Ancient History of Asian Countries

Japanese Intellectual Exchange with
China & Korea During the Edo Period
By Andrew T. Kamei-Dyche

AuthorAndrew T. Kamei-Dyche

A Thoughtful Encounter
It is the year 1709, and Ogyū Sorai (1666-1728) is thrilled to bemeeting Abbot Eppō Dōshō (1655-1734) at Zuishoji Temple. Sorai, aConfucian philosopher, has spent many years studying the Chineseclassics. He has also, since 1705, invested great effort in learning to
speak Chinese. As for Eppō, he is an esteemed Buddhist priest andscholar, hailing from Zhejiang, China. Having arrived in Japan in
1686, he became first the abbot of a temple in Nagasaki and thenone in Uji. The two intellectuals enjoy a long conversation,encompassing Confucian and Buddhist philosophy, historicalmatters, and even names for flowers and household objects. Sorai,strongly inspired, goes on to start a society for Chinese study,
encouraging his students to learn not only the classics but also
contemporary Chinese language and culture (Image 1).
These scholars were not marginal figures in their era – many
moved in high circles, associating with powerful elites. Sorai and hiscolleagues, for instance, would be called upon to serve asinterpreters for the shogun when imminent Chinese visitors came to
Image 1(L) Depiction of Eppō by Ohara Geizan (?-1733)
Original held by Kobe City Museum(R) Depiction of Sorai by Kawahara Keiga (1786-1860)
Original held by Tokyo National Museum

42 Japan SPOTLIGHT • November / December 2019

Edo. There was also a lively intellectual exchange among Korean andJapanese intellectuals, as well as a great amount of books from thecontinent circulating in Japanese towns. So why is the predominant
image of the Edo period in today’s popular consciousness of an
isolated Japan cut off from the ideas and culture of the rest of theworld?

The Enduring Myth of “National Isolation”
From the mid-19th century, when Japan was forced to open
relations with the bulk of the Western world, it became common torefer to the nation as having formerly been a “closed country”(sakoku). The term itself was not originally Japanese, having beencoined at the turn of the century by a scholar as a translation of aphrase used by the German Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716) to
describe Japan. The Bakufu (warrior government), faced withnumerous missions from Russia and the United States in the 1830s
and 1840s, soon found invoking the notion of sakoku helpful as an
excuse not to add countries to its pool of trading partners. As Japanbegan to modernize, the myth of an isolated Japan cut off from therest of the world took root, fueled partly by Eurocentrism and partly
by contemporary politics. In the first case, Europeans, motivated by
19th-century nationalism, saw themselves as the center of the world,
meaning past Japanese refusal to have relations with these nations
meant Edo Japan had rejected “the world”. In the latter case, the new
Meiji government, seeking to enhance its own image and discredit its
Bakufu predecessor, portrayed the Edo-era authorities as backward
and foolish.
Historians have problematized the notion of sakoku since at least
the early 1980s, yet the myth persists, in the mass media and in
popular culture. Every online discussion forum on Japanese culture
and society is filled with vague references to Japanese isolation.
Why? Because myths, like stereotypes, do not persist by chance.
They persist because they are useful. The isolation myth serves bothright- and left-wing political interests, both “Japanophiles” and“Japan-bashers”, because it gives them an excuse to treat Japan as acompletely unique case unconnected to the rest of the world. They
are then free to celebrate it as a country that evolved a vibrantculture without any foreign influence, or ridicule it for not following(supposedly) global standards. What, then, do we find if we strip
away the myth? What was the real situation like in the Edo period?

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Ancient History of Asian Countries

Foreign Relations During the Edo Period
At the end of the 16th century, Japan had finally been reunified
after more than a century of warfare that had followed thebreakdown of the Muromachi Bakufu and the disintegration of thecountry into smaller territories. By 1603 a new government, the Edo
Bakufu, was in control, and concerned first and foremost withpreventing a relapse into civil war. Many of its regulations – severely
restricting firearms, stipulating that each domain could only have
one castle, requiring the daimyō (regional lords) to spend half theyear in Edo and leaving their wives and children there the rest of thetime as potential hostages, and so on – make sense in this context.
The authorities took the same pragmatic approach to foreign
affairs. In the case of relations with Europe, the benefits of tradeneeded to be weighed against the drawbacks. The involvement of theJesuits and European merchants in local politics, the selling ofJapanese into slavery overseas, and the potential for Christianity toinspire rebellions against the authorities, as Pure Land Buddhism
had done in Japan in the past, were all issues of concern. There werealso fears that one of the empires, perhaps Spain or Portugal, would
seek to colonize Japan as they had the territories in the Americas. Yet
while it prohibited Christianity, the Bakufu did not impose anything
akin to a blanket ban on dealings with the Westerners. The approach
was much more ad hoc. The Bakufu eventually expelled the Spanishin 1624, and the Portuguese more than a decade later, after the latterhad been suspected of fostering the disastrous Shimabara Rebellion(1637-1638) of Japanese Christian converts. The English had alreadyleft of their own accord in 1623, having decided that the trade withJapan was not profitable enough to justify the expense. Trade with
the West was consequently limited to the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Japan continued to trade with its old trading partners,
China and Korea. The harshest law imposed by the Bakufu in the areaof foreign affairs was the 1635 prohibition on Japanese leaving or
returning to the country (except for special cases such as Buddhist
temples dispatching missions of monks to China). Although travel
restrictions were not unusual in the early modern world, elites wereusually accorded a greater degree of movement than commoners,
making the Japanese case of a uniform prohibition more uncommon.
At any rate, this did not prevent non-Japanese from visiting thecountry, provided that they arrived legally, followed the laws andresided in the designated areas. Rather than breaking off relations
with foreign countries altogether, it would be more accurate todescribe the Edo period as one in which Japan strictly regulated its
foreign relations, and rather than orientating itself to Western trade
networks turned instead back to its old trading partners in East Asia.
This trade consisted of not just material goods, but of intellectual
exchange.

tributary system. The tributary system, which was the Chinese
empire’s traditional way of handling foreign relations, required othercountries to recognize the superior authority of the Chinese emperor
and engage in trade through a type of performance. Foreigncountries offered trade goods as tribute to the emperor, who would
then reward the “loyalty” of these foreign “subjects” with gifts inreturn. While trade with China could often be lucrative, it therefore
also required other countries to swallow their pride and feign
submission to the emperor. Understandably, some countries, such
as Japan, decided this humiliation was not worth it. Therefore, formost of its history Japan had traded with China in an unofficial
capacity, eschewing diplomatic relations but engaging in an active
private trade among individuals and families. Japan’s policy towards
China in the Edo period was simply standard practice for Japan,
which for centuries had tended to prefer private trade with its
neighbors. The Qing court tolerated the situation because of theimportance of some Japanese imports, especially silver which playeda key role in the economy. The trade was big enough that in 1715 theBakufu took steps to restrict it out of fear that the export of so many
precious metals would undermine the domestic economy.
Joseon Korea, itself deemed a client state by China, was an
exceptional case, in that the Korean sovereign enjoyed proper
diplomatic relations with the Bakufu. No less than 12 official Korean
missions were dispatched to Japan during the course of the Edo
period, the first occurring in 1607 and the last in 1811. While othergroups of foreign visitors at times visited Edo and met the shogun,
these were usually understood as private visits and not missions
occurring in an official capacity (Image 2).
The main point of access to Japan for foreign trade was Nagasaki,
which was consequently the premier destination for Japanese
intellectuals looking to meet people from abroad and obtain foreign
books. Unlike the handful of people able to visit the continent, mostImage 2

Intellectual Exchange with China & Korea
Japan did not have official relations with China during the Edo
period because it was not willing to participate in the Chinese

Hanegawa Tō ei’s depiction of the 1748 mission from Joseon Korea visiting Edo
Original held by Kobe City Museum

Japan SPOTLIGHT • November / December 201943

Ancient History of Asian Countries

Japanese intellectuals interested in intellectual exchange with China
had to count on Nagasaki as their point of access. The town had asizeable Chinese quarter with many merchants and sailors, as well as
people who provided them with goods and services. There were also
Chinese Buddhist priests who preached to the community. Many ofthese priests were well-educated, and were willing to discuss various
aspects of the Chinese intellectual tradition with interested Japanesescholars. Some of these figures, like Ingen Ryūki (1592-1673), whofounded the Ōbaku sect of Zen Buddhism, or Eppō, mentioned
earlier, entered Japan through Nagasaki but eventually took up
temple positions elsewhere such as in Kyoto. They often gave
Buddhist and Confucian texts to their Japanese colleagues andstudents, and introduced new schools of thought from the continent.
There were numerous Korean communities to be found inJapanese towns in the Edo period; some in parts of Kyushu became
especially well-known for their pottery work. For Japanese
intellectuals, however, by far the most important Koreans were theofficial envoys. As elite Confucian intellectuals, the envoys were asymbol of continental knowledge and authority. Japanese scholars
would ask the envoys for their thoughts on philosophical or
historical issues. Japanese doctors were also eager to meet theenvoys, because Korean doctors accompanied the missions and it
was an opportunity for them to discuss medical findings andtreatments. Japanese intellectuals also frequently gave the envoys
essays or poetry to assess. If an envoy told a Japanese intellectualthat his work was of excellent quality, this could give the intellectual’s
reputation a boost.
For instance, Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725), an influential Confucian
scholar as well as a prominent advisor to the Bakufu, gained a lot of
respect after Korean envoys on the 1682 mission praised his work.
Arai was later involved in planning the reception of the 1711 mission,and exchanged a substantial amount of correspondence with theenvoys, including chief envoy Jo Tae-eok (1675-1728) and deputy
chief envoy Im Su-Gan (1665-1721). There were also cases where
Japanese scholars asked Korean envoys to add comments to essays,
poems or drawings. Confucian philosopher Hayashi Razan (15831657) asked the envoy Kim Se-ryeom (1593-1646) to write acomment on a drawing for his friend artist Kano Sansetsu (15901651) – in effect, the contemporary version of asking a celebrity for
their signature. Poetry and essays received by the envoys were takenback to Korea to preserve, while both sides kept records of their
discussions. In addition to their diplomatic function, then, themissions were also an opportunity for intellectual exchange.

Communication Methods
How did Japanese intellectuals communicate with their Chineseand Korean counterparts? Long-term residents from the continent
learned spoken Japanese, and some Japanese intellectuals learned
how to speak other languages. In the case of Chinese, in Nagasaki
there were Japanese priests who could speak the language,alongside the many merchants who learned Chinese to communicate
44 Japan SPOTLIGHT • November / December 2019with Chinese visitors. Mixed Japanese-Chinese families in the city
could serve as interpreters as well. Of course, there were also
students like those of Sorai who had made learning spoken Chinese
a priority.
Most Japanese intellectuals, however, had little opportunity tolearn how to speak Chinese or Korean. The easiest method ofcommunication was to carry out conversations not orally, but withbrushes. Because knowledge of classical Chinese was a prerequisite
skill among educated people across East Asia, even with each
culture’s particular ways of reading and writing Chinese charactersthey could still smoothly communicate with each other throughwriting. If a Japanese intellectual encountered a Chinese or Koreancolleague, they would be able to discuss even highly theoretical andabstract concepts without knowing how to speak a word of eachother’s language. The upshot of this was that classical Chinesewriting provided a regional language that linked people across East
Asia. It is perhaps ironic that today, when we see our world as much
more closely connected than in the past, this is no longer the case.

Continental Scholarship& Japanese Scholarship
In the early modern era, learning grounded in Confucian
frameworks and modes of analysis connected the scholarly worlds ofJapan, China and Korea together. A foundation in the Chineseclassics and Neo-Confucianism, in the tradition that had evolved
from the Song dynasty philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200), wasexpected of all educated individuals. In Japan, the 17th and 18th
centuries were a high point in Japanese scholarship in this vein, andthis was fueled by the intellectual exchange with China and Korea.
It would be a mistake to see this intellectual movement assomething backward. While Neo-Confucianism celebrated traditional
values, it could also be forward-thinking, stressing the importance ofobservation and analysis of the world and contemporary society.
Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714), a pioneering botanist, was inspired toinvestigate and analyze the natural world directly, while Sorai’s logic
impressed the 20th-century political scientist Maruyama Masao somuch that he suggested Sorai was Japan’s first “modern” thinker(Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, trans. Hane
Mikiso. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974). Sorai departed
from Zhu Xi to pursue his own form of Confucian study, contributing
to what became called the Kogaku (ancient learning) school ofthought.
While Kogaku unapologetically celebrated the study of ancient
China, Japanese scholars in general acknowledged the importance ofcontinental learning. Its influence could be seen not only in theworks of the great philosophers of the era, but also in literature.
Ueda Akinari’s (1734-1809) collection of supernatural tales, Ugetsu
Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain), for instance, blends
elements of Chinese and Japanese folklore, history and literature
together and assumes the reader can follow the numerous
references. Like this, various facets of the intellectual world of theAncient History of Asian Countries

Edo period reflected a productive synthesis of local ideas and styles
with those of the continent, and in this respect it could be said to be
more open and Asian in character than is often assumed.
In fact, even scholars critical of continental scholarship, such as
those belonging to the Kokugaku (national learning) and Mitogaku(Mito domain learning) schools of thought, were themselves highlyversed in the Chinese classics and continental scholarship. Theircritiques came from a position of knowledge, not ignorance, and inmany cases they respected the traditions in their own right but
disagreed with their dominance of the intellectual world. They feltthat Japan should privilege its own intellectual tradition instead of
depending on those of foreign countries. Yet even they were notaverse to exchange with colleagues from the continent. The daimyō
responsible for laying the groundwork for Mito learning, Tokugawa
Mitsukuni (1628-1701) himself, after all, exchanged letters with the1682 Korean mission, and sent the envoys both a gift of silver and a
poem.

Image 3: National Diet Library Digital Collection

Pages from a volume of one of Zhu Xi’s works, published in Japan in 1712

Print Culture in the Edo Period
Not every Japanese intellectual was able to benefit from directly
meeting foreign counterparts. That, however, did not mean that they
were unable to engage in intellectual exchange, thanks to books. In
terms of the circulation of ideas, the Edo period was an era of greater
amounts of material, and greater access to that material, than everbefore. This was the result of improvements in two related areas:
literacy and printing.
Literacy underwent a dramatic improvement during the Edo period
because of the proliferation of schools. In addition to private
academies there were terakoya (temple schools, although they were
not necessarily affiliated with temples) that taught children reading
and writing. Emphasis on the importance of education meant that in
not only the cities but even the villages there were more and more
people who had at least some degree of literacy. More readers,
naturally, meant a greater market for reading material.
As for printing, although moveable type presses had been
introduced to Japan back in the 16th century, the technology failed tocatch on. When a printing revolution occurred in the 17th century, it
occurred with the older technology of woodblocks. Today thebeautiful ukiyoe prints are the most famous remnant of this world,but printed books were also a major part of Edo culture. Bookstoresand lending libraries were common in the cities, and there was agreat variety of both classical and contemporary works of literature,
history, philosophy, and scholarship available to readers. Someworks were directly imported from overseas, but most were printed
in Japan.
Books from the continent were often available in original Chinese
text. However, examining the printing and circulation of books during
the mid-to-late Edo period also reveals a great number oftranslations. The vast majority of translations were adapted from
Chinese texts to make them accessible to a broader Japaneseaudience, but there were also works translated from Dutch.

Alongside domestic Japanese works and those from the continent,
there were also Western works, available either translated from
Dutch or from Chinese. In fact, we could call the Edo period, rather
than the Meiji period, Japan’s first great era of translation, as
Rebekah Clements has ably demonstrated in A Cultural History ofTranslation in Early Modern Japan (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2015) (Image 3).

Conclusion
The Edo period was an exciting time: Japan was not isolated, butinstead firmly plugged into the intellectual world of the continent.
Japanese intellectuals met with their counterparts visiting from China
and Korea, and enjoyed both more books, and greater access tothem, than ever before. As a result, they were kept abreast of theliterary and scholarly developments elsewhere in Asia, and throughtranslations, also gained news about current events, including a
sense of what was happening in the West. Ultimately, this also
played a role in Japanese modernization. When Qing China – at thetime, the greatest power in Asia – tried, and failed, to fend off theWestern powers, Japanese intellectuals were paying careful attention
and seeking to avoid the same fate. The new scientific knowledge did
not replace the older intellectual tradition, but was carefully mergedwith it, just as for centuries Japanese intellectuals had adapted usefulideas from overseas.

Andrew T. Kamei-Dyche is a scholar of modern Japanese history, specializingin the history of books and print culture as well as intellectual networks. He
teaches at Saitama University and Sophia University.

Japan SPOTLIGHT • November / December 201945