Biographical Spotlight: Kudo Heisuke

There remains a popular view in Japanese history that (a) Japan was hermetically sealed during the Edo period (1603-1868) and (b) that Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853 took Japan completely by surprise, as if there were no other foreigners appearing in Japanese waters outside the approved foreign settlements at Nagasaki.

Both of these views have, by now, been soundly disproved. There are a number of scholars whose work shows that (a) Japan in the Edo period was not isolated but was highly selective in foreign contacts, and (b) that Japanese politicians and scholars were aware of foreign news and developments. These scholars include Reinier Hesselink, Donald Keene, and Martha Chaiklin, to name a few.

Today I would like to write about one such figure, Kudō Heisuke. The "take-away" with Kudo is that he was the first to voice concerns about the Russian imperial expansion southward from Siberia, and that he was a part of a group of scholars in that era who were informed on foreign affairs and were voicing calls for military reform and national defense.

More below the jump.
Kudō Heisuke was born in Edo in 1734. His father, Nagai Daian, wasd a physician serving the Tokugawa family of Kii (one of the three Tokugawa branch families related to the shogun). Heisuke was adopted by the Edo-based doctor Kudō Jōan, a physician who served the Date family of Sendai. As the Kudō family, with its modest stipend of 300 koku, was Edo-based, Kudō was in closer contact with a broader variety of people from around Japan.

While Kudō was of course a doctor, he did much more. He was a scholar of foreign studies, and was well aware of European developments and politics, so he was a lively participant in the emerging debate on national defense. European vessels appearing in Japanese waters were still relatively few, but were beginning to appear with greater frequency, due in part to the growth in the China trade and the Pacific whaling trade.

One person Kudō interacted with, in the realm of foreign studies, was Hayashi Shihei (1738-1793). Both men, originally outsiders to the Sendai domain, found employment with the Date clan. Hayashi is remembered for his book Kaikoku Heidan (Military Discouses Concerning a Maritime Nation), which argued for coastal defense, unit-based drill, and further development in adapting western technological methods for Japanese use. He published it without the shogunate's permission in 1791, appealing directly to the public on these matters. Kudō wrote the preface to this book, but managed to avoid the political fallout surrounding Hayashi's unauthorized public printing and distribution.

Kudō's own circa 1781 work, Akaezo Fūsetsu Kō (Investigation into Rumors from Red Ezo), is some ten years older than Hayashi's. It is notable in that it was the first book to point out the threat posed to Japan by the Russian advance southward in the direction of Ezo (modern Hokkaidō). However, Kudō did not argue for a "shell-and-repel" policy, like others would in the 1830s. He argued instead for countering the Russians by engaging them in trade, and thereby having a clearer channel for acquiring both the information and technology necessary to deal with any potential military threat.

Unlike Hayashi, Kudō was more cautious in his distribution, submitting it directly to the highest circles of the shogun's government. The chief of the shogun's senior council, Tanuma Okitsugu (1719-1788), read the book and was convinced by its argument. He sent a mission to scout out the coast of Ezo and the Kuriles, but while the mission was en route, Tanuma died. His successor, Matsudaira Sadanobu (1759-1829), did not utilize the information that was subsequently gathered.

Kudō remained in Date service for the rest of his life, and died in 1801. His daughter, Tadano Makuzu (1763-1825), is noted as a Confucian scholar and author.

Bibliography

•  Beerens, Anna. Friends, acquaintances, pupils, and patrons : Japanese intellectual life in the late eighteenth century. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2006.
• Chaiklin, Martha. Cultural commerce and Dutch commercial culture. Leiden: Research School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies, Leiden University, 2003.
• Conroy, Hilary. "Government versus "Patriot": The Background of Japan's Asiatic Expansion," in Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Feb., 1951), pp. 31-42.
• Goodman, Grant Kohn. Japan and the Dutch, 1600-1853. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000.
•  Gramlich-Oka, Bettina. Thinking like a man : Tadano Makuzu (1763-1825). Leiden: Brill, 2006.
• Hesselink, Reinier. "A Dutch New Year at the Shirandō Academy, 1 January 1795," in Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 189-234.
• ____. Prisoners from Nambu. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002.
• Keene, Donald. Frog in the well. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
• Mitani Hiroshi. Escape from Impasse. Tokyo: International House of Japan, 2006.
• Takahashi Tomio. Miyagiken no Rekishi. Tokyo: Yamakawa Shuppansha, 1971.