Images of the other in a world of motion: Perceptions of foreigners in late Edo Japan

Abstract

Throughout most of the Edo period (1603-1868), the Pacific Ocean or taiheiyō (“peaceful sea”) was an object of mystery. The Japanese who lived near the coast saw the ocean everyday, but it remained an uncharted body of water. This was largely due to constraints placed by the ruling Tokugawa shogunate that prohibited the construction of sea-faring vessels in order to regulate foreign contact. As a result, the Pacific remained a source of unknown curiosities that were beyond physical reach. However, by the nineteenth century, the possibilities and dangers of this peaceful sea were no longer distant but were coming to Japan’s shore whether it liked it or not.