In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Yokohama and the Silk Trade: How Eastern Japan Became the Primary Economic Region of Japan, 1843–1893 by Yasuhiro Makimura
  • Catherine L. Phipps (bio)
Yokohama and the Silk Trade: How Eastern Japan Became the Primary Economic Region of Japan, 1843–1893. By Yasuhiro Makimura. Lexington Books, Lanham MD, 2017. xx, 255 pages. $105.00, cloth; $99.50, E-book.

The history of Japan's nineteenth-century opening has long been told in a familiar way. Hinging on the 1853 arrival of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry and his black ships, the plot leads to a crossroads where the Japanese have to decide between engaging in Western-style diplomacy and trade or [End Page 144] confronting the gunboats anchored in Edo Bay. During the ensuing crisis, the Japanese sign the "unequal treaties" and soon open treaty ports. Doing so ushers in a modernity and cosmopolitanism often symbolized by the treaty port of Yokohama and the extensive commercial networks developed there. Recently, the storyline—no longer seen as a tale of Western action and Japanese response—has been gaining greater levels of nuance. Newer examinations of the era's legal, military, economic, diplomatic, and gendered dimensions add complexity to our understanding of Japan's position. Current research tends to pay closer attention to the interplay between thorny internal dynamics and the transnational dimensions of decision making and activity that unfold before, during, and after the mid-century drama.

Yasuhiro Makimura's understated book contributes much to the enriched storyline. He roots his examination in the Tokugawa political economy and the eastern/western regionalism inherent in the Tokugawa bakuhan system to demonstrate how individual decisions and initiatives led to Japan's economic development and the repositioning of eastern Japan's economy around the Yokohama trade. He argues that at no point in this process was the country's transformation inevitable, indeed he states it was improbable. This reframing helps shed the undue weight that has been given to Perry's arrival, showing instead how the "opening of Japan was as much a Japanese story based on economics, defense policy, and diplomacy as it was an American or Western story" (p. 63). For Makimura the country's opening is first and foremost a story about Japan. As the book's title suggests, his analysis focuses on how eastern Japan went from being economically dependent on western Japan to becoming the country's main economic region through Yokohama and its silk trade. In effect, Makimura's version fits the Western account into the Japanese one, not the other way around.

Yokohama and the Silk Trade can be reviewed in three main parts. The first, comprised of chapters 1 and 2, places the Perry crisis in the context of the bakufu's own set of long-term crises to show how the arrival of the Americans represented an opportunity for the troubled government. Makimura argues that although Perry opened Japan's diplomatic relations, it was the Japanese, specifically Hotta Masayoshi, who opened the country to trade. The next part, chapters 3 and 4, details how international trade influenced Japan's political economy. The timing of Japan's entry into global trade was extremely fortuitous, but the bakufu obstructed foreign trade, missing an opportunity to strengthen itself. Finally, chapters 5 and 6 demonstrate it was through the efforts of Japanese merchants that Yokohama became linked to its hinterland in eastern Japan and then to the international silk trade by century's end.

Chapters 1 and 2 set out Makimura's framework for the rest of the book by showing that Japan's regionalism was an inherent component of the shogunate's authority and wealth. He explains how shogunal power was established through the bakuhan system, which he stresses needs to be viewed [End Page 145] not through a national lens but in terms of regional differences between eastern and western Japan. In broad strokes, the shogun derived his power mainly from the samurai living in the east, especially Edo, which was the political capital and primary city of consumption. The surrounding areas tended to grow rice for sale in the city and were burdened by assessment taxes designed to send as much revenue as possible...

pdf