Countries for Commercial Relations: The Tokugawa Struggle to Control Chinese in Japan

Speaker: Fuyuko Matsukata (Associate Professor, Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo)
Date and time: November 24, 2016 (Thur.), 4:00-5:30PM
Venue: First Meeting Room (3rd Floor), The Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo
Language: English (Discussion: Japanese)

Abstract:
The purpose of my talk is to describe how the Tokugawa government tried and succeeded to control Chinese inhabitants in the Japanese archipelago. I will survey the historical process from 1600 to 1685.
When the shogunate failed to open a diplomatic channel with Ming China around 1610, it decided to issue read-seal passes to control existing trade, passes which accompanied “state letters (kokusho国書)” sent to authorities in Southeast Asia. In the 1620s and 1630s, the shogunate erected an anti-Christian policy that paralleled its process of forming “Tokugawa subjects” in Japan. In such a condition, the Chinese diaspora posed of a problem because the Tokugawa government had not maintained direct relations with the Ming government. The shogunate categorized Chinese domiciled in Japan as “Tokugawa subjects” just like Japanese people. On the other hand, it ordered Chinese not- permanently domiciled in Japan to leave Japan and prohibited them from returning to live. The Tokugawa allowed Chinese, including people from Southeast Asia, to only visit Nagasaki to trade on the condition that they obeyed the anti-Christian policy.

Organizer: The Global Japan Studies Network (GJS), University of Tokyo
Co-organizer: Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo
Contact: gjs[at]ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

For details, please see GJS's Website

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