IO6 JAPAN IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

were writing." 77 Nor was intellectual curiosity incompatible with offi-

cial service, as the resources of officially sponsored projects provided
the greatest opportunities. In later Tokugawa years the future presi-
dent of Tokyo Imperial University, Kato Hiroyuki, reminisced that
after he entered the Bansho shirabesho (Institute for the study of
barbarian books) that was established after the coming of Perry: "I
found other books, books not available to anyone else. When I looked
into them I found them very interesting: for the first time I saw books
about things like philosophy, sociology, morals, politics, and law . . .
in view of that my ideas began to change." The utilization of such
materials could be fully compatible in private conscience with the
"good of the country" that officialdom might interpret more narrowly.
Nishi Amane, sent to Leiden in 1862, wrote his adviser that in addi-
tion to his prescribed studies, he hoped to examine "those things
advocated by Descartes, Locke, Hegel, and Kant, as "in my opinion,
there are not a few points in the study of these subjects which will
serve to advance our civilization. . . ."78
But because the public advocacy of such catholicity of taste was
impossible, this must also have brought frustration to many. The
euphoria of Sugita Gempaku, who considered himself the founder of
rangaku, did not extend to his grandson Seikei (1817-59), who was
employed in the Chomel translation project. Otsuki Nyoden's history
of Western studies notes that Seikei, having become acquainted with
ideas of freedom (D. vrijheid) in his reading and being aware of the fate
of scholars
who had been seized for spreading foreign ideas, feared that he too was
inviting trouble. He held himself in check and was very careful not to let the
word vrijheid slip from his mouth. The only way he could find solace for the
heaviness of his spirit was in drink, but when he was drunk he could not keep
himself from shouting "Vrijheid!" "Vrijheid!"™
A decade after the Siebold affair, the possibilities and limitations of
rangaku under Tokugawa governance became dramatically manifest in
what later became known as the "purge of barbarian scholars" (bansha
no goku) of 1839. As with Sugita Gempaku's concern about the rejec-
tion of the Rezanov mission, this had its origins in misinformed schol-
ars' ungrounded fears that the bakufu was risking disaster by rejecting

77 Yoshida, "The Rangaku of Shizuki Tadao."

78 Marius B. Jansen, "New Materials for the Intellectual History of Nineteenth Century Ja-
pan," Harvard Journal ofAsiatic Studies 20 (December 1957): 592.
79 Sato, Yogakushi kenkyu, p. 200, quoting Otsuki's Ydgakushi nempyo. This illustration was
first brought to my attention by Haruko Iwasaki.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

 IMAGE OF THE WESTERN WORLD 107

a Western approach that had already been turned back. Bureaucratic

rivalry and police investigation led to serious charges and tragedy. In
1838 an American owned merchant ship, the Morrison, sailed for Ja-
pan from Macao with seven shipwrecked Japanese on board. In addi-
tion to a cargo of goods, presents, and documents, the ship carried
three China coast missionaries, Peter Parker, Charles Gutzlaff, and
S. Wells Williams (who later served as a documentary interpreter for
Commodore Matthew C. Perry). It was hoped, as Williams later
wrote, that the castaways
would form a good excuse for appearing in the harbors of that [Japanese]
empire . . . [to create a] favorable impression of foreigners, and perhaps of
inducing them to relax their anti-social policy. . . . It was hoped that the
exclusive policy of that nation had become somewhat weakened since a for-
eign vessel had [not] visited any port other than Nagasaki, and that the
influence of curiosity, and the nature of the errand, would at least secure a
courteous reception.80
The bakufu was not impressed; the ship was driven off by shore
batteries first at Edo and then at Kagoshima, and it returned to Can-
ton with the missionaries and castaways still on board. About a year
later the Dutch chief factor reported its identity to the bakufu on the
basis of a Singapore newspaper story, mistakenly giving its nationality
as British. Its possible return now became the subject for discussion in
bakufu circles, and the story or some of it reached a circle of students
of Western affairs.
The center of that circle was Watanabe Kazan (1793-1841), a lead-
ing retainer of the Tawara domain. Tawara, a small fudai han on the
Mikawa coast, was hence charged with defense of its coast. Kazan was
an accomplished intellectual and artist, born and bred in the national
capital. After he was named a han senior councilor (rdju) and placed in
charge of its coast defense in 1832, he extended his earlier interest in
Western painting to Western studies in general. He was not conver-
sant with Dutch and so patronized and relied on men who were. His
case marks a new step in Dutch studies, its extension beyond techni-
cians of translation to statesmen of influence and position. Kazan's
experts were Kozeki San'ei (1787-1839) and Takano Choei (1804-
50). Kozeki was a physician attached to the Translation Office which,
briefly abolished after Takahashi's trial, had been reconstituted. Ta-
kano had been one of Siebold's best students; he had fled Nagasaki in

80 S. Wells Williams's account, "Narrative of the Voyage of the Ship Morrison, Captain D.
Ingersoll, to Lewchew and Japan, in the Months of July and August, 1837" (Canton: The
Chinese Repository, vol. 6, nos. 5,8 [September, December 1837]; 1942 Tokyo reprint).

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

IO8 JAPAN IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

1828 to avoid implication with Takahashi, later set up a private medi-

cal practice in Edo, and began meeting with Kozeki and Kazan a few
years later. A bakufu daikan named Egawa Hidetatsu, responsible for
shogunal territory in Izu and Sagami and Kai, which included coastal
areas, interested himself in Kazan's circle through a shared interest in
coastal defense. The group itself was broad, experienced, cosmopoli-
tan, and sophisticated.
Takano Choei's response to the Morrison affair was a pamphlet,
Yume monogatari, which circulated widely in handwritten copies. In it
he deplored the bakufu's determination to repulse the ship, which he
thought was still on its way, and protested:
Britain is no enemy of Japan . . . if the bakufu resorts to expelling them by
force, Japan will be regarded as a brutal country incapable of distinguishing
between right and wrong. The word will spread that we are an unjust
country, and Japan will lose its good name as a country which respects
propriety and courtesy. What disasters might befall us as a result are diffi-
cult to predict.81
Choei's errors, which included the impression that the expedition
would be commanded by the China scholar and missionary Robert
Morrison, were less important than his intent to maintain seclusion by
more courteous means: He thought the bakufu should accept the
castaways, explain the seclusion system to the ship's commander, and
send the mission back. For him rangaku was, as he put it, "useful and
urgently needed practical scholarship." As he looked back, he felt his
pamphlet entirely reasonable. To die for rangaku would be one thing,
but "to die for Yume monogatari is something I cannot face without a
feeling of regret." 82 Choei was sentenced to life imprisonment but
escaped in 1844 and lived in hiding, supporting himself by translation
for another six years. Kozeki, more nervous and quick to despair,
committed suicide rather than face the rigors of examination and im-
prisonment. Watanabe Kazan, with his friends within the bakufu and
his larger circle of political and artistic acquaintances, was larger and
more important game for the prosecution, which was responding to
complaints by bakufu Confucianists.8*
Kazan had written an essay on the state of international affairs for
81 Yume monogatari appears in translation in D. C. Greene, "Osano's Life of Takano Nagahide,"
Transactions of the Asiatic Society ofJapan 41 (1913), p. 3.
82 From Wasuregatami, written in prison before Choei's escape. Cited in Sato Shosuke, Uete
Michiari, and Yamaguchi Muneyuki, Nihon shiso taikei (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1971), vol.
55, p. 182. Also D. S. Noble, "Western Studies and the Tokugawa World View: Watanabe
Kazan, Takano Choei, and the Bansha no goku," unpublished manuscript, January 1982.
83 Torii Yozo, the scholars' chief accuser, was a member of the Shoheiko Hayashi family.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008