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Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels (view source)
Revision as of 20:40, 14 July 2014
, 20:40, 14 July 2014Created page with "*''Enacted: 1825'' *''Rescinded: 1842'' *''Japanese'': 異国船打払令 ''(ikokusen uchiharai rei)'' The Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels was a policy put in place by..."
*''Enacted: [[1825]]''
*''Rescinded: [[1842]]''
*''Japanese'': 異国船打払令 ''(ikokusen uchiharai rei)''
The Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels was a policy put in place by the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] in [[1825]], and rescinded in [[1842]], stating that all foreign vessels (i.e. chiefly, Western ships) which approached Japan without proper trading permissions (that is, Western ships other than those of the [[Dutch East India Company]]) were to be fired upon and driven away with cannon.
The edict is often cited within a narrative of "Japan's" [[sakoku|isolationist]] and aggressive attitudes and actions against Western interaction, a precursor or even cause for the later supposed "opening" of Japan by [[Commodore Matthew Perry]]. The shogunate, however, was not truly able to exercise full control over such matters, and it was coastal domains (and the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]]), not the shogunate, or "Japan" as a unitary actor, which had to effect the actual enforcement of this edict.
In practice, the Edict was enforced only on an ''ad hoc'' basis. On at least one occasion (that of the American ship ''[[Morrison]]'' in [[1837]]), Ryûkyû not only did not fire on the foreign vessel, but in fact provisioned it. [[Satsuma han]] fired on that same vessel a few months later, driving it away, but it is unclear if Satsuma fired on any other ships during this period. Similarly, cannon batteries prepared at [[Matsumae han]] fired upon foreign vessels in [[1831]] and [[1834]], but did not fire upon other vessels which appeared in [[1832]] and 1834.
{{stub}}
==References==
*Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 150-151.
[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Historical Documents]]
*''Rescinded: [[1842]]''
*''Japanese'': 異国船打払令 ''(ikokusen uchiharai rei)''
The Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels was a policy put in place by the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] in [[1825]], and rescinded in [[1842]], stating that all foreign vessels (i.e. chiefly, Western ships) which approached Japan without proper trading permissions (that is, Western ships other than those of the [[Dutch East India Company]]) were to be fired upon and driven away with cannon.
The edict is often cited within a narrative of "Japan's" [[sakoku|isolationist]] and aggressive attitudes and actions against Western interaction, a precursor or even cause for the later supposed "opening" of Japan by [[Commodore Matthew Perry]]. The shogunate, however, was not truly able to exercise full control over such matters, and it was coastal domains (and the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]]), not the shogunate, or "Japan" as a unitary actor, which had to effect the actual enforcement of this edict.
In practice, the Edict was enforced only on an ''ad hoc'' basis. On at least one occasion (that of the American ship ''[[Morrison]]'' in [[1837]]), Ryûkyû not only did not fire on the foreign vessel, but in fact provisioned it. [[Satsuma han]] fired on that same vessel a few months later, driving it away, but it is unclear if Satsuma fired on any other ships during this period. Similarly, cannon batteries prepared at [[Matsumae han]] fired upon foreign vessels in [[1831]] and [[1834]], but did not fire upon other vessels which appeared in [[1832]] and 1834.
{{stub}}
==References==
*Robert Hellyer, ''Defining Engagement'', Harvard University Press (2009), 150-151.
[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Historical Documents]]