Kasei Culture and the Opening of Japan

Kasei culture flourished during the Bunka and Bunsei periods (1804-1830) under the eleventh shogun, Tokugawa Ienari. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution and imperialism swept across the world, and Japan was finally pressured to open by Perry's arrival.

Basic Knowledge

Kasei culture(early 19th century, centered in Edo):
Literature:
・Jippensha Ikku: Shank's Mare(comic novel)
・Takizawa Bakin: The Eight Dog Chronicles(yomihon, good versus evil)
・Shikitei Sanba: Bathhouse of the Floating World, Bed of the Floating World(comic novels)
・Tamenaga Shunsui: Plum Blossoms in Spring Colors(sentimental novel)
・Kobayashi Issa: haikai, “Don't give up, skinny frog—Issa is here”
・Yosa Buson(slightly before the Kasei period): haikai and painting
Ukiyo-e:
・Kitagawa Utamaro: pictures of beautiful women, Woman Blowing a Poppin
・Toshusai Sharaku: actor portraits (a mysterious artist who disappeared after ten months)
・Katsushika Hokusai: landscape paintings, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji(The Great Wave off Kanagawa)
・Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando Hiroshige): landscape paintings, Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido
Dutch Studies and Scholarship:
・Sugita Genpaku, Maeno Ryotaku, and others: New Book of Anatomy(1774, translation of a Dutch anatomy book)
・ Motoori Norinaga: National Learning, Commentary on the Kojiki
・Ino Tadataka: surveyed all of Japan from 1800, Map of the Coastal Regions of Japan(completed in 1821)
・Siebold: doctor at the Dutch trading post; taught Dutch studies at Narutaki School in Nagasaki
・Ogata Koan: opened Tekijuku in Osaka (educated Fukuzawa Yukichi and others)
Toward the Opening of Japan:
・1792: Russian Laxman arrived at Nemuro, returned the castaway Daikokuya Kodayu, and requested trade
・1804: Russian Rezanov arrived at Nagasaki
・1808: British warship Fton entered Nagasaki
・1825: Edict to Repel Foreign Ships(unconditional expulsion edict)
・1837: Morrison Incident(an American merchant ship that came to return castaways was driven away); Watanabe Kazan and Takano Choei criticized the shogunate and were punished in the Ban on Western Learning Incident (1839)
・1840-1842: Opium War (Qing defeated by Britain)
・1842: Edict for Providing Fuel and Water(relaxed the expulsion edict)
・1853: American Commodore Perry arrived at Uraga and demanded that Japan open
・1854: Convention of Kanagawa(opened Shimoda and Hakodate), at Kanagawa
・1858: Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States(senior councilor Ii Naosuke signed without imperial permission; an unequal treaty). Opened Yokohama, Nagasaki, Hakodate, Kobe, and Niigata
・1860: Sakuradamon Incident; Ii Naosuke was assassinated by Mito ronin

Further Study (Background and Effects)

The feature of Kasei culture was the “maturity of townspeople's culture centered in Edo.” While Genroku culture centered on Kamigata (Kyoto and Osaka), Kasei culture centered on Edo and spread throughout the country. This resulted from the development of transportation networks (the five major highways and river shipping) and publishing.
Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji influenced Impressionist painters such as Van Gogh and Monet and was highly regarded in Europe and the United States as Japonisme. Hokusai was a rare artist who remained active until nearly 90 years of age.
The opening of Japan was a world-historical inevitability. In the 19th century, European powers expanded industrial production through the Industrial Revolution and accelerated their advance into Asia in search of markets and raw materials. The Qing defeat in the Opium War (1840-1842) shocked Japan as well, making it difficult to continue the Edict to Repel Foreign Ships in practice.
Perry arrived at Uraga in 1853 with four black ships and returned in 1854 to force Japan to sign the Convention of Kanagawa. The following Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States (1858) recognized consular jurisdiction (extraterritoriality) and gave up tariff autonomy, making it a typical unequal treaty and a major diplomatic issue for the later Meiji government.
Ii Naosuke became tairo in 1858 and suppressed opponents in the Ansei Purge(Yoshida Shoin and Hashimoto Sanai were executed), but he was assassinated by Mito ronin in the Sakuradamon Incident in 1860. This caused the shogunate's authority to decline, intensified the Movement to Revere the Emperor and Expel the Barbarians, and led toward the Meiji Restoration.

Points of Caution (Easily Confused)

① Distinguish Genroku culture (Kamigata) and Kasei culture (Edo) by region and period. Genroku=late 17th to early 18th century; Kasei=early 19th century. ② Distinguish Katsushika Hokusai(Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, The Great Wave off Kanagawa) from Utagawa Hiroshige(Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido). Both were masters of landscape painting. ③ Convention of Kanagawa (1854)=opening ports only (Shimoda and Hakodate); Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States (1858)=trade+unequal treaty (extraterritoriality and no tariff autonomy). Always distinguish them. ④ Organize the relationships among Siebold(doctor at the Dutch trading post, Narutaki School), Ogata Koan(Tekijuku), and Ogata's student Fukuzawa Yukichi(Keio University).

Practice

1. Give the name of the ukiyo-e artist who represented Kasei culture and painted Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.
2. Give the name of the American admiral who arrived at Uraga in 1853 and pressured Japan to open.
3. Briefly give two reasons why the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States was called an “unequal treaty.”