Morrison Incident

In the late Edo period, an American ship that had arrived to repatriate castaways and to open the door to trade and missionary work was bombarded and forced to leave. In 1837 (Tenpo 8), Olyphant & Co., an American trading company in Canton, repatriated seven Japanese crew members who had been wrecked at sea, Iwakichi, Hisakichi, Otokichi, Shozo, Jusaburo, Kumataro, and Chikaramatsu, to Japan on their ship the Morrison, hoping to use the opportunity to open the door to trade with Japan and to start the door to missionary work in Japan by the American Overseas Mission. The ship set sail from Macau in July of that year and reached the coast of Uraga, but was bombarded and failed to achieve its purpose. It then approached Kagoshima Bay, where it was bombarded again, forcing it to return to Macau. Both of these were based on the Bunsei Edict to Drive Away Foreign Ships, but the shogunate learned of the nature of the ship from a confidential rumor report submitted the following year by the head of the Dutch factory (which mistakenly identified the Morrison as a British ship), and held a council on how to deal with foreign ships in such cases. The contents of the council were leaked to the general public, and Watanabe Kazan wrote Shinkiron and Takano Choei wrote Bojutsu Yume Monogatari, criticizing the shogunate's foreign policy, which led to the Bansha no Goku incident.

[Eiichi Kato]

"The Voyage of Otokichi in Japan" by Toru Haruna (1979, Shobunsha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸後期、漂民送還と貿易・布教の端緒を開くため来航したアメリカ船が砲撃を受け退去させられた事件。1837年（天保8）、広東(カントン)のアメリカ商社オリファント商会Olyphant & Co.は社船モリソン号Morrisonで日本人海難船員の岩吉、久吉、音吉、庄蔵(しょうぞう)、寿三郎、熊太郎、力松の7名を日本に送還し、その機会に日本との貿易ならびにアメリカ海外宣教団の日本布教の端緒を開こうとした。同船は同年7月マカオを出帆し浦賀(うらが)沖にきたが、砲撃を受けて目的を果たさず、転じて鹿児島湾に接近停泊してふたたび砲撃され、やむなくマカオに引き返した。これはいずれも文政(ぶんせい)異国船打払令に基づくものであったが、幕府は翌年オランダ商館長が提出した機密の風説書（誤ってモリソン号をイギリス船としていた）によって同船の性格を知り、このような場合の外来船の処置につき評議した。その内容が民間にも漏れて、渡辺崋山(かざん)は『慎機論(しんきろん)』を、高野長英(ちょうえい)は『戊戌(ぼじゅつ)夢物語』を著して幕府の対外政策を批判したため、これが蛮社の獄(ごく)を引き起こす原因となった。

［加藤榮一］

『春名徹著『にっぽん音吉漂流記』（1979・晶文社）』

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例