State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu

by Ronald P. Toby

Ronald P. Toby argues that this isolationism was by no means so complete as traditionally supposed. He demonstrates that the Tokugawa shoguns conducted a foreign policy that established the shogunate's legitimacy, preserved Japan's security in an unstable environment, and buttressed her ideological pretensions to centrality in an East Asian order independent of the Chinese world order more familiar to historians.



Originally published in 1984.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Genres: Japan, History, Nonfiction, Asia, Politics

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Eressea · Rating 4 out of 5]

這是海外日本研究叢書中的一本
應該還有不少有趣的題目
這本看看頁數還好買了紙書
已經沒有亞馬遜可買的情況下
以後這叢書大概也不會看更多了吧

本書是論證德川並不鎖國的小書
書中講到江戶政權穩定下來後
有意識的打造自己的外交體系
並非關起門來當睜眼瞎子

作者定義的日本型華夷秩序分四個等第
依次是朝鮮琉球荷蘭中國
前兩者是國交，後兩者只是通商
據此江戶政權成功對內塑造了統治正當性
對外也保持一定的貿易和情蒐管道

如此到幕末被歐美壓境時
由於日本早早就拒絕中華朝貢秩序
想出一套應對外國的方法
姑且不論碰上帝國主義時這方法合不合用
至少比週邊舊中國藩屬囿於意識型態
事事尋求天朝指引，結果天朝自己也鴉鴉烏
反觀日本自己就是天朝
才能夠在思想上順利達成開國的共識

雖然我覺得日本型華夷秩序下的不鎖國
還是自欺欺人居多
但是因此而有意識基礎去開國
這立論倒是很令人耳目一新
(只是看看原著出版日期，搞不好是我鴿子封包...)

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a stunner and rightly deserves its reputation as a critical work in Edo Period foreign policy studies. Putting to bed the myth of total isolation, the chapters here show the real purpose of the Shogunate was to combat ideologies that delegimitzed the state's sovereignty as a distinct entity from both Chinese regional domination and the European maritime empires. Significant percentage of the text is devoted to the truly bilateral relationship between Korea and Japan, which was the one success point of this policy that is well documented.

The focus is on Asia more than the Europeans, as this good as Asian diplomacy in this time is overlooked despite being by far the most important from the government's perspective.

[meeners · Rating 4 out of 5]

a somewhat old-fashioned narrative account, but one i found really absorbing and informative. diplomatic history go go go! like chelsea, i find it a little depressing that, despite all this, the sakoku myth still persists.

[Chelsea Szendi · Rating 3 out of 5]

All this, and yet people still speak of Japan as a "closed country" in its early modern period.