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- Convenor:
-
Fuyuko Matsukata
(The University of Tokyo)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Birgit Tremml-Werner
(Stockholm University)
- Stream:
- History
- Location:
- Bloco 1, Piso 0, Sala 0.05
- Start time:
- 31 August, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
This panel deals with Japanese foreign relations from the medieval to the early modern period, focusing on passes issued by state authorities to control traders. Through multilateral examinations, the panel tries to bridge the divides between studies based on Chinese and European sources.
Long Abstract:
This panel aims to propose a new perspective on from medieval to early modern Japanese, and by implication pre-modern East Asian foreign relations, focusing on passes issued by state authorities to control traders. In the 16th -17th centuries, wako [piracy], silver for silk traders and Christian missionaries led to a new phase of governmental control, which early-modern authorities tried to establish on diplomatic traditions in East Asia.
Former studies explained the involvement of central governments only in relation with kango [tallies issued by Ming China] or choko [tributary] trade of the Muromachi authorities, and the so-called sakoku [national seclusion] or kaikin [maritime restriction] of the Tokugawa government. Avoiding such specialized terminology, this panel looks at practices and compares various actors irrespective of presumed world orders, whether they might have been Sinocentric or Japanocentric.
In East/Southeast Asia, monarchs did not conduct their foreign relations by permanent ambassadors but periodic embassies carrying kokusho, or letters exchanged between heads of state via envoys. Under such conditions, some kings emitted passes in order to control the number of merchant vessels or to wipe out piracy on trading routes. European powers, as newcomers, attempted to incorporate themselves in the existing diplomatic networks.
A panel of scholars from European and Japanese academic backgrounds will address essential questions on the dynamics described above: Who issued the passes to whom? How did the passes function? Did they promote trade or distress it? How did the Europeans corporate themselves in the practices?
Okamoto Makoto will point out that the tally or pass system for restricting Sino-Japanese trade in the 15th-16th centuries actually kept flexibility within practices.
Birgit Tremml-Werner will examine Hispano-Japanese relations between 1590 and the 1620s and describe mutual understanding and misunderstanding of letters and passes.
Peng Hao will outline shinpai or passes the Tokugawa shogunate issued to control Sino-Japanese trade in the 18th century.
Through these multilateral examinations, the panel tries to bridge the divides between studies based on Chinese and European sources, and moreover to provide an arena where people from European and Japanese academia could come across.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
This paper aims to analyze the usage of the tally, which functioned as a pass between Muromachi Japan and Ming China. Judging from some existing historical materials, it can be said that the flexibility of the tally system contributed toward sustaining the relationship between those two countries.
Paper long abstract:
This paper aims to analyze the usage of the tally (j. kangō, ch. kanhe 勘合), which functioned as a pass between Muromachi Japan and Ming China. The tally was a certificate of the Ming's imperial permission to come and go between Ming China and other countries. Each envoy ship had to bring one tally, and only those bringing it were officially allowed to enter the boundaries of China.
Because one hundred tallies were issued simultaneously with numbering by the Ming every time its emperor changed, each set of tallies was distinguished by preceding it with the name of the Chinese era when it was issued, such as Yongle tallies, Jingtai tallies, etc. In the case of Sino-Japanese relations, a set of tallies was given to the Japanese envoy when he came to China for the first time since the enthronement of the new emperor. After the new set was conveyed to Japan, the next envoy returned the remaining old ones that were unused. The first set was given in 1404, and until the middle of the sixteenth century, it continued to be used as proof of the legitimacy of the envoys that brought them.
Although recent studies have described the form of the tally, its actual usage has not been clarified sufficiently. Moreover, it tends to be considered a rigid system. However, some existing historical materials show that the system was flexible. In the late fifteenth century, although the new Chenghua tallies had been conveyed to Japan, the old Jingtai tallies still continued to be used because of the political strife in Japan. In the second quarter of the sixteenth century, instead of issuing the usual set of one hundred tallies, the Ming only issued one "quasi-tally 准勘合" in an attempt to straighten out the confused situation after the Ningbo Incident. Judging from these facts, it can be said that the flexibility of the tally system contributed toward sustaining the relationship between Muromachi Japan and Ming China.
Paper short abstract:
Early modern diplomatic exchange between Spain and Japan included the exchange of numerous letters and embassies, often discussing ways of legitimizing trade. Passes issued by the bakufu came to be regarded as official documents. This paper looks at the uses of passes in Japan and the Philippines.
Paper long abstract:
The Spanish Empire came to play a vital role in Japan's emerging foreign trade at the end of the sixteenth century, at a time when the central government busily established a new diplomatic order after 1591. The costly diplomatic Hispano-Japanese exchange of the following three decades was crucial for both sides. It included the exchange of numerous letters and embassies and the exceptional treatment of Spaniards being received in audiences and permitted to direct negotiations with Japanese rulers. Among other issues of bilateral importance they often discussed ways of legitimizing and controlling trade. For that sake passes issued by the bakufu (jap., shuinjō, a.k.a. vermillion seal trading licenses) came to be regarded as official documents with ceremonial character.
The aim of this paper is to understand the various uses of trading passes, both in Japan and the Philippines. Analyzing practices will show how passes were applied a) to build trust and b) to legitimize penetrating in the political domain of the other. The following three questions shall stimulate further discussion on the flexible function of written documents in pre-modern transcultural state relations.
- How the Japanese used shuinjō when dealing with the Spaniards
- How the Spaniards dealt with those passes and accommodated them to their own commercial and diplomatic purposes
- How passes replaced formal state letters (kokusho) in concluding treaties between countries of different rank in the Sinosphere
Paper short abstract:
This study focuses on trading passes called shinpai, which were used in the Sino-Japanese trade from 1715 into the 1850s. Drawing upon many Japanese and Chinese documents, this study aims to clarify the mechanism of the shinpai system and the response of Qing authorities to its implementation.
Paper long abstract:
This study focuses on trading passes called shinpai, which were used in the Sino-Japanese trade from 1715 into the 1850s.
It is well known that the Tokugawa shogunate restricted foreign trade in many ways until the middle of the 19th century. While it is true that for the Satsuma, Tsushima and Matsumae domains special rules for trading with foreign countries existed, direct foreign trade with Tokugawa Japan had to pass through the only official port in Nagasaski. The only approved direct trading partners were the Dutch East India Company and Chinese merchants. The volume of trade was limited. This trade was also governed by certain stipulations, one of which was the introduction of a trading pass system for trading with Chinese junks in 1715. This was one of several trading measures issued that year. Taken together they are generally called the Shotoku Shinrei. Under this system, the above-mentioned trading passes (shinpai) were issued only to those Chinese merchants who promised to comply with the shogunate's restrictions. From that time on, only those junks holding shinpai were allowed to trade in Japan.
Even though shinpai can be seen as official passports, the shogunate believed the most important function of these trading passes was to control the scale of the Chinese trade. This system allowed the Tokugawa to adjust the number of junks calling at Nagasaki, and to control the cargos of each junk according to the shogunate's needs by indicating the departure port name on each pass. Although introduced by Japanese authorities one-sidedly, the shinpai was also utilized by the Qing court to import copper from Japan in order to meet the demand for coinage. On this issue there have been several studies, but none of them discussed the ways in which this system functioned in practice, or how Qing authorities utilized the shinpai of Chinese merchants in order to continue the importation of Japanese copper. Drawing upon many seldom-used Japanese and Chinese documents, this study aims to clarify the mechanism of the shinpai system and the response of Qing authorities to its implementation.