Renal Pathophysiology. Second Edition

155 Yet for over two centuries, from about 1637 to 1867, nearly the entire period in which feudal Japan was ruled from Edo (Tokyo) by the Tokugawa shoguns, the feudal lords (daimyo) and warrior class (bushi) ignored or disparaged the gun (matchlock) as a combat weapon. In Japan the sword was preeminent from the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637 to the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877-twenty-five years after Perry reintroduced Western firearms. This was a conscious choice not dictated by natural resources or skills in their manufacture or use. Mr. Perrin's thesis is that this period in the history of Japan, in which she was involved not at all with the outside world and banned Western Christianity, provides de facto evidence that mankind can turn his back on technological advance-if only he wishes. Despite the charm and sincerity of this essay, its usefulness as an object lesson would necessitate a utopian vision that the author himself suggests in a postscript. Tokugawa Japan was the antithesis of utopian. Japan's turning away from guns was both aesthetic and pragmatic-the ruling class did not like them or need them-in fact, they were subversive. Japan "gave up the gun" shortly after its abortive occupation of Korea (1592-1598) and Shimabara Rebellion (1637), the "Alamo" of Christianity in Japan. It eagerly rearmed during its renewal of contact with the West (1852-1877) just before and during the Meiji Restoration. Nevertheless, it was precisely the same internal forces that determined both events. The sword and the dagger were endowed with ritual that marked the power of the bushi class, the samurai warrior, and noblesse oblige. Japan's first large-scale use of the gun in Korea was by the enlisted peasant-class soldiers (ui-samurai), not the samurai warriors. Soon after the Tokugawa shogun recognized that such "egalitarian" warfare was a dangerous, internal threat. In the great "Sword Hunt of 1597" Tokugawa Hideyoshi had the peasant class turn in all its weapons to be melted down to construct a statue to Buddha-a clever Machiavellian ploy. The advent of the Meiji Restoration (1860s) signaled the growing ascendency of the merchant and peasant classes and the dissolution of the ruling samurai class. The new Imperial Army of Japan was restructured to reflect this change. This social revolution marked the reacceptance of the gun by the new "citizen-soldier" of rural Japan; that is, the new ji-samurai. Thus, the entire period of "giving up the gun" by Tokugawa …