Framing Late Tokugawa Japan

  Enomoto Takeaki in Holland (The Hague), 1864 A common misconception about the late Edo period is that the Bakufu (Tokugawa shogunate) resisted modernisation and was unable to adapt to a globalising world or build connections with the west. If you've been reading any of my posts here, I think I have managed to establish that it is definitely not true! One of the many examples of Bakumatsu period connections with the rest of the world was Enomoto Takeaki's 3 years in Holland. He was the son of a shogunate official directly under the Tokugawa and after graduating in 1853, moved to Hakodate (Ezo) to work under the Magistrate and patrol Ezo and Sakhalin. He then enrolled at Nagasaki Naval Training School in 1857 and started learning Dutch.  In 1861, the Shogunate ordered three steam warships from the United States, but it was declined as the American Civil War spread. It was then decided to order one warship from the Netherlands (the Voorlichter or Kaiyō Maru  開陽丸 ). Enomoto a