Япония в эпоху Токугава

The subject of history — the living of people, societies, social groups and nations — is quite often substituted by sociological, political and economic studies. Even if we assume that the material production is a decisive factor of social development, displaying certain economic conditions and transformations does not provide a clear explanation of the motive force of the social processes. Society is not a pure abstraction, but a conglomeration of people with their interests, demands, intellect and emotions, whose behaviour is based on religious, national and the cultural traditions. The affiliation with a certain social group also affects the stereotype of individual behaviour. This humanitarian component of historical process triggered the author’s interest to the individual fates of the people of various social ranks who lived in Tokugawa Japan. Their persona] biographies are described within the historical context, because the acute contradictions of that epoch did affect their deeds and behaviour.

The Tokugawa era lasted for 264 years. This period was marked with its own uplifts and downfalls. In addition, the characteristics of development in different regions of Japan were far from being identical. But still it was a very dynamic epoch, which prepared the basis for the reforms of the Meiji period. The underestimating of this fact leads to misunderstanding of the cause of the rapid development of Japan after the Meiji Restoration.

During the Tokugawa era Japan was essentially a feudal state. But this epoch was a transitory one, in which an intensive development of the market economy took place.

Japan has passed this way in its own manner. Meiji Japan did not follow blindly the experience of other countries, but adhered its own past, keeping its future in its mind. In the end of the Tokugawa era the Japanese society possessed its own potential for the capitalist development. Characterizing the stage that the Japanese society had reached, the G. Sansom wrote that before Japan has been opened for the outside world it had already passed the preliminary stage of transition from rural to trade economy and even had entered the manufacturing stage in its industrial development. In his opinion, the thesis about the strong influence of the West on Japan’s path of development is not indisputable[470].

As for the Japanese borrowings from the West it should be kept in mind that without the due historical prerequisites it would have been impossible for Japan to adopt and assimilate things that had been brought from abroad. Noting the role of the merchants’ houses in the development of the market economy, the French historian F. Brodel stressed that Japan had managed to overcome its economic backwardness extremely rapidly. And the primary reason for this was the fact that «the industrial uplift in Japan, that followed the Western pattern, was based on the existing trade capitalism, which Japan gradually had managed to develop itself… The early Japanese, obviously endogenous and autochthonic, nevertheless grew all by itself»[471]. As Takekoshi Yosaburo (1865–1950), the Japanese historian and journalist, who has made the first attempt to present an economic interpretation of the Japanese history, wrote, «for a long time the wheat grew under the snow»[472].

It should be noted that the high level of culture and education achieved in the Tokugawa era played a positive role for Japan. In addition, there were no wars in Japan at that time, and the entire nation’s potential was aimed at the purpose of development.

One of the disputable points in Japanese history is the question how big was the gap in economic development between Japan and the Western countries on the eve of Meiji Ishin. When answering it one should keep in mind that in Europe itself the development of capitalism differed in time in various countries. The time lag in the establishment of this new social formation in Europe was quite considerable: for instance, 180 years passed between the revolutions in the Netherlands and in France. If we compare the development of England and Japan, then we would see much likeness between the processes in England in the XVII–XVIII cc, and that which went on in Japan in the XVIII–XIX cc; that is the time difference amounts to some 100 years. Anyway, in the 80’s of the XIX century Japan underwent an industrial revolution, which rapidness and successfulness can be explained only on the basis of knowledge of the socio-economic developments in the Tokugawa era.

Приложения

Приложение 1 Словарь японских терминов

(Всякий перевод исторического термина, обозначающего реалии национальной истории, условен. Поэтому могут встретиться и другие переводы и толкования приводимых здесь терминов.)