What made Japan a model student of modernization?
The Edo period, a time of 'accumulation' and 'bridging' that Koreans were unaware of.

Through an analysis of Japan's 'Edo period', which determined the fate of the modernization path of the three East Asian countries,
Asking for a new path for history in the 21st century!

Every time we celebrate Liberation Day on August 15th, we reflect on the meaning of liberation, when we regained our light after being freed from Japan's brutal invasion and exploitation, and we elevate our anti-Japanese nationalism.
But we rarely face our own internal problems.
What kind of society was Joseon, and why did it become a colony? During the period of Western expansion and Eastward Progress in the late 19th century, facing the test of establishing a modern nation, Japan was considered a top performer, China a bottom performer, and Joseon a failing student. What accounted for these differences?
Could it be that we are suffering from historical trauma regarding Japan, a barbaric nation that wore loincloths and carried swords, yet repaid our kindness with enmity, despite having bestowed it upon us since ancient times? Indeed, we haven't given much thought to the reason why, among the three East Asian nations of China, Korea, and Japan, Japan alone has pursued a different path since the mid-19th century.
The Japan of the Edo period, which appears in Korean history textbooks, is a country on the periphery of civilization that learned advanced civilization by learning from potters kidnapped during the Imjin War and from Joseon Tongsinsa.
However, it is certain that Korea is the only country that views Japan's 260 years of modern history in that way.
As of 2017, Japan has produced a total of 25 Nobel Prize winners.
In Korea, people point to the Meiji Restoration every time, and envy the modernization process that followed.
When I come across such analysis, I can't help but ask again:
Was it truly those 100 years that created Japan's strength? Was it truly possible to accumulate such national capabilities in just 100 years? This book is a record of a journey that begins with these questions and continues to find answers.
The final destination of such a journey is the ‘rediscovery of modern Japan.’

Ieyasu was a creative thinker who found opportunity in every moment of crisis.
This time, his wit comes into play again.
Rather than going inland to secure land, they decided to fill in the sea and create land.
The site targeted for reclamation was 'Hibiya Irie'.
The Hibiya area near the Imperial Palace, now the center of Tokyo, was originally not land but the sea corresponding to the river mouth, as can be seen from the name "Irukou."
Ieyasu filled in the sea and created land by digging up the soil and sand from Mount Kanda, located to the north of the castle.
All the dirt that came out while digging the downtown canal
I poured it out.
It was the so-called 'stone-piercing construction' that was completed quickly and without incident.
Tens of thousands of people carved mountains, transported dirt, filled in the sea, and compacted the ground to create a vast landfill half the size of Yeouido in just one year.
It is the area that stretches from the current Hibiya Park through Shinbashi to Hamacho.
It is surprising to learn that the area from City Hall to Yongsan in Seoul was reclaimed land during the reign of King Seonjo of the Joseon Dynasty.
(Pages 40-41)

There is a Roman proverb that says, 'Roads are made by the strong, broken by the weak.'
This means that a country with a well-organized system has a solid social infrastructure, while a country with a poor system has a low level of social infrastructure.
In Japan's unique political situation, where warriors competed based on their abilities, Tokugawa Ieyasu's decision to locate the shogunate in Edo, coupled with the Tenka Hōshō and the Sankin-Kōtai system, ushered in an innovative urban civilization.
This is the essence of the Edo period.
(Page 48)

First is the economic ripple effect.
Shift work requires a huge amount of money.
Large groups of people, from as few as 100 to as many as 500, traveled hundreds of kilometers, and the costs were entirely borne by the daimyo.
It was the price to pay for the right to collect taxes independently.
Because arriving even one day later than the agreed date would result in reprimands from the shogunate and huge losses in costs, each clan dispatched an advance party in advance and meticulously planned its schedule. In addition, if the road conditions were poor, they had to pay for road repairs themselves, putting on a tremendous psychological and economic burden.
If we assume that the cost of food and lodging per person in modern currency for actual travel is approximately 6,000 yen per day, the average cost for a one-way trip is approximately 300 to 400 million yen.
There were about 270 such daimyo families scattered throughout the country, so in today's money, it would amount to trillions of won being thrown around on the streets every year.
Adding to this the enormous cost of staying in Edo, which was incomparably greater than travel expenses, the cost of sankin kōtai was a staggering sum, exceeding half of the daimyo's tax revenue. (p. 53)

The greatest byproduct of the Sankin-kyōtai was the remarkable development of Edo.
The socioeconomic impact of having the highest elite groups from both the central and local governments reside in one city called Edo was truly enormous.
As hundreds of thousands of daimyo and their retinues flowed in as "pure consumers," a huge consumer market was formed in Edo.
Civil engineering, construction, and architecture for their mansions, their attendant lodgings, and public infrastructure; restaurants, crafts, and transportation for the daimyo's public and private social life; textile and clothing industries in line with the then-popular "ikisu" clothing culture; various publishing, performance, and entertainment industries for the cultural life of the masses; commercial activities in various fields reminiscent of a modern city were actively carried out.
(Pages 55-56)

Even in Europe, which had become aware of the modern era, the popularization of travel among the common people was a phenomenon that began after the 19th century.
Only after the railway network was developed did the socio-cultural phenomenon of people leaving their homes and traveling to other regions begin to spread.
Japan, uniquely, has seen a significant level of popularization of travel among the general public since the mid-Edo period.
Compared to the West, it is a full 100 years ahead.
The travel ecosystem, established within a unique religious, social, and cultural environment since the early modern period, has had a significant impact on Japan's modernization.
Travel essentially means the movement and exchange of people, and this has a much greater ripple effect than the movement of goods in terms of the distribution of information.
For travel to become popular, material and social conditions must be met.
There must be a transportation network, accommodations, public safety, desired landmarks and attractions, entertainment or pleasure facilities, and above all, free time away from work and freedom of movement, even if only temporarily, must be permitted.
Japan, uniquely, despite being a pre-modern society, has met the conditions for popularizing travel and removed restrictions.
By the mid-18th century, Japan was already the world's leading travel paradise, with over a million travelers traveling throughout the country annually (pp. 73-74).

Until the 16th century, Japan's publishing culture lagged behind that of Europe, China, and even Joseon.
But when the era of war ends and the era of peace arrives, the situation is reversed.
Since the 17th century, Japan's publishing culture has grown at an incredible pace.
By the mid-17th century, there were about 200 publishers competing, by the mid-18th century, about 1,000 new books were pouring into bookstores each year, and by the 19th century, the country had become a "publishing powerhouse" where almost all citizens used books as an essential part of their daily lives.
How was such a miraculous transformation possible in a pre-modern society? The secret lies in pornography, copyright, and the rental business.
(Page 89)

As the concept of 'books', previously considered rigid and boring, changed into an entertainment product, the commercial publishing market grew at a frightening rate thanks to developed commercial capital and distribution networks.
By the end of the 18th century, publishers had gathered in Edo, the political and economic center of a city with a population of one million, and the era of full-scale commercial publishing blossomed, with hundreds of new books being published annually.
As books such as the Kusajoshi and ukiyo-e, as well as the full-fledged monogatari "Yomihon" gained great popularity, Edo surpassed Kyoto to become the leading publishing market.
In the Edo publishing market, various genres such as entertainment, practical books, and travel guidebooks were pioneered, and a business ecosystem reminiscent of the modern publishing market was established, with "full-time writers" emerging as professions who specialized in reporting, writing, and drawing upon the commission of publishers.
(Pages 94-95)

One thing to note about the education system of the Edo period is that it was not public education for the ruling class, but rather private education for the common people.
A characteristic of education that permeates the Edo period is the social consensus that common people, as members of society, have knowledge and culture that they must acquire in order to maintain and develop a healthy society.
Accordingly, practical education necessary for daily life, public service education necessary for professional life, and moral education necessary for communal life were emphasized as the central contents of education for the common people.
Although there was a limitation in that it could not go beyond the framework of the caste system, the prevailing perception that all members of society needed basic education to lead a communal life was a developed view of education for a pre-modern society.
(Page 111)

The publication of the 『Kaetei Shinsho』 in 1774 was a major event in Japanese intellectual society.
Until then, Western civilization had only been accessible in the form of objects or fragments of content could be grasped through conversation, and Western 'books' were nothing more than a pie in the sky.
Books, which are supposed to be treasure troves of knowledge, were of little help in absorbing knowledge, as they could only be guessed at through pictures or a few familiar words.
In such a situation, when 『Haeche Shinseo』 was published, a desire for ‘translation’ to use the book as a tool for conveying knowledge arose among Dutch scholars.
In fact, I had known from before that if I could only understand the meaning of the crooked letters written in Western books, I could make all that knowledge my own.
Nevertheless, the reason there was no translation before 『Haeche Shinseo』 was because there was no ‘dictionary.’
(Page 153)

Comparing the shogunate's ban on luxury goods with Joseon's ban on luxury goods around the same time provides interesting insights.
Joseon, which was strongly influenced by Confucianism, also issued a ban on extravagance and regulated extravagant clothing.
As the consumption of dyed fabrics increases, the cultivation of cash crops, which are the raw material for dyes, increases, which affects the cultivation of food crops such as rice.
The frequent occurrence of famine and crop failures during the modern period, corresponding to the Little Ice Age, also influenced the clothing regulations of the two countries' governments.
Although it was the same regulation, the sumptuary edict had a greater impact on Japanese society than on Joseon society.
This is because Koreans had no problem wearing white clothes by bleaching and discoloring cotton cloth without dyeing it at all, regardless of clothing color regulations.
The government regulated white clothing, saying that it was against etiquette to wear white clothing, which was only worn as mourning clothes, on a daily basis. However, as time passed, white clothing became more and more preferred by both nobles and commoners, and became the standard for everyday clothing.
The preference for white clothing caused Joseon's dyeing technology to remain stagnant.
The dyed cloth market was not properly formed, and the technicians were subordinate to the government, limiting their technical and artistic autonomy.
(Pages 184-185)

The giant vase, measuring two meters in length, displayed at the Japanese pavilion was a surprise that even Westerners had never seen before.
Arita porcelain, which surpasses ceramics from other countries in size and catches two birds with one stone in terms of artistry and topicality, received rave reviews from visitors and quickly became the most popular exhibit at the Japan Pavilion.
At the time, the World's Fair was an enormous international event that cannot be compared to its status today.
The Vienna World Fair, held under the theme of 'Education and Culture', attracted millions of European visitors, and Japanese paintings and crafts, including Arita ware, left a strong impression on the minds of the visitors.
As Arita ware was a hot topic throughout the exhibition, it also achieved great commercial success.
The teacups, plates, and other small items prepared by the participating group sold out like hotcakes at the event, and additional orders poured in from within Japan.
The value of Japanese porcelain exports, which was 45,000 yen in 1872, exploded by more than 2.5 times to 116,000 yen in 1873 when the Vienna World Fair was held.
Arita ware exhibited at the Vienna World Exposition had the power to drive all of Japan's ceramic exports.
(Page 207)

Edo-period Japanese society continued to face limitations that could no longer be addressed with existing knowledge and ideas due to the advancement of urbanization, capitalization, and marketization. In the process of intellectuals constantly pondering these limitations with a sense of mission for the times, a diverse and solid intellectual foundation was built.
The phenomenon of new knowledge being produced and consumed across social classes to respond to the changing times can be said to be the emergence of a kind of knowledge market.
The intellectual dynamism and diversity of modern Japan, which boasts a high level of science and technology, humanities, and social sciences and produces numerous Nobel Prize winners, can be seen as having its roots in the birth of the knowledge market in the Edo period, where knowledge was not monopolized but competed in the public sphere.
(Page 235)

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