Type of Research Fundamental Research
Research Title Re-examination of History of East Asian International Relations of the Transitional Period from Early Modern to Modern: A Comparison of Japan, China, and Siam
Head of the Research Team Assoc. Prof. FUKUOKA Mariko
Research Period FY2016-2018
Purpose This collaborative study reviews the features of structural changes in East Asian international relations during the transitional period from Early Modern to Modern through a cross-regional examination and comparison of diplomatic policies especially of the following three Asian states: Japan, China, and Siam. The comparison will be made especially between the following two themes: firstly, the systems of international relations which had been maintained in those regions during the early modern period, and secondly, the diplomatic policies implemented by those Asian states during and after the arrival of the so-called Western Impact of the mid-19th century. Attention will also be paid to the Japanese-Korean relations of the same period.
Result

This joint research consisted of a combination of a study group where inter-disciplinary discussions were exchanged upon each member’s paper on a topic of his or her choice and fieldwork that explored historical places which became focuses of East Asia international affairs during the transitional period from the early modern to modern age. Over the course of three years, the study group met at the National Museum of Japanese History, Tenri University, Kyushu National Museum, and Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture, and fieldwork was conducted in the Pearl River Delta - Guangzhou and Macau -, Bangkok and Penang, Nagasaki, Tsushima, and Busan. In the third year, Fukuoka and two other members visited the National Archives and Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. in the United States to investigate historical materials relating to Japan at the end of the Edo period (a research report is being prepared and will be published in 2021). The tentative tiles of the articles to be included in the collection of papers (scheduled for publication in 2022) are as follows.

Mariko Fukuoka, National Museum of Japanese History: Treaty Negotiations of the American Envoy T. Harris with Siam in 1856: Analysis with a view to Comparison with Japan

Yoshinori Yokoyama, Historiographical institute, the University of Tokyo: East Asia and the American Civil War

Junko Koizumi, Kyoto University: Interregional Relations in East/Southeast Asia and the Treaty System : Siamese King Mongkut and the Bowring Treaty

Susumu Murao, Tenri University: Intrusion and Deviation: the Canton System from 1802 to 1834

Peng Hao, Osaka City University: Control System of Overseas Trade in the Middle of the Qing Period and Trading Passes

Kazunori Araki, National Museum of Japanese History: Diplomatic Letters of the Tokugawa Shōgun in the Late Edo Era : Analysis with the focus on their forms and formats

Mutsuhiko Matsuda, National Museum of Japanese History: Japanese-Korean Relations at the End of the Nineteenth Century and Activities of Fishermen

Hiroshi Mitani, Atomi University: Introduction of Historical Sources: “Osonaeba Goyōdome” of Sasaki Shūsuke: Coastal Defense of Yedo Gulf on the Eve of the Arrival of the Perry Expedition