Hirakawa Arata Professor History of early modern Japanese political economy

The Edo Period as an Age of Public Opinion: Reassessing Early Modern Japan-Russia Relations as the Dawn of the Pacific Rim Era

The dominant image of early modern (Edo period) Japan is of an oppressive feudal society. Examined in dispassionate perspective, however, the Tokugawa regime can be seen to have lasted as long as 260 years because the central government and the provincial rulers paid careful attention to public opinion and willingly accepted views expressed by the masses. Contrary to widespread belief, the Edo period was actually a time when public opinion counted for a great deal and when public policy was often drawn from below rather than handed down from above.
The Edo period was also a time when encroaching foreign influences began to force Japan to change. From the late eighteenth century onward, Russians ventured into the North Pacific in search of fur while Americans came across the Pacific on whaling ships, greatly altering Japan’s international situation. Seen thus from the perspective of the entire Pacific Rim, Edo Japan reemerges as the nexus of a complex mixing and clashing of civilizations and cultures.

Written and pictorial sources like those shown here are the primary sources of historians. Even the same materials may yield varying interpretations, depending on the point of view of the reader.