Abstract
Between 1633 and 1639, the Tokugawa shogunate had published a series of edicts, expelling all Westerners except the Dutch from the country, curtailing international commerce and missionary activities, as well as forbidding the Japanese from ever leaving their homeland. The Edo government maintained its isolationist course with varying degrees of success for more than two hundred years, finally caving in under foreign pressure in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Although the border control was exceptionally strict, small merchant craft and fisherman boats were still navigating between the islands of Japan. The sailors could rarely find a way back home after a shipwreck. Saved by passing whalers or washed ashore in a distant land, some of them survived their ordeal and ended up in the West where they were often employed as guides, interpreters and language teachers. Several countries sent diplomatic missions to Japan, using repatriation of castaways as a pretext to open negotiations with the shogunate. In this article, we will try to deconstruct the history of the relations between Japan and the Western powers through the eyes of these castaways and identify several methodological challenges that such a research entails.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Artikel – Articles
- Framing the Qin collapse: redaction and authorship of the Shiji 史記
- The recently found Map of the World (Kunyutu 坤輿圖): a philological survey
- Kūn’s ‘body’: the many appearances and meanings of the pure even-numbered trigram in the early Yìjīng and related texts
- Volitive Modalverben im Deutschen und im modernen Chinesisch
- Contributions aux 9èmes journées de la relève de la Société Suisse-Asie à Genève, 31 mai–1 juin 2021 – Beiträge zur 9. Nachwuchstagung der Schweizerischen Asiengesellschaft, Genf, 31. Mai–1. Juni 2021
- Naufragés japonais et leur rôle dans les relations nippo-occidentales: Défis d’une étude globale
- A blending of Buddhism, social engagement, and alternative agriculture from Thailand: the Maap Euang Meditation Center for Sufficiency Economy
- Les politiques d’assistance envers les vétérans infirmes au Japon durant le 20ème siècle
- Chinese literature and “New Methods of Midwifery” during the 1950s
- Buchbesprechungen – Comptes rendus – Book Reviews
- Gruendler, Beatrice: The Rise of the Arabic Book
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Artikel – Articles
- Framing the Qin collapse: redaction and authorship of the Shiji 史記
- The recently found Map of the World (Kunyutu 坤輿圖): a philological survey
- Kūn’s ‘body’: the many appearances and meanings of the pure even-numbered trigram in the early Yìjīng and related texts
- Volitive Modalverben im Deutschen und im modernen Chinesisch
- Contributions aux 9èmes journées de la relève de la Société Suisse-Asie à Genève, 31 mai–1 juin 2021 – Beiträge zur 9. Nachwuchstagung der Schweizerischen Asiengesellschaft, Genf, 31. Mai–1. Juni 2021
- Naufragés japonais et leur rôle dans les relations nippo-occidentales: Défis d’une étude globale
- A blending of Buddhism, social engagement, and alternative agriculture from Thailand: the Maap Euang Meditation Center for Sufficiency Economy
- Les politiques d’assistance envers les vétérans infirmes au Japon durant le 20ème siècle
- Chinese literature and “New Methods of Midwifery” during the 1950s
- Buchbesprechungen – Comptes rendus – Book Reviews
- Gruendler, Beatrice: The Rise of the Arabic Book