Ezochi of northern Japan:  From outer land to inner land.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 356
Description: This dissertation explores the northern frontier of the Japanese state in the pre-Meiji periods in terms of both territory and frontier peoples. The thesis shows the process how the China-centered worldview was replaced by the modern notion of boundaries in late Tokugawa Japan. In other words, this study examines the process in which Ezochi (present-day Hokkaido) became a part of Japan. Today many Japanese think Hokkaido island has been an integral part of the country since ancient times, and Japan's master narrative of national homogeneity denies the existence of the Ainu as an ethnic minority group. However, before the modern notion of boundaries emerged, Ezochi, or Ainu land, was considered to be foreign "barbarian" territory outside Japan, based on the East Asian world order.A close investigation is made into the interrelations between Ainu and Wajin (Japanese) in the Tokugawa period, when much of the groundwork for the subsequent deprivation of the Ainu was laid. Ezochi became inseparable from the economy of the mainland as a production center of marine goods. The introduction of commercial capital into Hokkaido changed the Ainu from trade partners to fishery laborers.Lastly, I probe into the continuities and discontinuities between Tokugawa intellectuals' ideas on Ezochi and the subsequent Meiji policy toward the Ainu. The change from the traditional East Asian worldview to the modern notion of boundaries meant the transformation of Ezochi from iiki (foreign region) to a part of Japan, and the Ainu from "foreign" people to "Japanese."Matsumae domain needed foreign ethnicity of the Ainu for its survival. But with the Russian southern advance, the intellectuals of the day felt the necessity of defending the country against foreign countries. They thought the best way to keep Ezochi under the Japanese sphere of influence was to "develop" Ezochi and "civilize" its inhabitants. The bakufu's direct rule of Ezochi was launched in line with this logic. In other words, the direct rule was an effort to delineate a modern boundary with Russia in the northern frontier region.
Notes: Adviser:  S. Uyenaka.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-10, Section: A, page: 3948.