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Journey into Japan: The end of Japan's isolation

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Journey into Japan: The end of Japan's isolation

SUBJECTS:  History

YEARS:  7–8, 9–10


Under the shoguns, Japan was deliberately isolated from the outside world from around 1600 CE.

However, by the mid-19th century, Western imperialism was entering a new phase of expansion that no Asian state was able to resist.

Discover what happened when the West came beating on the doors of a closed society.

This clip is the third in a series of six.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Why did the West want to end Japan's isolation? In the 19th century, Western powers established colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific as both sources of raw materials and markets for industrial products. They also wanted to trade with China. In the 1830s and 1840s, Britain waged war on China to force it to accept British trade. Japan would soon face a similar threat.
  2. 2.Why did traditional arts and crafts continue in Japan long after they had been replaced by industrial mass production in the West? Identify four different products of Japanese artisans? Who provided the market for these products? What did the West want from Japan? Why were the samurai unable to resist when Commodore Perry's US fleet forcibly entered Tokyo Bay in1853? What were the consequences of Perry's action?
  3. 3.In this clip you can see several examples of traditional Japanese woodblock prints. What aspects of Japanese life and work are depicted in these prints? Identify and select at least four questions that you would ask about one of these prints as a source of evidence in an investigation of Japanese society under the shoguns.
  4. 4.Despite Japan's isolation policy, some limited contact with the outside world was permitted through Chinese and Dutch traders. Why did the shoguns create the island of Dejima at Nagasaki in 1634? Use appropriate sources to find out what facilities were provided for the traders on Dejima, what Japan gained from this trade and how the traders were prevented from influencing Japanese culture.


Acknowledgements

Produced by ABC and Japan Foundation.


Date of broadcast: 5 Jul 1979


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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