The author wishes to thank the Truman, Harry S. Research Institute of the Hebrew University for providing the physical facilities and ambience that make writing less painful.Google Scholar

¹ Hatin, Louis Eugène, Bibliographie historique et critique de la presse française (Paris, 1866), p. cxvi.Google Scholar

² Altman, Albert A., ‘Shinbunshi: The Early Meiji Adaptation of the Western-Style Newspaper,’ in Beasley, Wm. G. (ed.), Modern Japan, Aspects of History, Literature and Society (London, 1975).Google Scholar For comparable examples in Asia, there are Britton, Roswell B., The Chinese Periodical Press, 1800–1912 (Shanghai, 1933);Google ScholarNatarjan, S., A History of the Press in India (Bombay, 1962);Google ScholarKarpat, Kemal H., ‘Turkey,’ in Ward, and Rustow, (eds), Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (Princeton, 1963).Google Scholar

³ The earliest evidence that educated Japanese had some knowledge, even though hazy, of the existence of European newspapers dates to the early eighteenth century and is found in the official report that Arai Hakuseki prepared of his interrogation of Giovanni Battista Sidotti, a Jesuit priest who was captured and imprisoned in 1708 after having smuggled himself into Japan in violation of the ban on Christianity. Arai, a prestigious Confucian scholar and adviser to the shogun, prepared a report on what he had learned from the priest about the West. In the section on Brazil, Arai wrote a few lines on ‘corontos’, a contemporary word for newspapers in several European languages. ‘Concerning the corontos, it is common that whenever anything happens, it is illustrated, explained and printed.…’ (Seiyō kibun, quoted in Fumio, Yamamoto, Nihon shinbunshi (Osaka, 1948), p. 7. The number of persons permitted to see Arai's report must have been exceedingly small, since it contained much about Christianity and, in fact, it remained in manuscript until 1883 before it was printed in Japan. We do not know what sense even these few readers made of Arai's terse description and there is no evidence that either he or they had ever seen a coronto.Google Scholar Opportunities to see Western newspapers increased, at least for officials, when stray copies began reaching Japan after a growing number of foreign vessels started entering Japanese waters a century later. An early such instance is known from a letter sent in 1818 by an English merchant-mariner, Captain Peter Gordon, to Robert Morrison, the English missionary, who was then in Malacca. Describing his arrival off Edo in search of trade and his conversation with two Bakufu officials, Gordon added that ‘I also said it would afford me pleasure to leave them with newspapers and other publications relating to the political state of Europe, as well as a few maps and books on geography, seeing they were particularly anxious to acquire information on these subjects…’ The letter is quoted in the original English in Katsumi, Iwasaki, Shibala Shōkichi den (Tokyo, 1935), pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

⁴ Hideo, Ono, ‘Waga kuni shoki no shinbun to sono bunken ni tsuite’ Meiji bunka zenshū (henceforth MBZ), Shinbun hen, Kaidai, p. 3.Google Scholar

⁵ A particularly interesting case is that of Fukuchi Genichirō who later became one of the Meiji period's leading pioneer editors. He recalled in his memoirs having seen and trying to read French and English newspapers during the early 1860s when he was abroad as a member of official Bakufu missions. The memoirs, Shinbunshi jitsureki were published in 1894 and are reprinted in MBZ, Shinbun hen. Fukuchi's recollection of this experience appears on p. 4.Google Scholar

Excerpts concerning newspapers from the diaries kept by members of the first Bakufu mission to the U.S. in 1860 can be found in Fumio, Yamamoto, Nihon shinbunshi, pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

⁶ One example among many is the letter sent in the late autumn of 1862 from Paris by a samurai, very likely Terajima Munenori, who was in Europe as a member of the Bakufu's Takeuchi Mission. He tells his correspondent that he had purchased an annual subscription to an English newspaper while he was in London, Ihi nyūkō roku (Tokyo, 1931), vol. 1, p. 257.Google Scholar Not to be overlooked is the report that Ikeda Nagaaki, Chikugo no kami, submitted to the Bakufu upon his return from France in 1864, in which he recommended using European newspapers to muster support for Bakufu foreign policy. See Bakumatsu Ishin gaikō shiryō shūsei (Tokyo, 1944), vol. 6, pp. 150–1.Google Scholar

⁷ There were seven altogether: (1) Kanpan Batavia shinbun (1862), (2) Kanpan Kaigai shinbun (1862), (3) Kanpan Kaigai shinbun besshū (1862), (4) Kanpan Rikugō sōdan (1862?), (5) Kanpan Chūgai shinpō (1862?), (6) Kanpan Chūgai zasshi (1864), (7) Kanpan Hong Kong shinbun (1864?).

The first three were collections of translations from the Western press; the 4th, 5th and 6th were reprints of missionary publications in China and the 7th contained information from a commercial Hong Kong paper. Only the first two items have been reprinted. Both are in the MBZ, Shinbun hen and in Bakumatsu Meiji shinbun zenshū (henceforth MBSZ), vol. 2.

⁸ Hachirō, EbiharaNihon ōji shinbun zasshishi (Tokyo, 1934);Google ScholarSpaulding, Robert M. Jr, ‘Bibliography of Western-language Dailies and Weeklies in Japan, 1861–1961,’ n.d., n.p. Translations from the Yokohama foreign press for the information of the Bakufu authories are in MBSZ, vol. 1, pp. 1–271.Google Scholar

⁹ The reference is to Joseph Heco (Hiko), the editor and publisher of the Kaigai shinbun. This newspaper translated foreign news from English newspapers brought to Yokohama by foreign vessels. Heco did not indicate the publication date on any of his issues, but at the head of each he informed his readers of the arrival date of the ship that had brought the original newspaper. The earliest issue was translated from newspapers that had reached Yokohama on 8 04 1865. The Kaigai shinbun is reprinted in BMSZ, vol. 2.

¹⁰ BMSZ, vol. 3, p. 329.Google Scholar

¹¹ BMSZ, vol. 3, p. 236.Google Scholar From the context it seems fairly certain that the reader in question was a foreigner, an American, Eugene M. Van Reed, who among his other activities, was connected with a Japanese-language newsbook, the Moshiogusa, then being published in Yokohama. His colourful career in Japan is described in my ‘Eugene Van Reed, A Reading Man in Japan, 1859–1872,’ Historical Review of Berks County, vol. 30, no. 1 (Winter, 1964–1965).Google Scholar

¹² BMSZ, vol. 4, p. 3.Google Scholar

¹³ Hōki bunrui taizen, Dai ippen, monjo mon, shuppan, pp. 405–6.Google Scholar

¹⁴ See Okurashōtasshi 47, 05 4, 1872 in ibid., p. 483 for the Treasury Instruction concerning the Shinbun zasshi (News Miscellany), the Tōkyō nichi-nichi shinbun (Tokyo Daily News) and the Yokohama mainichi shinbun (Yokohama Daily News). See Yamamoto, Fumio, Nihon shinbunshi, p. 38 for the Treasury Instruction dated 08 11, 1872 concerning the Nisshin shinjishi (The Reliable Daily News).Google Scholar The Nisshin shinjishi of 04 29, 1872 informed its readers that the paper had been granted the privilege of publishing material made available to it by the Sa-in. As one example of how the Tokyo and Yokohama press was used to keep local authorities informed of foreign and domestic news, there is the case of the Hokkaidō kaitakushi (Hokkaidō Colonization Office) reproducing such news in its own publication, the Shinpō setsuryaku (News in Brief), which it began issuing in 10 1873 for distribution to its officials, see Ichiō, Watanabe, ‘Hokkaidō shinbunshi,’ Chihōbetsu Nihon shinbunshi (Tokyo, 1966), p. 1.Google Scholar It should be kept in mind that the policy of making newspapers available at no cost to prefectural authorities who, in turn, used the newspapers to keep their officials up to date on the latest developments was a way of assuring that at least officials would see newspapers at a time when they were still expensive and circulations were low.

¹⁵ Ardath, W., Burks, ‘Administrative Transition from Han to Ken: The Example of Okayama,’ Far Eastern Quarterly, vol. xv, no. 3, pp. 377–8.Google Scholar

¹⁶ For the example of Aomori prefecture, see Aomoriken seijishi (Sendai, 1965), vol. 1, pp. 364–6.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Kiichirō, Kamata, ‘Akita ken shinbunshi,’ Chihōbetsu Nihon shinbunshi, p. 41.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Matsui Kei, ‘Niigata ken shinbunshi,’ ibid., p. 174.

¹⁹ Koriyama Tatsumi, ‘Okayama ken shinbunshi,’ ibid., p. 365.

²⁰ Yanaimura Ki'ichi, ‘Funkui ken shinbunshi,’ ibid., p. 204.

²¹ Saruyama Yoshinari, ‘Saitama ken shinbunshi,’ ibid., p. 99; SatōTamitaka, ‘Fukushima ken shinbunshi,’ ibid., p. 59.

²² Takasu Kazumi, ‘Hiroshima ken shinbunshi,’ ibid., p. 373.

²³ Kakegawa Kiyu, ‘Aichi ken shinbunshi,’ ibid., p. 257.

²⁴ Gondō Takeshi, ‘Fukuoka ken shinbunshi,’ ibid., p. 436.

²⁵ Honda Suketarō, Tsukada Masaaki, ‘Nagano ken shinbunshi,’ ibid., pp. 225–6.

²⁶ The text of the instructions to the village headmen is quoted in Yasumasa, Nakayama, Shinbun shūsei Meiji hennenshi (Tokyo, 1936), vol. 1, pp. 496–7.Google Scholar This Meiji period practice of assembling villagers to read them newspaper articles and to lecture them on the meaning of the news was a continuation of a Tokugawa practice whereby ‘The responsibilities and the rules of conduct of the villagers were made known to them… through moral exhortations given them by the intendant or bailiff and the village head.’ Asakawa, K., ‘Notes on Village Government in Japan,’ Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 30 (1910), p. 268.Google Scholar Asakawa also indicates that this practice was, in turn, based on measures of social control used in China, ‘… some Barons followed the historic customs of China of giving the people moral exhortations through teachers. They were usually Confucian scholars. Sometimes they were sent in circuit through the fief, villagers assembling to receive them and listen to their lectures,’ ibid. , vol. 31 (1911), p. 200. On Chinese practices during the Ch'ing period, see Kung-chuan, Hsiao, Rural China, Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century (Seattle, 1960), pp. 184–205. For several examples of Tokugawa practices,Google Scholar see Dore, Ronald P., Education in Tokugawa Japan (London, 1965), pp. 235–41.Google Scholar For Meiji period examples of villagers having newspapers read to them, see Takejirō, Matsuzaka, ‘Miyagi ken shinbunshi,’ Chihōbetsu, p. 31, and Tōkyō nichi-nichi shinbun, 02 5, 1876, cited in Shinbun shūsei Meiji hennenshi, vol. 2, p. 481. That attendance at such readings was compulsory rather than voluntary is suggested by a record of attendance from a village in Yamanashi prefecture that has survived, dated 11 28, 1873, Kōshi geppō, no. 31 (03, 1933), p. 4.Google Scholar

²⁷ For example, when the Tokushima han was replaced by Myōtō prefecture in 1871, there was a ‘minor exodus of leading men to the central government.… However, most of the leading executives of the domain remained behind as prefectural officials.’ Fraser, Andrew, A Political Profile of Tokushima Prefecture in the Early and Middle Meiji Period 1868–1902 (Canberra, 1971), p. 11.Google Scholar Yanagida Kunio mentions ‘graduates of the new normal schools (who) came to take charge of the public schools. (They) … were often second or third sons of local landlords … Not infrequently a young man served as a teacher in an unfamiliar district for some years and then returned to his home to become the principal of the local primary school.’ Japanese Manners and Customs in the Meiji Era (Tokyo, 1957), p. 74.Google Scholar Cases of graduates of Tokyo institutions of higher learning returning to their prefectural homes to take up positions on local newspapers are found among the graduates of Fukuzawa's Keiō gijuku listed in Maruyama Makoto, Fukuzawa Yukichi to sono monkasei shōshi (Tokyo, 1970).Google Scholar

²⁸ Kahane, Reuven, Sociological Analysis of Processes of Legitimation and Integration in Developing Societies: The Case of India (Mimeo., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1979), ch. 9, pp. 26–8.Google Scholar