The Merchant's Tale: Yokohama and the Transformation of Japan

316 Pages·2017·10.701 MB·English

by  Simon Partner

merchant’s tale
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the transformation of japan
simon partner
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Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture
A series of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Carol Gluck, Editor
Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II, by Yoshimi
Yoshiaki, trans. Suzanne O’Brien
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Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan, by Donald Keene
Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star: The Story of a Woman, Sex, and Moral Values in Modern Japan,
by William Johnston
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The Modern Murasaki: Writing by Women of Meiji Japan, ed. and trans. Rebecca L.
Copeland and Melek Ortabasi
So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers, by Donald Keene
Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop, by Michael K.
Bourdaghs
The Winter Sun Shines In: A Life of Masaoka Shiki, by Donald Keene
Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy: The Story of Kawashima Yoshiko, the Cross-Dressing Spy Who
Commanded Her Own Army, by Phyllis Birnbaum
Imitation and Creativity in Japanese Arts: From Kishida Ryūsei to Miyazaki Hayao, by Michael
Lucken, trans. Francesca Simkin
The First Modern Japanese: The Life of Ishikawa Takuboku, by Donald Keene
The Japanese and the War: Expectation, Perception, and the Shaping of Memory, by Michael
Lucken, trans. Karen Grimwade
columbia university press New York
S I M O N P A R T N E R
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Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
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Copyright © 2018 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-0-231-18292-8 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-231-54446-7 (electronic)
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover image: Shinohara Family, March 1872. Studio photograph, Yokohama.
Courtesy of Shinohara Yukio.
Cover design: Chang Jae Lee
To Shima

CONTENTS
List of Tables and Illustrations ix
Notes on the Text xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xvii
1. Out of Thin Air (1859–1860) 1
2. Years of Struggle (1860–1864) 41
3. Prosperity (1864–1866) 91
4. Transformation (1866–1873) 143
Conclusion: The Power of a Place 207
Tables 227
Notes 233
Bibliography 261
Index 273

TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Table 1. Exports and imports through Yokohama, 1859–1867 227
Table 2. Estimates of Yokohama population, 1859–1870 228
Table 3. Monetary values (in silver monme), 1859–1868 229
Table 4. Relative monetary values, 1865 230
Table 5. Weights 231
Table 6. Volumes 231
Table 7. Areas 231
Figure 1.1. The route from Kōshū to Edo and Yokohama 1
Figure 1.2. Keisai Eisen, Kōnosu, from the series Sixty-Nine Stations of the
Kiso Kaidō 2
Figure 1.3. Map of Yokohama (ca. 1860) 14
Figure 1.4. Foreigners shopping for lacquerware in Honchō Itchōme
(ca. 1863) 22
Figure 1.5. Utagawa Sadahide, Complete Picture of the Great Harbor of
Yokohama (1859–1860) 23