure

from,

the

broad stream

of

Tokugawa

intellectual

activity.

But the difficulties created

by

the

Tokugawa system

for the

orderly

development

of

rangaku

were real

enough.

One

major problem

derived

from the

difficulty

of communication between

separate

and

largely

isolated communities. At

Nagasaki

the

guild

of

official

interpreters

that

was set

up

to service the

trade

with

Deshima

was

headed

by

four senior

interpreters (oppertolken)

who,

with

assistants,

apprentices,

and students

supervised a community of many more. Kaempfer reported 'no less than

one hundred and

fifty persons'

in

Genroku

times;

Tsurumi

counts

fifty-two interpreters (divided

into three

ranks)

in

Bunsei when Takano

Choei

came to

Nagasaki,

and Fukuchi

Gen'ichir5

gives

one hundred

and

forty

in

late

Tokugawa days.6

These

people

had whatever access the

4

Sugita,

'Keiei

yawa,'

in Korin

sosho

(rev.

edn,

Tokyo,

Shibunkaku,

1971),

p.

io6,

quoted

and discussed in

Sat6

Sh6suke, rYgaku

kenkyijosetsu

(Tokyo:

Iwanami shoten

1964),

p.

60. Sun

Tzu,

as William

Atwell has

pointed

out

to

me,

had said the

same

thing

a

good

deal

earlier.

5

Sugita, 'Rangaku

kotohajime,'

in

Haga

T6ru

(ed.),

Nihon

no

meich6,

Vol.

22:

Sugita

Gempaku,

Hiraga

Gennai,

Shiba

Kbkan

(Tokyo:

Chfi6 K6ron,

I97i),

p. I3I.

6

Tadashi

Yoshida,

'The

Rangaku

of

Shizuki

Tadao: The Introduction of Western

Science

in

TokugawaJapan,' unpub.

Ph.D.

Dissertation

(Princeton

University,

1974),

p.

66;

also Tsurumi

Shunsuke,

Tanaki

ChJei

(Tokyo:

Asahi,

I975),

p.

90.




5/14

544

MARIUS

B.

JANSEN

authorities

permitted

to the

resident

Dutch,

who

might

or

might

not

include

someone

of

intellectual

quality

and interest. No

group

as

concentrated

could be found

elsewhere

in

Japan,

and it is

understand-

able that for

the last

century

of

Tokugawa

rule

'study

abroad'

in

Nagasaki

posed

an

inviting

and

exciting

opportunity

for

those

who

could

manage

to do it. At

Edo there was

a

smaller and

more

varied

community

of

medical

specialists.

For them

opportunity

for

first-hand

contact with

Hollanders could

come

only

when

a

Deshima

party

arrived

on

sankin-k6tai,

something

that

took

place

annually

from

1633

to

1764,

biennially

until

179o,

and

every

four

years

between then

and

1850,

the

last

trip,

for a

total of

i

6

times.7 Even those

fortunate

enough

to be

present at one of the question and answer sessions held with the Dutch in

Edo found it difficult

to

receive attention. In

I794

Otsuki

Gentaku,

unable to

pose

his

question,

noted that he

would

have

to

wait

four

years

for

his next chance.

Communication

between the

two

groups

of

specialists

was

also

difficult.

Some

time

in

the

I780s

the

Nagasaki

interpreter,

Shizuki

Tadao

(i758-i

8o6),

wrote Otsuki Gentaku

that

a

servant of his

had

just

been

conscripted

as coolie for a

daimyo procession

to

Edo,

and

so

he

was

taking

advantage

of

this

to

write

to ask him

for

'any

book

you

have

there

that

describes

stimulating

and

interesting

theories of

physics

or

astronomy,

whether in

Chinese

or a

Western

language.

I

would

particularly

like to

see a

mathematics

book on

logarithms you

said

you

were

writing

....

Lexicographical

difficulties

were also severe

and

put

a

premium

on

access to

friendly

and

expert

counsel.

A

translation

of

a

dictionary

was

completed only

in

I796.

Later versions

of this

('Halma')

dictionary,

finished in

1833,

were

not

published

until

i855.

Thus

for

the entire

pre-Perry era rangakusha had to work with borrowed or copied

dictionaries.

Nevertheless the

intellectual

curiosity

and

enthusiasm that

one

sees

in

Shizuki

and

Otsuki

could and did

overcome such

difficulties.

In

fact,

it

sometimes seems

that

the

very

difficulty

of the

endeavor

added

zest

to

the

challenge

for its

practitioners.

Political

repression

proved

more difficult

to

overcome,

and

this

was

certain to

follow

as

soon as

rangaku

moved

beyond

medicine

and

science

to

discussions

of

national

policy

based

upon

a

knowledge

of

world

affairs.

The

'reforms'

associated with

regimes

headed

by

Matsudaira

Sadanobu

7

Although

Sat6,

in

r6gakushi

kenkyi~josetsu,

p. o109,

gives

it

as

once in five

years

after

Kansei,

it

is

clear

from

Hendrik

Doeff,

Herinneringen

uit

Japan

(Haarlem,

1853),

PP.

71,

132,

and

146,

that

the

Dutch went in

I802, 1806,

and

I8Io.

s

Yoshida,

'Shizuki',

p. 201.




6/14

'RANGAKU'

AND

WESTERNIZATION

545

and Mizuno

Tadakuni made the

I790s

and

I830s

danger

points

for

specialists

in

Western

learning

and

helped

to

deflect

most of

them into

silence

and

apathy

or to

coopt

them for

government

service. Hirakawa

Sukehiro

points

out

that while

Sugita

Gempaku

was drawn

to

rangaku

after

reading

Sorai on

strategy,

Sugita's

successors were forced back into

strategy

for warfare

by

a

regime

determined to

prevent

private

expressions

of

opinion

on

public

matters.9

There are

relatively

few

examples

of

public punishment,

but

they

surely

served to

discourage many

men.

In

1792

the

bakufu

destroyed

the

blocks of

his

book and

arrested

Hayashi

Shihei for

having

published

a

book that

dealt

with

affairs of state

by advocating

readiness for

danger

from Russia. Hayashi was silenced and rusticated, and he died the

following year.

His

unhappy

end

may

be

taken to

signal

the difficulties

that

attended the

broadening

of

language

and translation

studies to

consideration of the

problem posed

by

the 'West'

for

Japan.

Scholars

distinguish thisyJgaku

from the narrower

rangaku

of translation

exercises.

Deshima

remained

central

and Dutch remained the

primary

medium,

though

it

was no

longer

the

exclusive

language.

For

Hayashi

and for

Honda

Toshiaki,

who

wisely

refrained

from

publishing

his

views,

Russia was the

danger.

The

Napoleonic

era

brought

a new consciousness

of

change

in

the Atlantic

world. Awareness

that

different

(American) ships

were

servicing

Deshima led to

intensi-

fied

interrogation

of

Hendrik

Doeff

and the

realization that

France had

occupied

Holland

and

that America had broken

away

from

England.

Reading

in

world

geographies

revealed an

English-Russian

alliance.

Rezanov

appeared

at

Nagasaki

in

1804

and

had

his

request

for

trade

rejected;

Russian

marauders

ravaged

several

northern

coasts,

and in

18o8

the Phaeton

startled the

defenders of

Nagasaki.

Soon

developments

near Canton made coast defense an urgent issue. Western learning

moved

beyond

the realm

of

specialists,

and its fruits

began

to

concern

men

in

positions

of

responsibility.

Matsudaira

Sadanobu had

begun

this

when he

began

to collect

Dutch

books about

1792;

such

books

in

the

wrong

hands

might

do

harm,

he

noted;

they

'should

not be allowed to

pass

in

large

quantities

into the

hands of

irresponsible

people,

but it is

desirable,

on the other

hand,

to

have

them

deposited

in a

government

library.'

The

upshot

of

this

tendency

to control

and

coopt

was a

government

translation

bureau

which

was set

up

in

the

Bureau of

Astronomy

in

18I1.

Its first

charge

was

to translate

large

portions

ofa

1778-86

edition of a Dutch

translation of

9

Hirakawa

Sukehiro,

'Japan's

Turn

to the

West,'

forthcoming

in

CambridgeHistory

of

Japan,

Vol.

V.




7/14

546

MARIUS

B.

JANSEN

Noel Chomel's

Dictionnaire

Oeconomique,

n

encyclopedia

that

appeared

on Bakufu order lists

repeatedly

thereafter.

By

the time the

work

was

discontinued

in

1846,

135Japanese

volumes had been

produced. Sugita

Gempaku's

grandson,

Seikei

(1

817-59),

was

among

those hired for

this

task.

10

In

contrast

to

Seikei,

who

stayed

within

bounds,

other

scholars

experienced

the

dangers

of

private

dabbling

in

matters

of

public

policy.

The arrest

ofrangakusha

n

1828

for

transmission of a

map

ofJapan

to

von

Siebold,

and the

purge

of

Watanabe Kazan

and his

friends in

the

Bansha

no

goku

affair of

1839,

showed

the

sensitivity

of the Bakufu

to

possible

subversion. The

ease

with

which

charges

of treason

could be

made

surely

served to discourage casual political inquiry and discussion. Even after

the

appearance

of

Commodore

Perry

made it

impossible

to

extinguish

political

discussion,

private

violence on

the

part

of

anti-foreign

zealots

served

to enforce

caution and

quiet

on

scholars

who feared

being

tarred

with

the

'foreign'

brush.

Fukuzawa

Yukichi's

account of the

dangers

he

sensed

everywhere,

from

barber

chair to

darkened

streets,

is

familiar.

Sakuma

Sh6zan

and

Yokoi

Sh6nan

met

worse fates.

Unquestionably, patterns

ofcooption, repression,

and terror

silenced

and

frustrated

most

specialists.

One

gets

some sense of it in

the

story

Otsuki

Nyoden

tells about

Sugita

Seikei. He writes that

Seikei

learned

about

vrijheit

(freedom)

as an

inalienable

right

to

independence

of

thought

and

spirit

from

his

reading

in

Dutch

and

English,

but when

he heard

that

Takahashi,

Watanabe,

Takano,

Takashima

and

others

had

been

seized for

spreading

foreign

ideas

he feared

that he

too

was

inviting

trouble. He held

himself

in

check

and

was

very

careful

not to let it

slip

from

his

mouth. The

only

way

he

could

find solace for

the

heaviness of his

spirit

was

through

drink,

but

when he

was

drunk

he

was

unable to

keep

from

shouting

'Vrijheit '"

Even

so,

Seikei

went

on

to serve in

the

Bansho

Shirabesho.

So,

too,

with

Sugita Gempaku's

fifth

son

and

successor,

Rikkei

(1787-1846),

and his

adopted

son,

Genzui

(1818-89),

granted

the

status

of

Jusha

for

his

service

in

Bansho

Shirabesho

and

Kaiseijo,

who

became a

distinguished

private

physician

and

hospital

administrator

in

the

Meiji

period.12

1o

Sadanobu

quotation

from

Keene,

Japanese

Discovery

of

Europe, pp.

75-6.

For

the

Chomel

enterprise,

Marius

B.

Jansen,

'New

Materials for

the

Intellectual

History

of

Nineteenth

CenturyJapan,'

Harvard

Journal of

Asiatic

Studies:

20,

3-4

(December

I1957),

p.

575-

"1

Quoted by Sat5 Shosuke, rTgakushi,p. 200,

from

Otsuki's

rTgakushi

nempy5.

wasaki

Haruko

first

called

this

example

to

my

attention.

12

Sugita

biographies

in

Daijimmeijiten

(Tokyo, 1942, III,

p. 458.)

In

early

Meiji

Sugita

Genzui

and

his son

Takeshi

mixed

easily

in

foreign

circles in

Tokyo.

See

Clara's

Diary:

An

American Girl in

Meiji

Japan

(Tokyo, Kodansha,

I979), passim.




8/14

'RANGAKU'

AND WESTERNIZATION

547

While

government

service

may

have been distasteful to

some,

it

also

provided

access to

sources and

learning

they

would otherwise have had

difficulty finding. By

late

Tokugawa

the

official

collections,

especially

that of the Bansho

Shirabesho,

were

surely

the best

accessible,

with full

access to works on

medicine,

mathematics,

physics,

and

geography

and

world

affairs

as well as

large

concentrations on

military

technology.

Kat5

Hiroyuki

wrote that after he entered the Bansho

Shirabesho

'I

found other

books,

books not available to

anyone

else. When I

looked

into them

I

found

them

very

interesting;

for the first time

I

saw books

about

things

like

philosophy, sociology,

morals,

politics,

and law .

..

in

view of

that

my

ideas

began

to

change...

.'13

Nishi

Amane,

sent to

Leiden in

1862

on Bakufu service, lost no time indicating to his advisor

Professor Hoffmann that in

addition to

the course

in

law 'I

hope

to learn

those

subjects

within

the realm of

philosophy.' Christianity

was

prohibited

in

Japan,

he went

on,

but he believed

that it

differed 'from

those

things

advocated

by

Descartes,

Locke,

Hegel,

and

Kant,

so

I

hope

to

study

them too. This

work

is

probably

difficult, but,

in

my

opinion,

there are not a few

points

in

the

study

of

these

subjects

which

will serve

to

advance our

civilization....14

All this seems clear

enough.

But it leaves

room for

a

lively controversy

in

Japanese

scholarship

over the

significance

of Dutch and Western

learning.15

It is a

controversy

that

has

roots

in

Japan's

modern

history,

and it will

continue for

many years

to

come.

Were

rangaku

and

yagaku

harbingers

of freedom and

rationality

and

agents

of

modernization? Some scholars

have taken

strong

affirmative

positions

in

response

to this

question,

emphasizing

the

'enlightenment'

aspects

of

the

writings

and careers of well-known

representatives

of

Western

learning.

Takahashi

Shin'ichi,

in the

1964

Iwanami

kiea

series

and in his earlier 1igakuron, argues the case so directly that the section

headings

of

the

Iwanami

essay convey

his

message:

The Growth

of

an

Anti-feudal World

View; Rationalism;

Human

Equality;

Transcending

Views

(of

foreigners)

as

Barbarians and

Heretics;

International

Amity.

Unfortunately

it

often

requires

selective

quotation

and

forced

interpre-

13

Quoted

in

Numata

Jir6,

Bakumatsu

yJgaku

shi

(Tokyo,

T6ei

Shoten,

1952),

PP.

198-9.

For

the

holdings,

List

of

Foreign

Books Collectedunder he

Shogunate

Regime

(Tokyo,

Nichiran

Shiry6

Kenkyfikai,

I957),

p.

96.

14

Thomas

R.

Havens,

Nishi

Amane and Modern

Japanese Thought (Princeton:

Princeton

University

Press,

1970), p. 50.

'5

The

paragraphs

that

follow

owe a

great

deal to

rewarding

debate with Bob

Tadashi

Wakabayashi

of

Princeton

University,

who

develops

his

own

argument

in

his

unpublished

dissertation 'Aizawa Seishisai's

Shinron and Western

Learning:

I781-1828'

(1982).




9/14

548

MARIUS

B.

JANSEN

tation

to make

contemporary

liberals of late

Tokugawa figures,

and

these

attributions

emphasize only

a

very

long-term

thrust of

Western

learning.

In a

suspicious

and

partisan

environment

it was

just

as

common

and

perhaps

more

frequent

to

compensate

for

specialization

in

yogaku by

emphasizing

the

need to know

the

West in

order to realize

the

danger

it

posed.

The

exclusively

favorable

emphases

of some

have

inevitably

encour-

aged

equally negative

evaluations

by

others.

For

It5

Tazabur6

and

Numata

Jir6

Hayashi

Shihei,

Honda

Rimmei,

Shiba

K~kan,

and

Hiraga

Gennai,

who are at

the center of the

Takahashi

analysis,

were

dabblers on the

fringes

of

a

movement in its

early stages

and irritants

to

the sober specialists whose work they exploited in their books. The real

professionals,

they argue,

relied

upon

the

sponsorship

and

research

assistance of the

feudal

authorities

during

last half

century

of

Tokugawa

rule. Far from

harboring

anti-feudal

thought,

they

served

to

strengthen

feudal rule

through

the

technology they

made

available,

and if

they

were

more realistic in their

assessment of

national

dangers

it

was

not

in

any

sense from an

espousal

of

human

equality

or

foreign

virtues. Their

ideological

bed-rock

was

that of the Confucian

society

in

which

they

were born

and

bred.

Numata's views are

moderated

somewhat

by

Sat6

Shasuke. Sat5

sees the Kansei

Period as a

turning

point.

Thereafter,

he

argues,

scholarship

came

under the

control

of the

Bakufu,

and

professional

specialists

took

care to avoid the

non-specialist

generalizers

who

had

come so

close to

getting

them all in

trouble.

Essentially,

however,

his

modification affects

periodization

more than

interpreta-

tion.16

This

discussion is

not

without its

interest,

and

those

participating

in

it

have

produced

important

material

in

the course

of

seeking

evidence

for

the positions they take. Nevertheless it seems anachronistic and

mistaken

in

its

assumptions,

and one senses

that its

roots lie

in

the

need to

explain

other,

more

recent

phases

of

Japanese

history

by

identifying

roots

of

revolt or

repression.

The

discussion is

surely

anachronistic in

its

projection

backward

into

Tokougawa

times

of

attitudes

of

a

'moder-

nism'

laden with

values

like

peace

and

equality,

and it is

mistaken

in

its

assumption

that

specialization

in

the

study

of

a

tradition

should

by

rights

produce

adherence to

the values

of that

tradition.

For

some

the

specialists

in

Western

learning

should

have

been,

broadly

speaking,

'liberal.'

If

they

were

not,

a

political

or social

reason must be

found.

To

explain

them

one

can

focus on the

unhappy

fate

of

a

Hayashi

Shihei,

16

See

the

summary

of

this

debate in

Tazaki

Tetsur6,

'Y~gakuron

saik6sei

shiron,'

Shis5,

1979,

November,

pp.

48-72.




10/14

'RANGAKU'

AND

WESTERNIZATION

549

silenced

and

disconsolate in his

condemnation,

instead of

on the

alarming picture

of a

Western

danger

that he

presented

to his

readers,

or

on the

sorry

end

of Takahashi

Kageyasu, guilty

of

giving

Siebold

his

map ofJapan,

who

died

during interrogation

and

was

pickled

in

salt to

preserve

him for the

ultimate sentence of

execution,

instead of

on the fact

that it was also he

who

proposed

the famous

1825

edict

ordering

that

foreign ships

be

repulsed

on

sight (muninen

uchiharai

rei).

The

rangakusha

were

obviously

men of their

generation

and

society.

Awareness of the

technological

capabilities

of Western countries

might

in

rare cases

produce

favorable

opinions

of

Westerners,

but,

more often

it

produced

alarm. Small

wonder

that

feudal authorities

found such

scholars useful. In Tokugawa society traditions offiliation also made for

a

guild

consciousness

among

scholars that

operated

to

confine

and

channel

their

contacts

and

opinions.

A

Shiba

Karan,

who

popularized

other

people's

scholarship

and free-lanced

in

many

fields,

must have

seemed to set a

dubious

example

for

scholars

working

in a

context of

conservative

apprehension

in

the first

part

of

the nineteenth

century.

Rangaku

could also

serve

narrowly

nationalistic

purposes

in

the

hands of

eclectic writers like

Hirata

Atsutane."7

The historian

who marshals

evidence for

approbation

or

reprobation

risks

losing sight

of

his

major

aim,

which is

to

try

to

see the

past

as

contemporaries

saw

it,

in

order to

throw

light

on their dilemmas

and decisions.

What, then,

can one

propose

as the

principal

significance

of

rangaku

and

its

continuities with

modern

Japan?

The

rangakusha

produced

a

great

deal of

writing,

and

Sugita

Gempaku

was

justifiably proud

of his

work in

sparking

an

age

of translation. Yet

comparatively

little of that

writing

circulated

among

the

general public,

and

much of

it,

particu-

larly

impressive

scientific contributions like those of Shizuki

Tadao,

went almost unnoticed until it was inundated by the full flood of

Western

learning

that followed

the

opening

of the

country.

More

important

than

the actual

product,

I

believe,

was the

attitude

and mind-set that

produced

rangaku.

Even for those to

whom Dutch

studies

represented

an

esoteric

delight,

rangaku

brought

a

delight

in

the

new,

the

different,

and the difficult. It was

new,

for

it was

based

on the

transmission of a

changing body

of

knowledge,

one that

was also

in

process

of

growth

in

the West. It was

different,

in that it

was farthest

removed from the

classical

knowledge

of

the

China-centered world.

And

it

was

difficult,

difficult

beyond

the

imagination

of

students

who

have

access to

instruction,

teaching

tools,

and dictionaries.

Sugita

is

probably

17

Discussed

by

Keene,

Japanese

Discovery

of

Europe,pp.

I56f.




11/14

550

MARIUS B.

JANSEN

guilty

of

exaggeration

in his

Rangaku kotohajime,

but the

triumph

of his

tone and

the satisfaction

with which he

reviews

his

time--'When

I think

back,

it is almost

fifty years

since some of

us

old men set out to

foster this

learning'-conveys

something

of the zest for

discovery

that accom-

panied

the

decision

he

and

his

friends made to look

beyond

the

world of

Chinese

patterns

and

postulates.

For

many

that

decision

involved a

conscious abandonment of the

Chinese

thought

world.

In

his

1775

dialogue, Kyli

no

gen,

Sugita's

interlocutor

protests:

Korea

and

Ryfikyufi

re

not

China,

but at least

they

receivedthe

teachings

of

the

same

sages.

But

this

medical

learning you

teach comes from

countries on

the

northwest frontierof the

world,

9000

rifromChina. Their

language

is

different,

and they know nothing about the sages. They are the most distant of even the

barbarian

countries;

what

possible

good

can that

learning

do

us?

Sugita's

response

was

that China was

only

one

country,

and under

barbarian rule

at

that.'8

On the other

hand,

some scholars

managed

to retain an

affirmation of

Chinese values and

portrayed

their research as an extension

of

good

Confucian

practice

in

the

investigation

of

principles.

Western

strength

could

be

explained

as a

product

of the

progress

of butsuri

no

gaku.19 For

them a more

universal

investigation

of

principles, superior

to the

restrictions observed

in

the

past,

constituted

an

advance

in

learning

and

science. In either

case,

scholars were

transcending

traditional

limitations.

Whether one

thought

Westerners

good

or

evil,

friendly

or

dangerous,

their work deserved

attention. Even Sadanobu had said as

much;

'There

is

profit

to be derived

from them.' Medical

learning

was of

immediate

use and

application,

and

the

same was

true

of much else. It

was all an

extension

ofjitsugaku.

Coastal defense and

armament,

like

medicine,

were also forms ofjitsugaku. And clearly they were best studied when

subsidized

by government.

It was natural to

see

the

Western

advance

with

trepidation

and

fear. Even

so,

a

realistic

appraisal

of

Western

strength

operated

to

discourage

suicidal resistance

to that

advance and

to work for a

longer-range

response

to it.

Watanabe Kazan

pointed

out

that

Europe

was

poorly

placed,

and that its

principal

countries were

cold, remote,

and

poorly

endowed when

compared

with the

benign

climate

Japan enjoyed.

Nevertheless

they

had achieved

wealth

and

power through

the

application

of

knowledge

of the

principles

of

matter,

18

I

have

discussed this

in

Japan

and Its

World: Two

Centuriesof

Change

(Princeton:

Princeton

University

Press,

I980),

pp.

24-39.

'9

Sat6, YTgakushi,

p. 153,

with

reference to

(Watanabe)

Kazan.

Sh6zan,

as

Sat6

points

out,

held

even

more

tenaciously

to a

Chinese

cosmological

focus.




12/14

'RANGAKU AND

WESTERNIZATION

55I

which had

made

enormous

strides

in recent

times. To

argue

thatJapan

should take

that course was

by

no means to

admire the

West,

but it

was

more

rational. At points elements of universalism could also enter to

dilute

the

parochial

concern

for

country.

Kazan saw each

of

the

five

great

faiths

(Christianity,

Buddhism, Islam,

Judaism,

Confucianism)

as

having originated

in

Asia,

having

produced

its

sages

there,

and

equally

worthy

of

respect.

Under such

conditions the Sinic

tradition

could

never

loom as

large

again.20

As the

consciousness of

danger grew

steadily

in the

nineteenth

century,

scholarship

became less

individual,

less

free,

and

more

structured than

it had been in

Sugita's

days.

Yet

it

grew

astonishingly

in

amount. rYgakuprovided a form of self realization and social mobility

for

the able.

Sugita

Gempaku's

disciples

numbered

IO4,

and

they

were

from

thirty-eight

provinces.

The interlude of

relaxation

during

which

Siebold was

in

Nagasaki

found

him

lecturing

to

56

students.

During

that

stay

Siebold,

like

many Meiji

foreign

teachers,

had his

students

write

essays

in

Dutch about

Japan

as

the

basis for his

own

publications.

Thirty-nine

of these

survive.

He

himself drew

up

testimonial

'diplomas'

for

his students

certifying

to

their

proficiency

in

the

subjects

of his

instruction.

At the

time

of

the

crackdown

occasioned

by the discovery

that

he

had been

given

a

map,

23

of his

students were

taken into

custody.21

These numbers were

eclipsed

in

the famous Osaka

school of

Ogata

Koan

(1810-63)

which

opened

in

1838.

Extant

records

begin

in

I844

and

record a total of

637

students,

and it is

reasonable

to estimate

that

over one

thousand

pupils passed through

its

gates.

They

included

Omura

Masujir5,

Hashimoto

Sanai,

Mitsukuri

Shfihei,

and

of course

Fukuzawa

Yukichi,

whose

autobiographical

account of

his student

days

remains

a

classic

source.22

In short, there was a steady spread and diffusion of study and

knowledge

of the

West,

despite

the curbs of

fear and

force. That

diffusion

made for

ever

increasing

awareness of

the

utility

of

Western

science and

technology.

By

the

185os

Western

medical

training

was a

standard

part

of

medical

training.

It is

true

that more

and more of

this

scholarship

was

directed

toward

the

fields

of

medicine

and

defense. Neither

specialization

is

commonly

associated with

political

liberalism. But each

is

characterized

by

concern

for

practicality

and

efficiency.

Concern

for

defense

preparation

and

20

Discussed in

ibid.,

pp.

I59-60o.

21

Tsurumi,

Takano

Chiei,

p.

67.

22

Ban

Tadayasu,

Teki'uku

o

meguru

hitobito:

rangaku

no

nagare

(Osaka,

S6gensha,

1978),

p. 89.




13/14

552

MARIUS B.

JANSEN

adequacy brought

with it

ideas about social

organization.

In

response

to

military technology,

samurai levies were

supplemented

with

non-

samurai units in

many

parts

of

Japan,

and in

the

Bakufu

military

reforms of the

I86os

changes

were set

in

motion that

would

have

changed

political

relationships

drastically

if

they

had

been allowed

to

continue,

even if

there had not been a

political

overturn.23

The

distinction

between defense

specialization

and

modernization

which

is

implicit

in

arguments

that

rangaku

was abortive

because

it

was

deflected

into

government

service

seems

badly

mistaken.

It

is

useful, however,

to

note

Sat5

Shasuke's distinction

between

Western

learning 'specialists'

and

'enthusiasts,'

or

yogakusha

and

yagakukei. The former supplied, the latter consumed; yogaku became

relevant to

political problems

when

people

like

Watanabe

Kazan,

Sakuma Shazan

and Yokoi

Sh6nan

worked it

into their

framework

of

political thought.

The

differing degree

of

rationality

and

realism

contained

in

the

responses

of

Watanabe Kazan

and of

Takano

Ch5ei,

who

translated for

him,

with

regard

to the

Morrison

ncident

is

notable,

and

provides

a

useful

warning

against confusing

scholar

specialists

with

socio-political generalists.24

An

interplay

between official and

private,

and reform

and

reinforce-

ment of

government,

can be seen in case after case in mid-nineteenth-

century

Japan.

Fukuzawa Yukichi

began

in

government

service and

ended a

private

individual.

His

education in

rangaku

began

in

the

Ogata

academy.

Upon

his arrival in

the

newly

opened

port

he

discovered that

he

had learned

the

wrong

language.

In answer

to Omura

Masujir5's

argument

that

the Dutch

translated

everything,

Fukuzawa

replied,

'that's one side

of the

argument.

But do

you

think

the

Dutch will

translate

everything?

The

other

day

I went

to

Yokohama

and

what

happened? I couldn't speak with the foreigners or read the signs of the

shops

at all.

Dutch

alone is not

enough.

English

is

going

to be

necessary.'25

The

voyage

to the

United States

with

the

i860

mission

surely

closed

the

argument

for

Fukuzawa.

Practical

experience,

and a

second

trip,

produced

the material

that

gave

Japan

in

SeiyJ-jfio,

the

fullest

and

friendliest

account

of the

West

yet

available.

But

Fukuzawa

23

Conrad

Totman,

The

Collapse

of the

Tokugawa

Bakufu,

1862-1868

(Honolulu:

University

of

Hawaii

Press,

I980),

describes

these reforms.

24

Sat6,

YTgakushi,p.

166.

25

Autobiography

ofFukuzawa

Yukichi tr. Eiichi Kiyooka) (Tokyo, Hokuseido, 1948), p.

Io9.

Clara's

Diary,

however,

leaves

room for

doubt about

his

ability

to

'speak

with

foreigners'

in

1879:

'Mr

Fukuzawa has a

comical

way

of

speaking, using

English

and

Japanese

in

the

utmost

confusion

....

For

example,

speaking

of

the

Governor: "Mr.

Kuriyama

is

hont5

ni

kind

man,

keredomo

he is

tais6

busy

kono

setsu,

yes?"'

p.

221.




14/14

'RANGAKU'

AND WESTERNIZATION

553

was also in

Bakufu

employ,

alarmed

by

the violence of

anti-government

jii

sentiment,

and

wrote a memorandum

advocating

Bakufu reliance on

French

help against

its internal enemies. His

Meiji

career as

private

educator and

his criticism of

Bakufu retainers like Katsu and Enomoto

who entered service for the new

government,

show that that

advocacy

of

'modern' individualism was reinforced

by lingering

'feudal'

loyalty.

Nishi

Amane's

path

was different. His orientation

began

with Sorai

philosophy,

to

which was

added

an

overlay

of Chu

Hsi

Confucianism.

There followed medical and Dutch

training, including study

with

Sugita

Seikei,

before he

gave

up

his fief commission and

entered Bakufu

employ. Study

of

English began

in

I856,

and a

stay

at Leiden came in

1862.

Nishi's last assignment under the Bakufu was to draw up a sort of

constitution for

the

last

shogun.

Temporary despair

at what seemed the

victory

of

anti-foreign

elements

in

the Restoration

change

was resolved

by employment

for the new

regime,

in which he became an

organization

man for

Yamagata

Aritomo.

Rangaku

thus

served

as a

bridge

between the world

of

Tokugawa

and

Meiji thought

and action.

Though

its

products

were less

important

than

that

passage, they

served to

prepare

the

travellers for access

to,

and

utilization

of,

the

range

of

choices on the farther

shore,

and once

the

shore was reached the

bridge

was

expendable. Study

of Dutch

gave way

to that of

English,

French,

and German.

Even before Nishi and Tsuda

had reached

Leiden

in

I862,

Matsuki

Koan (Terajima Munenori)

showed what the future would

bring

in a

letter

designed

to

keep

them

from

going.

Holland,

he had

discovered,

was a

pleasant

but

rather

unimportant

little

country

whose citizens

preferred

to read their

books

in

French and German.

'I

must

honestly say

that

the

country

is so small

and

insignificant

as to startle

one,'

he

wrote,

'In all

things

Holland,

when compared with England, France, and Germany, is about one

hundredth of what

they

are.'26

A

century

after

Sugita Gempaku

and his

friends had

struggled

to understand the Dutch of

Tafel

Anatomia,

Netherlands

diplomats

were

communicating

with the

Meiji government

in

English. Rangaku

was a

thing

of the

past.

26

Quoted

from Ihi

nyuk5

roku

(Tokyo:

Nihon

Shiseki

Ky6kai,

193 I, I, pp. 244-50)

in

Jansen,

'New

Materials,'

p. 596.

Documents

Rangaku and Westernization