A History of East Asia by Charles Holcombe

Author:Charles Holcombe [Holcombe, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010-11-14T23:00:00+00:00

Figure 7.5. The West Gate of Seoul, Korea, ca. 1904, showing an American electric tramway. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-72552.

Figure 7.6. Korean women with a sedan chair, 1919. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-72675.

The Meiji Restoration (1868–1912): Japan “Leaves Asia”

In the early nineteenth century, Western contact with Japan was limited to an annual average of only one Dutch ship. In Japan, the Dutch were confined to the single port of Nagasaki, where they were effectively quarantined on a small island, surrounded by a high fence topped with iron spikes, and linked to shore by one bridge. Yet, even so, Japan's isolation should not be exaggerated. After 1716, official permission resumed for the study of Western books, with a particular interest in books concerning medical and military science. This became a specialized form of learning known as Dutch studies (Rangaku). In 1811, the Tokugawa Shogunate itself set up an agency to translate selected Dutch works. By the 1840s and 1850s, even before the arrival of Commodore Perry, a few domains were already independently constructing foundries for the casting of modern Western-style munitions.

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