The Reign of Shogun Ishida Shigeru: (1650 - 1694)
Shigeru: A Life
Perhaps of all the Japanese Shoguns before the modern era and after Mitsunari, none has caught quite the same amount of fascination from outside Japan as the third Shogun, Ishida Shigeru. Shigeru's childhood years were spent in Osaka castle, where he developed a keen enthusiasm for physical activities like kenjutsu and kyujutsu.[1] Studying under his protector and mentor, Osaka Jodai Miyamoto Musashi, Shigeru excelled at Musashi's Niten Ichi Ryu style of kenjutsu, and was praised far and wide as a talented young swordsman. One of Shigeru's first acts as a young man was to establish a nation-wide kenjutsu tournament open to the best 32 swordsmen in the country, attended annually by the Shogun and members of the Kizokuin during the spring festivals. Shigeru took great pride in winning the first tournament in the presence of his father and family at age 14.
The young Shigeru also enjoyed more intellectual pursuits such as reading, and was well versed in the Chinese classics. His skills at calligraphy and mathematics were also well known, however he never quite understood his religious studies nor did he ever fully grasp poetry, pottery or painting. At age 15 he set out for The Netherlands, learning much about seamanship on his way. To help earn a living as a student, Shigeru put what he had learned on board to good use, repairing small boats. After he finished his studies, he would also work in the Dutch East India Company Shipyards in Amsterdam.
Shigeru was sent to the most prestigious universities in Europe, Leiden University (in Southern Holland) where he studied mathematics under Willebrord Snellius and Economics, alongside his friend and fellow student, the future economist Pieter de la Court. Shigeru studied economics intensely, becoming a master of its craft. Unlike his friend though, Shigeru was clearly on the Right of the political spectrum and spent much of his free time socialising with the Dutch elite, who were no doubt eager to make a good impression on the man who would be shogun.
Shigeru's education may have taught him the importance of a merchant middle class in a nation's economy but like any true samurai, he preferred the company of generals and warriors to that of merchants and plutocrats. He made many powerful friends in Dutch military circles, and a particularly powerful friend in Frederik Hendrik, the then stadtholder and Prince of Orange. Frederik was more than just an aristocrat or a politician, he was a general, and quite a talented one at that.
Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange. Frederik admired young Shigeru as much for his intellect as for his swordsmanship and warrior spirit. The respect was mutual.
In his fourth year of study, Shigeru took a leave of absence to go and fight in the Sixty Years War (on the Dutch side, of course). Rejecting an officer commission from the Stadtholder, Shigeru opted to serve as a common footsoldier instead, where he earned many accolades for his swordsmanship and bravery. He learned how to operate a matchlock - his kyujutsu skills meant he was quick to master it -and was even given the privilege of serving in the Stadtholder's own unit. With katana in hand, he was one of the first troops to storm the Spanish positions at Breda, though his allies were said to be shocked by his insistence to decapitate and collect the heads of the Spaniards he slaughtered. Old samurai habits die hard.
Upon completing his studies, Shigeru enraged his father by insisting on staying in The Netherlands until the Spaniards had been driven out. Between breaks in campaigns he would put his financial acumen to good use working at the VOC, earning a little extra naval know-how in the process. Shigeru's battlefield prowess made him something of a celebrity in The Netherlands, his standing abroad helping trade relations back home. Shigeru was once more offered a commission as a general, and accepted only under the condition he be permitted to command from the front. He served in this capacity as a Cavalry Commander at the siege of Hulst, and was awarded a golden sabre by the
Staten-Generaal for his efforts. Shigeru would return the favour several decades later in the twilight of his reign, awarding his godson a finely tempered katana in honour of his victory at Aughrim.
In between campaigns, Shigeru settled in Amsterdam where he lived at the Stadtholder's expense. He maintained good relations with Frederik and his family, his son William even convinced Shigeru to convert to Calvinism. By all contemporary accounts Shigeru adjusted well to Dutch life attracting much attention from the court ladies, not that he seemed to notice. Shigeru eventually returned to Japan after hearing word of his Father's death in 1651 (six months after his death, these being the days before worldwide telecommunications).
A Reactionary Revolutionary
Shigeru's lengthy stay in The Netherlands left him with mixed opinions of "southern barbarians" and their "southern barbarian ways". He actively encouraged the Dutch principle of freedom of religion and felt it very close to Japan's own pluralistic nature. Shigeru's reign saw an increase in church construction, including the first Japanese branches of the Dutch Reformed Church (to which Shigeru belonged) and also an increase in Christian (principally Catholic) converts. Shigeru's reign was also notable for the emancipation of worshipers of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, suppressed due to its association with the Ikko Ikki.
Shigeru's studies also left a strong impression. He passed several laws aimed at emancipating the merchant middle class, previously on the bottom of Japan's social order due to backward Confucian thinking and at breaking up the trade monopolies his grandfather Mitsunari created. The upstart Russians entered Japanese markets during his reign, bringing their valuable furs with them. Russian fur products became an essential fashion accessory for Japanese living in the cold northern areas. New foreign innovations were introduced, including a national bank to provide capital to the merchant, artisan and samurai classes and a commodities exchange was opened in Osaka in 1675 to much excitement and fanfare; it was the first outside Europe. The old Gold, Silver and Iron monopolies were done away with and replaced by the new Bank of Japan, thereby keeping inflation in check. It was a true economic revolution.
It was also a revolution in the classroom. New schools were constructed across the country teaching Japanese calligraphy, mathematics, religion and Shigeru's two favourite martial disciplines: kenjutsu and kyujutsu. Six years education was made compulsory for all male children save those of peasants (the theory being they would be needed for the harvest), and for the first time, the opportunity of further education was offered for those who wished to pursue it. The Ishida Shigeru University in Osaka was opened by the Shogun himself in 1667, modeled after the Shogun's Alma matter, Leiden, and specialising in Economics and financial theory. The Academia Japonica in Nagasaki was opened three years later, and specialised in the trendy new subject of Rangaku, or "Dutch learning". Foreign languages were also taught there, including Dutch, Portuguese, English, Russian and of course, Latin.
But not everyone was happy. The merchants, previously the scum of society, were now rich, powerful and respected. Under Hideyoshi, only the samurai class were permitted to wear swords or own weapons of any kind, now even the sons of merchants learned the art of kenjutsu and possessed, or even worse sold, weapons. Samurai saw their old rights and privileges eroded, and many yearned for a return to the old order. These romantic tendencies were just that until 1671, when they boiled over into outright rebellion. Unusually for such a religiously tolerant country, the trigger was religious.
As we have seen in previous chapters, Christianity had really taken off in the early Osaka period. Christianity meant churches, which meant someone to manage the churches (and more importantly, tithes) and the management of religious structures was the domain of the Jisha Bugyo. The problem was that the Jisha Bugyo only had authority over Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines (as the title holder was inevitably a Buddhist) leaving Japan's newly built churches (and more importantly, tithes) independent of state control. Ever the pluralist and not one to miss out on a good financial opportunity, Shigeru "nationalised" all of Japan's Christian churches and placed them (and their tithes of course) under the control of the Jisha Bugyo. He even appointed a Catholic, Amakusa Shiro, to that post, the first non-Buddhist to do so. As far as the reactionaries were concerned, the die had been cast.
The Japanese had always been tolerant of other religions, but Christianity was different: Whereas Japanese Buddhism sought to "assimilate" Shinto, Christianity, regardless of denomination, was hostile to any and all other religious teaching. Christian daimyo had been known to suppress non-Christian religious practices and even raze temples and shrines in their domains (the Otomo in particular were notorious for doing this). To the reactionaries, appointing a Catholic to the "sacred" post of Jisha Bugyo was a "clear sign" of a "southern barbarian conspiracy" to Christianise Japan. Ridiculous perhaps, but still a better excuse for a riot than pig fat in rifle cartridges.
The Rebels organised in the Buddhist stronghold of Nara, where a variety of sohei, ronin[2] and disaffected peasants flocked to the rebels' banner. Their leader, a charismatic 16 year old Buddhist and son of a samurai, Tanaka Shunsuke, pledged to overthrow the shogunate, restore the "holy rule" of the Emperor and expel the "southern barbarians" and their "barbarous religion", by crucifixion if necessary. Shigeru was incensed, he was heard to have said that he thought the very idea of a war over religion to be abhorrent (clearly nobody had told him what the Sixty Years War was actually about). As befitting a martial shogun, Shigeru led the shogunate's response - a punitive expedition of over 85'000 troops - to crush the Nara Rebellion, as it would later be known.
The rebels, confident in their numbers, opted first for open warfare. They had few arquebuses (after all, that was a "southern barbarian" weapon) and so instead relied upon traditional weapons, the bow and naginata. Hosokawa Tadazane, an officer in the Shogunate army was said to have remarked upon how "quaint" the rebel forces were, "the enemy, they were like something out of the age of Minamoto and Taira."[3] Hosokawa himself led a company of arquebusiers.
The fervour of the rebels was no match for the modern tactics and weapons of Ishida Shigeru, and at the Battle of Yamato the rebels suffered some 50'000 casualties: the Nobunaga-esque tactics of continuous arquebus fire screened by yari spears proved more than effective against the rebels' mass charges, the only strategy available for naginata troops. The rebels were foolish to try to fight a decisive battle, but to sit and wait for death in a castle was more foolish, especially as sieges were Shigeru's forte. After Tanaka's defeat at Yamato he didn't see any other option but to hole up in the City of Nara and pray for the best.
Either he didn't pray hard enough or his Buddha and kami deserted him, for Shigeru used his Dutch connections to procure some modern siege artillery. He had seen the destruction they caused first hand during the Sixty Years War and no doubt wanted to set an example to the people of Nara as Nobunaga had done to the Honganji a century earlier. Shigeru ordered a total bombardment of the City of Nara, killing countless innocent civilians and damaging many historically relevant shrines and temples, among other buildings. Thus the Nara Rebellion ended, such was the price of rebellion in Osaka period Japan.
Nara marked the limits of Shigeru's own Revolution too, for he vowed never again to use such firepower against his own people. His experience of European warfare made him fearful rather than eager to modernise Japan's armed forces. Modern warfare left little room for the samurai spirit, or so he thought and so arquebuses and other firearms were strictly regulated and other daimyo were banned from importing or exporting them. The possession of a cannon by anyone was grounds for treason and would be punished by execution. Japan thus returned to the way of the bow and sword, Shigeru had snatched tradition from the jaws of modernity.
The Taihoku Campaign: 1673
While Shigeru had been busy fighting the Spaniards in the Low Countries, Dutchmen half a world away fought to dislodge the Spaniard from the island of Taihoku[4], or Formosa as the "southern barbarians" called it. Spain had settled the north of the island in the 1580's while the Dutch, relative newcomers, settled the south in the 1620's. War in Europe inevitably meant war in Taihoku too, and unlike the European theatre, here the Dutch had a decided advantage. The Dutch united the local tribes against the Spaniards, and combining Dutch technology with native and Chinese immigrant manpower, crushed the Spaniards and drove them from Taihoku in 1642. The Dutch had united the island under one banner, but all was not well.
Nearby China was still in the midst of a "civil" war between the Ming loyalists in the south and the Qing invaders in the north, and with the backing of the Japanese, Vietnamese and Koreans the Qing had the advantage. The Ming were tenacious and managed to hold their ground for almost two decades, thanks to their leader the half-Japanese General Zheng Chenggong, or Koxinga. Koxinga was to meet his match in the great Martial Emperor Kangxi, a young yet talented general and administrator, who ascended the Qing throne in 1661. Kangxi drove Koxinga and the Ming loyalists out of China within a year of his coronation. Kangxi was a merciful Emperor though, and offered many of his former enemies the chance to serve in his administration: some accepted, while others like Koxinga did not, and faced with no other option, fled China for the then Dutch colony of Taihoku.
Koxinga wasn't seeking asylum, he wanted to annex Taiwan in the name of the Ming and ultimately, use it as a base to reconquer the Chinese mainland (sound familiar?). The Dutch had grown complacent in the wake of their victory, and failed to re-invest in making Taihoku defensible. Worse, they earned the ire of the Chinese immigrants and natives alike by levying an unfair, racially-based tax. Despite their slight technological inferiority, Koxinga's troops swept the island with a campaign of shock and awe; the natives and fellow Chinese treated them as liberators.
The Dutch were taken by surprise and were forced into dishonourable surrender, ceding the island to Koxinga who shortly after, established the Kingdom of Dongning. The Qing and their allies, Japan and the Netherlands refused to recognise this new kingdom, just as they refused to recognise Ming sovereignty over China. The shogun, pro-Dutch as ever, continued to recognise Dutch sovereignty over Taihoku, the VOC however had other ideas.
The Netherlands was still reeling from the material and manpower costs of the Sixty Years War, and the VOC was simply unwilling to invest valuable money and manpower into the reconquest of an island with almost no economic value. To their credit they did try to retake the island, but were rebuffed twice. The VOC board of directors were not willing to try a third time, and so Taihoku was left to Dongning for the time being. Shigeru was incensed by the cowardice of his old employers. If they will not take what was rightfully theirs, he would take it for himself. The Treaty of Osaka (1673) between the three Great Powers in the region (The Ishida Shogunate, The Qing Empire and the Dutch Empire, represented by the VOC) ceded the sovereignty of the island of Taihoku "in perpetuity" from The Netherlands to the Ishida Shogunate, who in exchange would take up the responsibility of defeating the "pretender" Kingdom of Dongning and extraditing it's "sovereign" to Beijing. Preparations were made for another punitive expedition, a mere two years after the Nara Rebellion.
75'000 men and 400 ships were mobilised for the invasion, mostly from the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku. The Japanese struck from the north, establishing a base around what is now known as the City of Taihoku. Dongning's powerbase lay in the south of the island, so the shogunate forces were met with little opposition save from a few hostile native tribes. Koxinga had died of malaria back in 1667 so the defence of Dongning was left in the care of his son and successor, Zheng Jing, hardly a man worthy of wearing his father's boots, let alone the challenge that now lay in front of him.
The Japanese were able to take their time, expanding their powerbase and subjugating the local tribes. Those tribes which had pledged allegiance to the Dutch now defected to the Ishida, harassing Zheng Jing's communications and supplies. The Japanese navy played it's part too, harassing any ships which dared to trade with Dongning. By 1676 half of Taihoku was under Japanese control, the Shogunate forces knocking at the door of Dongning. Zheng Jing had hoped to have the natives do the fighting for him, but by this time support for the Kingdom of Dongning had evaporated; the mandate was now with the Ishida. Zheng Jing, a reluctant if not cowardly general, refused to lead his armies into battle, which did his troops' morale no great favours. Branded a coward, his retainers abandoned him in disgust and honourably surrendered to the Ishida. Shamed by his actions, Zheng Jing and his wife committed suicide at his palace in Tainan on August 11th 1676. The city surrendered to the Ishida the very next day.
Shigeru: His Final Years
The final legacy of Shigeru's reign was to be the establishment of Japan's first internal security agency, the Shinsengumi. The Nara Rebellion had greatly concerned him as it had others in the Kizokuin, but fortunately for Japan Shigeru did not listen to those dissenting voices who advocated rolling back Shigeru's "economic revolution". Security was the answer he thought, "otherwise my entire reign would have been vain" as he said during his seasonal address to the Kizokuin. The Shinsengumi kept the peace for the next century, cracking down on dissenters and rabblerousers while keeping corruption out of the courts and the marketplace. Their methods were a little underhanded to say the least, but surely so were those of the aforementioned dissenters and rabblerousers, if the Nara Rebellion was anything to go by.
Shigeru would reign for a total of 44 years, in which time he managed to radically change his country for the better. Like his great contemporary Kangxi, he would be counted among his nation's greatest rulers. His successor was to be his son, who as we shall see, was a man of less than brilliant intellect, to put it very nicely.
Ishida Shigeru in his shogunal robes, circa 1652. Shigeru appreciated many aspects of European culture but utterly despised their lack of personal hygiene. He was convinced that the death of many of his close friends at a young age was due to them not bathing at regular intervals, and would always insist on bathing twice a day (and much to their chagrin, that foreigners staying in Japan do so too). This would be his undoing: during one of his morning baths Shigeru lost his balance, slipped and drowned in his favourite bathhouse. He was 75 years old.
Notes:
[1] The martial arts of Swordsmanship and Archery respectively.
[2] Buddhist warrior monks and masterless samurai, respectively.
[3] Referring to the two combatants of the Gempei War (1180 - 1185 AD).
[4] Taihoku is the Japanese name for Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan. In this timeline, the whole island is named after the city, which was/will be the base of Japanese settlement (as it is the closest port and urban centre to Japan).