Dejima’s Dutch Trade Shaping Japanese Artists And Scholars

Impacts Of Sakoku-Era Cultural Exchange

During the Edo period, it is well known that the Tokugawa Shogunate adopted a foreign policy often referred to as “sakoku” (鎖国), severely restricting interactions with foreign countries. However, there is a common misconception that equates the entire Edo period with a closed-door policy. In fact, during the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), who unified Japan after a long period of warring states led by the samurai, there was effectively no such closed-door system in place. Discussing sakoku is quite complicated, and rather than identifying a clearly defined period, it is more accurate to consider that the policy gradually emerged after Ieyasu’s death. The underlying reason behind sakoku was anti-Christian sentiment, but I will discuss that separately. In this article, I want to explore why, during the sakoku era, only the Netherlands was permitted to trade with Japan. One significant factor when examining the Edo period is how the Japanese adopted Western culture through the Dutch.

To begin with, the background to the Shogunate’s increasing suspicion towards Christianity involved several complicated, step-by-step events. To briefly summarize: trade relations with the Dutch began during Ieyasu’s reign in 1609. Soon after, in 1612, Ieyasu issued the “Anti-Christian Edict” (禁教令) to restrict the missionary activities of Christian preachers, especially those from Spain and Portugal who aimed to convert Japan to Christianity. Later, during the reign of the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu (1623-1651), the first prohibition on Japanese citizens traveling overseas, the “First Overseas Travel Ban” (第一次渡航禁令), was issued in 1633, and further tightened by 1635. Unable to continue their missionary work openly, the missionaries stirred unrest among local Christians in Nagasaki, encouraging them to launch a violent rebellion against the Shogunate, ostensibly protesting religious persecution and oppressive governance. This resulted in the Shimabara-Amakusa Rebellion (島原・天草一揆) of 1637. However, the Shogunate swiftly mobilized an army of 120,000 troops and decisively suppressed the rebellion.

This event triggered the Shogunate’s firm decision to strengthen the sakoku policy. Thus, the primary cause for Japan’s isolation was not an inherent desire by Japan to sever foreign trade and relationships, but rather the provocative activities of Christian missionaries. Consequently, in 1639, Japan officially terminated relations with Portugal—the leading force attempting to destabilize the Shogunate due to its refusal to adopt Christianity—fully prohibiting Portuguese ships from entering Japan and completely barring Christian missionary activities, thereby firmly establishing the sakoku system. As a result, among Western countries, only the Netherlands was allowed to maintain official trade relations with Japan.