Kaikoku heidan 海國兵談

Originally self-published

Hand-drawn ink on paper,
Size: 10 1/16 x 7 3/16 in.

Hayashi Shihei (1738-1793), a samurai from Mutsu, originally went to Nagasaki in 1755 to study Dutch horsemanship (1). His visit to Nagasaki in 1777, however, was what prompted him to write Kaikoku heidan, an illustrated discourse on military strategies in sea battles and weaponry. A meeting with the head of the Dutch Trading Office gave Hayashi enough information to become concerned for Japan’s future and the government’s foreign policy.

Shihei had difficulty securing funds for printing, and it took him three years to finally complete the publication (2). It was originally self-published to avoid government censorship (3). Generally, self-published books, as well as manuscripts and books printed with movable type, were exempt from censorship. Unfortunately, the book was banned in the same year the last volume was published. The government confiscated the printed books as well as the printing blocks, and placed Shihei under house arrest.

He is said to have composed a parody poem to express his predicament, “No parents, no wife, no children, no printing blocks, no money, but no way I would want to die.” His earlier work, Sangoku tsūran zusetsu (The survey of three countries),i was also banned in the same year.

Researcher Momoko Welch

1. Donald Keene, Frog in the Well: Portraits of Japan by Watanabe Kazan 1793-1841 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 147.
2. Hashiguchi, 110.
3. Hashiguchi Kōnosuke, Edo no honya to honzukuri (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2011), 109.