ABSTRACT
The coming of Perry in 1853 turned out to be an epoch-making event in Japanese history, but even before his arrival the Bakufu’s seclusionist policy was already being challenged by the arrival of other foreign vessels. Russia was the first nation to start probing the shores of Japan. In 1771 a Russian adventurer, Baron von Benyowsky, who had been exiled to Kamchatka, seized control of a small vessel with the aid of some other convicts and sailed to Awa in Shikoku. Benyowsky pretended to be a Dutchman and told the Japanese that Russia was planning to attack Hokkaido the following year. This caused consternation among the Japanese officials and stirred the advocates of national defense, such as Hayashi Shihei, into action. In 1778 a Russian merchant ship came to Kunajiri Island off western Hokkaido and asked the local daimyō to enter into commercial relations. This offer to engage in trade was repeated in the fall of 1792 when a Russian ship, the Ekaterina, arrived at Nemuro in Hokkaido to return some castaway Japanese seamen. The authorities rejected the offer but told the Russians to sail to Nagasaki and present their request there. Adam Laxman, the commander of the ship, decided, however, to return to Russia without bothering to go on to Nagasaki. In 1804 the head of the Russian-American Company, a man by the name of Rezanov, arrived in Nagasaki and requested the establishment of commercial relations. He too failed to persuade the Bakufu to abandon its seclusionist position.
