Ronald P. Toby

Ronald P. Toby argues that this isolationism was by no means so complete as traditionally supposed. He demonstrates that the Tokugawa shoguns conducted a foreign policy that established the shogunate's legitimacy, preserved Japan's security in an unstable environment, and buttressed her ideological pretensions to centrality in an East Asian order independent of the Chinese world order" more familiar to historians. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu

State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan

This book seeks to describe how Japan manipulated existing diplomatic channels to ensure national security. Rather, far from aiming at seclusion, Japan's diplomacy in the seventeenth century was orchestrated to achieve certain objectives, both outside the country and inside it. The aim was to build Japan into an autonomous center of its own. Since the country was "closed," elaborate and expensive foreign embassies were obliged to make the journey to Edo. Countries which were perceived as potential threats, such as Portugal and Spain, were excluded from this process. Only those such as the Chinese and the Dutch, with whom trade was recognized as desirable, were allowed a supervised presence in Japan itself. Closing the gates to Japan was not the object. Rather, carefully judging just when they should be open and shut was the aim.

Ronald P. Toby argues that this isolationism was by no means so complete as traditionally supposed. He demonstrates that the Tokugawa shoguns conducted a foreign policy that established the shogunate's legitimacy, preserved Japan's security in an unstable environment, and buttressed her ideological pretensions to centrality in an East Asian order independent of the Chinese world order" more familiar to historians. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Ronald P. Toby

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