Shinkiron - Shinkiron

On October 15, 1838 (Tenpo 9), Watanabe Kazan, a painter and thinker of the late Edo period, heard a rumor at a meeting of the Shoshikai, a group of Dutch scholars, in which he participated together with Takano Choei and others, that the shogunate would once again resort to measures to expel the British ship Morrison (the British ship was a false report based on a rumor submitted to the shogunate by the Dutch trading post, and in fact was a ship belonging to an American trading company), which was soon to return to Japan escorting some castaways. The essay was written in opposition to this rumor. It is similar to Choei's "Bojutsu Yume Monogatari" ("Dream Tales"), but unlike Choei, who opposed the very order to expel the barbarians, the essay focuses on the criticism of Kazan, a realistic politician who was involved in reforming the government of the Tahara domain, a small coastal domain jutting out into the ocean in Totomi Province, against the stubbornly isolated feudal system. He detailed the state of Britain as symbolized by the Morrison (as in "Dream Story," the ship's name is mistaken for a person's name), and noted that "the nation's base is now on the sea," focusing on the science and technology of "sea, ships, and firepower." He went on to criticize the reality of Japan's isolation, and lament the rampant bribery politics under the feudal system of peace. "Prudent action" meant expecting cautious responses from leaders to the arrival of the Morrison at such a time in world history. Kazan stopped writing and kept the book secret, not showing it to anyone else, but it was discovered in his home by a Shogunate official during the Bansha no Goku incident, which is believed to have been an incident in which the Shikai were oppressed.

[Fujiwara Akira]

"Shinkiron (The Theory of Shinki)" edited by Shosuke Sato (included in "Japanese Thought Series 55: Watanabe Kazan et al.", 1971, Iwanami Shoten)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸後期の画家で思想家の渡辺崋山(かざん)が1838年（天保9）10月15日に高野長英(ちょうえい)らと参加した蘭学(らんがく)グループ尚歯会(しょうしかい)の席上で、近く漂流民を護送して再来日する「イギリス船モリソン号」（イギリス船というのは、オランダ商館が幕府に提出した風説書に基づく誤報で、事実としてはアメリカ商社の社船であった）に幕府はふたたび撃攘(げきじょう)策で対応するという噂(うわさ)を知り、これに反対して執筆した一文である。長英の『戊戌(ぼじゅつ)夢物語』（『夢物語』）と類同するが、打払令そのものに反対した長英とは異なり、頑迷な鎖国封建体制に対して、遠州大洋中に突き出した海浜小藩たる田原藩の藩政改革に関与する、現実的政治家崋山の批判を中心にしている。モリソン号に象徴される（『夢物語』と同様に、ここでも船名を人名と誤っている）イギリスの国情を詳述し、「今国家の拠(よ)る所海にあり」と「海船火技」の科学技術に注目した。ここから鎖国日本の現実を批判し、封建的太平の体制下にはびこる賄賂(わいろ)政治などを慨嘆した。「慎機」とは、かかる世界史の時勢にきざしたモリソン号来航に、為政者の慎重な対応を期すことであった。崋山は執筆を中断し秘して余人に見せなかったが、尚歯会への弾圧事件とされる蛮社の獄で、幕吏によって崋山宅から発見された。

［藤原　暹］

『佐藤昌介校注「慎機論」（『日本思想大系55　渡辺崋山他』所収・1971・岩波書店）』

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