Abstract
In early modern Japan, there were four portals to the outer world: Nagasaki, the port frequented by Chinese and Dutch (the Dutch East India Company, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) merchants; Satsuma, with access to the Ryūkyūs; Tsushima, whose Sō clan (宗家) mediated trade and diplomacy with Korea; and Matsumae, which dominated Ezo (蝦夷) through indirect control over its indigenous Ainu population
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Notes
- 1.
The term and notion “four portals” (yottsu no kuchi 四つの口) was introduced by Arano Yasunori in his discussion criticizing the historical view of “national seclusion” (mainly in Arano 1981).
- 2.
The Tokugawa shogunate did not issue any edict to restrict the trading partners merely to the Chinese and the VOC in this period and instead seemed to welcome trading ships from other regions, especially many southeast Asian states such as Siam and Cambodia. However, the truth is that merchants from southeast Asia did not have enough commercial ability to compete with the junks and the VOC in the intra-regional trade of East Asia. In the last years of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, when the Russian embassies visited Japan and negotiated with the Tokugawa shogunate for opening a new trade relationship, the shogunate refused and explained that they must obey the “Ancestors’ Law” (sohō, 祖法)—the trade relationship merely limited to China and the Netherlands. Recent studies discuss the creation of the Tokugawa “Idea of the Ancestors’ Law.” For details of this discussion, see Fujita (2005).
- 3.
In order to isolate Zheng’s forces, Qing authorities issued Maritime Prohibition edicts many times after 1655, strictly forbidding the Chinese people from sailing abroad and forcing coastal residents to move inland.
- 4.
See records dated on the 1st and 13th day of the ninth month of Genroku 14 (October 2 and 14, 1701) in Tōtsūji Kaisho Nichiruku (Working Dairies of Chinese Interpreters 唐通事会所日録) in the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture (NMHC). They have been published with the same title (Historiographical Institute, The University of Tokyo (ed) Tōtsūji Kaisho Nichiruku. Tokyo: The University of the Tokyo Press, 1955–1968).
- 5.
The number was fixed at 80 in 1698, 59 in 1708, 30 in 1715, 40 in 1717, 30 in 1720, 25 in 1736, 20 in 1740, 15 in 1749, 13 in 1765, and 10 in 1791. See Yamawaki (1964), pp. 317–322.
- 6.
As isolation facilities, the Chinese Residence and Dejima were similar in function and management. Regarding the reasons for their establishment, however, they were obviously different: Dejima was established in response to Anti-Christianity policies, and the Chinese Residence was established to directly restrict trade as a countermeasure to junks’ smuggling.
- 7.
For more details about the Chinese Residence, see Yamamoto (1983).
- 8.
The related dates are seen in the Tōsen Kurachi Kaiki no Oboe (唐船蔵地開基之覚, memorandum on the opening of Chinese junks’ warehouse) in the Historiographical Institute, The University of Tokyo, and Shinchi Tsukitate Hottan Narabini Tōjin Kuranushi Haitōgin Chōshō Kakitsuke (新地蔵立発端并頭人蔵主配当銀調書書付, investigation on the beginning of the Shinchi Warehouse and profit distributions of its managers and owners) in NMHC.
- 9.
Nagasaki Kaisho Gosatsu Mono (five volumes of records on the Nagasaki Trading House), NMHC. They can be seen in Nagasaki Kenshi Hensan I’inkai (ed) Nagasaki Kenshi Shiryō Hen (history of Nagasaki prefecture: source materials) vol. 4. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1966, pp. 1–243.
- 10.
The Copper Agency of Osaka was twice abolished and reestablished: First abolished in 1712, it was reestablished in 1738; in 1750 it was once again abolished, only to be resurrected in 1766.
- 11.
Tōkatawatari Shoshiki Nedan Narabini Myogagin Toritate Motoshime Kakitsuke (唐方渡諸色直段并冥加銀取立候元極書付, decision papers in terms of the prices of various supplying goods for Chinese trade and the commercial taxes) in the Manuscript Library of the Kyushu University Library.
- 12.
Tōkata Urikomi Gobaishi no Gi ni tsuki Shoshikiya tomo Negaide sōrō Shidai Wayakuya Kaemon ai Tadashi Torishirabe Moshi sōrō Kakitsuke (唐方売込五棓子之儀ニ付諸色屋共願出候次第, 和薬屋嘉右衛門相糺取調子申上候書付 The documents on the complaints of shoshikiya over the sale of sumac gallnut for junks and the investigation papers of the wayakuya kaemon) in NMHC.
- 13.
Tōtsūji Kaisho Nichiruku (Note 4) Vol. 4, pp. 300–306.
- 14.
Various types of day laborers can be seen in the criminal cases recorded in Hanka-chō (犯科帳, precedent case collection) in NMHC, which has been published (Morinaga Taneo, ed. Hanka-chō: Nagasaki Bugyōsho Hanketsu Kiroku. Nagasaki: Hankachō Kankokai, 1958–1961).
- 15.
There was a case in 1795 indicating an employment relation between a sampan-arrangement agency and a holder of a sampan in Hankachō Vol. 5, p. 129.
- 16.
Generally, every neighborhood had a duty to provide security-related work. Every night, 10 neighborhood officials called kumigashira (組頭), which was the position immediately beneath the otona, the chief neighborhood officials, attended the night watch of the Shinchi Warehouse. This detail can be seen in a book titled Ryōmachi Otona Kumigashira Nichikōshi Tsutomekata Hikae (両町乙名組頭日行使勤方書控, a binding book of the reserve documents on the work directory of totona, kumigashira, nichikōshi in the Two Neighborhoods) in NMHC.
- 17.
Nagasaki Kaisho Gosatsu Mono (Note 9), Vol.2.
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Peng, H. (2019). Commercial Intermediaries in the Nagasaki Trade. In: Trade Relations between Qing China and Tokugawa Japan. Studies in Economic History. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7685-6_2
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