was the chief senior councilor ('' rōjū'') in the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

of the Bakumatsu period at the time of the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry on his mission to open

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

to the outside world. Abe was instrumental in the eventual signing of the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. Abe did not sign the treaty himself or participate in the negotiations in person; this was done by his plenipotentiary Hayashi Akira. His courtesy title was ''Ise-no-kami''.

Biography

Early life

Abe Masahiro was born in his family's residence outside

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established th ...

. He was the 5th son of Abe Masakiyo, the 5th ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' of

Fukuyama Domain file:Abe Masahiro Portrait.png, 270px, Abe Masahiro 7th daimyo of Fukuyama was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now southeastern Hiroshima Prefecture. It controlled much of Bingo Province ...

. Upon his father's death in 1826, his elder brother Masayasu became ''daimyō'' of Fukuyama; Abe was moved to the domain's ''naka-yashiki'' ("middle residence") in Hongō, Edo (modern-day

Bunkyō is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. Situated in the middle of the ward area, Bunkyō is a residential and educational center. Beginning in the Meiji period, literati like Natsume Sōseki, as well as ...

, Tokyo). However, in 1836, Masayasu adopted his brother as heir. Abe became clan leader and ''daimyō'' of Fukuyama upon his brother's retirement on December 25, 1836. In early 1837, he left Edo and made the long journey to Fukuyama to formally enter his domain. This would be the only time that Abe set foot in his domain, as his career as a bureaucrat within the Tokugawa shogunate eclipsed his obligations to return to Fukuyama under the ''

sankin-kōtai ''Sankin-kōtai'' (, now commonly written as ) was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period, created to control the daimyo, the feudal lords of Japan, politically, and to keep them from attempting to overthrow the regi ...

'' system.

Career in the Tokugawa Shogunate

Abe was appointed to the post of '' sōshaban'' (master of ceremony) on September 1, 1838; on May 15, 1840, he received the post of '' jisha-bugyō'' (Magistrate of shrines and temples). One of his acts was to order the destruction of the Nichiren sect temple of Kannō-ji, whose priests had become involved in a scandal with ladies of the ''

Ōoku The was historically the harem, women's quarters of Edo Castle, the section where the women connected to the reigning resided. Similar areas in the castles of powerful , such as the Satsuma Domain, were also referred to by this term. During ...

'' under Shōgun

Tokugawa Ienari Tokugawa Ienari (, 18 November 1773 – 22 March 1841) was the eleventh and longest-serving ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan who held office from 1787 to 1837.Hall, John Whitney ''et al.'' (1991) ''Early Modern Japan'', p. 21./ref> ...

. In September 1843, Abe became ''rōjū'' at the young age of 25, moving his residence to the Abe family's estate at Tatsunokuchi, outside

(modern day

Ōtemachi is a district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is located north of Tokyo Station and Marunouchi, east of the Imperial Palace, west of Nihonbashi and south of Kanda. It is the location of the former site of the village of Shibazaki, the most an ...

). He became ''rōjū shuza'' (老中首座, presiding senior councillor) in September 1845, after Mizuno Tadakuni lost his standing over the failure of the Tenpō Reforms. Abe held this position throughout the administrations of Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyoshi and Tokugawa Iesada, working to unify shogunal politics. He supervised the reconstruction of the western enceinte of

in 1852, and was awarded an increase of 10,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

'' in income for this service. In the meantime, he kept the shogunate abreast of foreign political developments, such as the outbreak of the

First Opium War The First Opium War ( zh, t=第一次鴉片戰爭, p=Dìyīcì yāpiàn zhànzhēng), also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of military engagements fought between the British Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty between 1839 and 1 ...

, which provided an impetus to strengthen the nation’s coastal defenses to help maintain the isolationist policies of the time.

The Perry expedition and aftermath

In 1852,

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Commodore

Matthew Perry Matthew Langford Perry (August 19, 1969 – October 28, 2023) was an American and Canadian actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He gained international fame for starring as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom ''Friends'' (1994– ...

was sent in command of a squadron of warships by American President

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a De ...

. President Fillmore had forbidden Perry to use threats or force. As a lawyer, Fillmore believed that the Shogunate would respond reasonably to American concerns about U.S. mariners washed up on Japanese shores and the need to repatriate Japanese fishermen washed up on American shores. Nevertheless, Perry, who hailed from a military family and himself had been hardened by combat in war, chose to use bluffing tactics in flagrant violation of Fillmore's wishes. Perry arrived with a squadron of four warships at Uraga, at the mouth of Edo Bay in the evening of July 8, 1853. After refusing Japanese demands that he proceed to Nagasaki, which was the designated port for foreign contact, and after threatening to continue directly on to Edo, the nation’s capital and to burn it to the ground if necessary, he was allowed to land at nearby Kurihama on July 14 and to deliver his letter. Despite years of debate on the isolation policy, Perry's visit created great controversy within the highest levels of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Shōgun, Tokugawa Ieyoshi, died days after Perry’s departure, and was succeeded by his sickly young son, Tokugawa Iesada, leaving effective administration in the hands of the Council of Elders (''rōjū'') led by Abe Masahiro. Abe felt that it was currently impossible for Japan to resist the American demands by military force, and yet was reluctant to take any action on his own authority for such an unprecedented situation. Attempting to legitimize any decision taken, Abe polled all of the

for their opinions. This was the first time that the Tokugawa shogunate had allowed its decision-making to be a matter of public debate, and had the

unforeseen consequence In the social sciences, unintended consequences (sometimes unanticipated consequences or unforeseen consequences, more colloquially called knock-on effects) are outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen. The term was po ...

of portraying the Shogunate as weak and indecisive. The results of the poll also failed to provide Abe with an answer, as of the 61 known responses, 19 were in favor of accepting the American demands, and 19 were opposed. Of the remainder, 14 gave vague responses expressing concern of possible war, seven suggested making temporary concessions and two advised that they would simply go along with whatever was decided.W. G. Beasley, ''The Meiji Restoration'', pp. 90–95. Perry returned again on February 13, 1854, with an even larger force of eight warships and made it clear that he would not leave until a treaty was signed. Negotiations began on March 8 and proceeded for around one month. The Japanese side gave in to almost all of Perry's demands, with the exception of a commercial agreement modeled after previous American treaties with China, which Perry agreed to defer to a later time. The main controversy centered on the selection of the ports to open, with Perry adamantly rejecting Nagasaki. The Convention of Kanagawa was signed at

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

, adjacent to the site of the future city of

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

on March 31. Abe did not sign the treaty himself or participate in the negotiations in person; this was done by his plenipotentiary Hayashi Akira. Similar treaties were concluded with

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

soon afterwards. Abe came under criticism from the '' tozama daimyō'', the Imperial Court and various factions within the government for perceived appeasement to the foreign powers. In September 1855, he was forced to resign his post, and was replaced by Hotta Masayoshi in October.Bolitho. p. 233.

Later life and death

Despite his resignation as ''rōjū shuza'', Abe remained as one of the ''rōjū'' and continued to have significant influence for the rest of his life. Despite the precarious state of finances in Fukuyama Domain, he built a domain academy to teach Western sciences and to modernize his military. He also supported the notion of government selection of talented men, even of low birth, to serve as workers or bureaucrats. He was a driving force behind the establishment of the Nagasaki Naval Training Center and the revocation of restrictions on construction of large ocean-going vessels. Abe died on August 6, 1857, at the age of 39, possibly due to cancer, and was succeeded by his nephew, Abe Masanori (the first Abe daimyō of Shirakawa Domain, Abe Masanori.)

Notes

References

* China Through Western Eyes * * Bolitho, Harold (1974). ''Treasures Among Men: The Fudai Daimyo in Tokugawa Japan.'' New Haven: Yale University Press.
OCLC 185685588
* * Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). ''Japan Encyclopedia.'' Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

.
OCLC 48943301
* Mass, Jeffrey P. and William B. Hauser, eds. (1985). ''The Bakufu in Japanese History,'' (Harold Bolitho, "Abe Masahiro and the New Japan"). Stanford: Stanford University Press.