State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu (Key Contemporary Thinkers)

Ronald P. Toby. Includes Bibliography (p. [263]-289) And Index. This book seeks to describe how Japan manipulated existing diplomatic channels to ensure national security. Rather, far from aiming at seclusion, Japan's diplomacy in the seventeenth century was orchestrated to achieve certain objectives, both outside the country and inside it. The aim was to build Japan into an autonomous center of its own. Since the country was "closed," elaborate and expensive foreign embassies were obliged to make the journey to Edo. Countries which were perceived as potential threats, such as Portugal and Spain, were excluded from this process. Only those such as the Chinese and the Dutch, with whom trade was recognized as desirable, were allowed a supervised presence in Japan itself. Closing the gates to Japan was not the object. Rather, carefully judging just when they should be open and shut was the aim Frontmatter Illustrations (page ix) Abbreviations Used in the Notes (page xi) Preface to the Stanford Edition (page xiii) Preface to the Original Edition (page xxiii) I. Introduction (page 3) II. Post-Hideyoshi Normalization (page 23) III. The Lens of Recognition: Diplomacy in the Legitimation of the Bakufu (page 53) IV. The World Through Binoculars: Bakufu Intelligence and Japanese Security in an Unstable East Asia (page 110) V. Through the Looking-Glass of Protocol: Mirror to an Ideal World (page 168) VI. Epilogue (page 231) Glossary (page 247) Archives and Manuscript Collections Consulted (page 261) Bibliography (page 263) Index (page 291)