Adam Laxman was one of the first Russians to set foot in Japan. A lieutenant in the Imperial Russian military, he was commanded in 1791 to lead an expedition there, returning two Japanese castaways to their home country in exchange for trade concessions from the Tokugawa shogunate. Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... 1791 (MDCCXCI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Tokugawa shogunate or Tokugawa bakufu (徳川幕府) (also known as the Edo bakufu) was a feudal military dictatorship of Japan established in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family until 1868. ...

Expedition to Japan (1792)

Laxman landed on Hokkaido in October 1792, where he was met by members of the Matsumae clan, who were entrusted with defending Japan's northern borders. Unlike previous foreign visitors, Laxman was treated hospitably, but this changed when he demanded, imprudently, that he be able to deliver the castaways to Edo (modern-day Tokyo) in person. He was soon met by two envoys and five hundred men, sent from Edo by senior councilor Matsudaira Sadanobu, who attempted to delay or prevent Laxman's traveling much deeper into Japanese territory. They asked that he travel to the town of Matsumae, overland and without his ship. Laxman refused, and ultimately was allowed to sail, with Japanese naval escort, to the port of Hakodate; from there, 450 Russians and Japanese would march to Matsumae Castle. For the dog breed, see Hokkaido (dog). ... 1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Matsumae was the name of a town in Hokkaido, Japan, near the port of Hakodate. ... Edo (Japanese: 江戸, literally: bay-door, estuary), once also spelled Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo. ... Tokyo ) , literally eastern capital, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and includes the highly urbanized central area formerly known as the city of Tokyo which is the heart of the Greater Tokyo Area. ... Matsudaira Sadanobu was the lord of Shirakawa han and the chief councilor of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the 1790s. ... Matsumae (松前町; -chou) is a town located in Matsumae District, Oshima, Hokkaido, Japan. ... View of Hakodate from Mountain Hakodate (函館市; -shi) is a city and port located in Oshima, Hokkaido, Japan. ... Categories: Stub | Castles in Japan ...

Oddly, despite his impudence, Laxman was granted lavish Western-style living quarters; they were allowed to ignore the custom of kneeling and bowing before the Shogun's envoys, and were bestowed three samurai swords, and a hundred bags of rice. The envoys then explained to him that Japanese law demanded that all foreign trade be performed at Nagasaki. Since he had come to return castaways, they explained, he would be allowed to leave peacefully. When Laxman refused to leave without a trade agreement, he was provided with papers that explicitly stated that Nagasaki would welcome one Russian ship, that foreign ships were not allowed to dock anywhere else in the country, and that Christianity would also not be tolerated anywhere in Japan. Megane-bashi (Spectacles Bridge) Nagasaki   listen? (長崎市; -shi, literally long peninsula) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ...

Laxman returned to Russia essentially empty-handed, though he held (quite possibly) the first official Japanese documents granting permission to trade, to a nation other than China or the Netherlands. When an attempt was made to trade at Nagasaki, nine years after Laxman's return to Russia, the Russian mission was greeted with a lengthy dispatch from the Shogunate explaining that Japan was closed to foreign trade and demanding that they leave. After this major setback, the Tsarist government debated for many years the actual intention and meaning of the documents, and, leaving the opening of Japan to private entrepreneur explorers, ultimately failed to open Japan.

Reference

• McDougall, Walter (1993). "Let the Sea Make a Noise: Four Hundred Years of Cataclysm, Conquest, War and Folly in the North Pacific." New York: Avon Books.

See also

• Eric Laxman