{ "id": "epa54cw56z", "slug": "edict-to-repel-foreign-vessels", "title": "Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels", "updated": "2026-10-25", "topic_path": [ { "id": "society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society" }, { "id": "society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history" }, { "id": "society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.japan", "label": "Japan", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.japan" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.japan.jp-edo", "label": "Edo Japan (1603 to 1853)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.japan.jp-edo" }, { "id": "society.history.asia.japan.jp-edo.tokugawa-government-and-domains.rebellions-reforms-and-foreign-relations", "label": "Rebellions, reforms, and foreign relations", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/society.history.asia.japan.jp-edo.tokugawa-government-and-domains.rebellions-reforms-and-foreign-relations" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.japan.jp-edo", "label": "Asia (other) · 1800 to 1945: Edo Japan (1603 to 1853)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.japan.jp-edo", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800", "label": "Asia (other) · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society", "label": "Society and history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society.history", "label": "History and archaeology", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society.history" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia", "label": "Asian history", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.japan", "label": "Japan", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.japan" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.japan.jp-edo", "label": "Edo Japan (1603 to 1853)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.society.history.asia.japan.jp-edo" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels (異国船打払令, Ikokusen Uchiharai-rei) was an 1825 Edo shogunate decree ordering that all foreign ships approaching Japan be fired upon and driven off.", "snippet": "The Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels (異国船打払令, Ikokusen Uchiharai-rei) was an 1825 Edo shogunate decree ordering that all foreign ships approaching Japan be fired upon and driven off.", "node": "society.history.asia.japan.jp-edo.tokugawa-government-and-domains.rebellions-reforms-and-foreign-relations", "markdown": "# Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels\n\nThe **Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels** (異国船打払令, *Ikokusen Uchiharai-rei*) was a decree issued by the Edo shogunate in 1825 (Bunsei 8) ordering that all foreign ships approaching Japan's coasts be fired upon and driven off, with officials not facing punishment even if they mistakenly fired on Dutch or Ryukyuan ships, which were authorized to trade with Japan.[1](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%95%B0%E5%9B%BD%E8%88%B9%E6%89%93%E6%89%95%E4%BB%A4-30343) • [2](https://archives.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3-3-6-010.pdf) • [15](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/kuroshio-frontier/harbingers-of-empire/F25E91A9F0DEA5C5A2FC8DD23DC4A753) Because its text instructs officials to repel them 「二念無く」 (without a second thought), it is also known as the Muninen Uchiharai-rei, the Edict to Repel Without a Second Thought.[2](https://archives.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3-3-6-010.pdf) • [3](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%84%A1%E4%BA%8C%E5%BF%B5%E6%89%93%E6%89%95%E4%BB%A4-642105) It remained in force until 1842, when the shogunate replaced it with a policy of supplying food, fuel, and water to foreign ships in distress.[4](https://japanusencounters.net/ssl/sub_tenpouhumanity.html)\n\n| Key facts | |\n|---|---|\n| Issued by | Edo (Tokugawa) shogunate[1](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%95%B0%E5%9B%BD%E8%88%B9%E6%89%93%E6%89%95%E4%BB%A4-30343) |\n| Date | Second month of Bunsei 8 (1825)[5](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/shigaku/113/12/113_KJ00003653218/_pdf/-char/ja) • [6](https://www.library-archives.pref.fukui.lg.jp/bunsho/file/617839.pdf) |\n| Core provision | Fire on and drive off every foreign ship approaching the Japanese coast, without asking its purpose; Dutch and Ryukyuan vessels authorized to trade with Japan were excepted, and officials would not be punished for firing on them by mistake[2](https://archives.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3-3-6-010.pdf) • [7](http://hdl.handle.net/10228/0002002140) • [15](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/kuroshio-frontier/harbingers-of-empire/F25E91A9F0DEA5C5A2FC8DD23DC4A753) |\n| Alternate names | Muninen Uchiharai-rei; Bunsei Uchiharai-rei[2](https://archives.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3-3-6-010.pdf) • [3](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%84%A1%E4%BA%8C%E5%BF%B5%E6%89%93%E6%89%95%E4%BB%A4-642105) |\n| Direct triggers | Two British whaling-ship incidents of the previous year[1](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%95%B0%E5%9B%BD%E8%88%B9%E6%89%93%E6%89%95%E4%BB%A4-30343) • [5](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/shigaku/113/12/113_KJ00003653218/_pdf/-char/ja) |\n| Repealed | Tenpō 13 (1842), seventh month, replaced by the Tenpō fuel-and-water supply order[4](https://japanusencounters.net/ssl/sub_tenpouhumanity.html) • [8](https://www.ndl.go.jp/nichiran/e/s1/s1_4.html) |\n\n## Origin: issuer, date, and triggers\n\nThe edict was issued by the Edo bakufu in the second month of Bunsei 8 (1825).[5](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/shigaku/113/12/113_KJ00003653218/_pdf/-char/ja) • [6](https://www.library-archives.pref.fukui.lg.jp/bunsho/file/617839.pdf) It marked a shift to hard-line measures after a series of encounters from the beginning of the nineteenth century: Russian depredations, the unauthorized entry of the British ship Phaeton into Nagasaki harbor, and repeated arrivals of foreign ships that burdened the coastal domains with guard and reception duties.[1](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%95%B0%E5%9B%BD%E8%88%B9%E6%89%93%E6%89%95%E4%BB%A4-30343) • [2](https://archives.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3-3-6-010.pdf)\n\nThe immediate triggers were two incidents involving British whaling ships in the previous year, 1824 (Bunsei 7): the landing of twelve whalers at Ōtsuhama in Hitachi Province, all of whom were arrested by the Mito clan, and a plundering incident at Takarajima in Satsuma domain territory in which one British sailor was killed.[5](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/shigaku/113/12/113_KJ00003653218/_pdf/-char/ja) • [7](http://hdl.handle.net/10228/0002002140)\n\n## Contents and provisions\n\nThe edict ordered that when a foreign vessel was sighted near the coast, local men should be mobilized and drive it away without hesitation, and it applied to all foreign ships regardless of nationality; although Dutch and Ryukyuan ships authorized to trade with Japan were exceptions, officials were not to be punished if they fired on them by mistake.[7](http://hdl.handle.net/10228/0002002140) • [2](https://archives.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3-3-6-010.pdf) • [15](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/kuroshio-frontier/harbingers-of-empire/F25E91A9F0DEA5C5A2FC8DD23DC4A753) Under the same law, local authorities were to arrest or kill any foreigner who landed in Japan without permission.[9](https://papers.iafor.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/iicehawaii2017/IICEHawaii2017_34270.pdf) • [12](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/9/5/164)\n\nOne scholar of the expulsion movement describes the measure as a complete reversion to the Kan'ei sakoku rei, the original seclusion policy of the seventeenth century, extending expulsion from Russian ships to all foreign ships.[7](http://hdl.handle.net/10228/0002002140) The same study argues that the shogunate's main aim was to implant fear of, and hostility toward, foreign ships in the general population, which is why the order was not limited to British ships.[7](http://hdl.handle.net/10228/0002002140)\n\n## Implementation\n\nBecause the edict required foreign ships to be fired upon, the coastal domains began building batteries and acquiring cannon; gun emplacements were set up at Odaiba in Edo Bay, Uraga, Nakaminato, Tahara, Maiko, Dan-no-ura, Uwajima, and [Kagoshima](https://www.edgepedia.org/kagoshima), with Dutch books on coastal gunnery used as references.[10](https://www.ndl.go.jp/nichiran/s2/s2_5.html)\n\n## Political influence and repeal\n\nThe edict produced its most consequential test in 1837 (Tenpō 8), when the unarmed American merchant ship Morrison, carrying seven rescued Japanese castaways including Otokichi and seeking trade, approached Uraga and was shelled, shelled again off Satsuma, and forced back to Macao.[2](https://archives.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3-3-6-010.pdf) • [4](https://japanusencounters.net/ssl/sub_tenpouhumanity.html) [Criticism](https://www.edgepedia.org/criticism) of the shooting grew, and the affair later helped provoke the [Bansha no goku](https://www.edgepedia.org/bansha-no-goku), the persecution of scholars of Western learning.[2](https://archives.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3-3-6-010.pdf)\n\nThe edict was formally reversed in the seventh month of Tenpō 13 (1842), when the bakufu restored the milder Bunka 3 (1806) policy of supplying food, fuel, and water to foreign ships in need.[4](https://japanusencounters.net/ssl/sub_tenpouhumanity.html) • [3](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%84%A1%E4%BA%8C%E5%BF%B5%E6%89%93%E6%89%95%E4%BB%A4-642105)\n\nThe background to the reversal was the Opium War, which began in Tenpō 11 (1840) and formally ended with the Treaty of Nanjing, signed on August 29, 1842; the shogunate, having taken the measure of British power, relaxed the order to allow foreign ships that ran aground to be supplied with food and water before being sent away.[14](https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Nanjing) • [4](https://japanusencounters.net/ssl/sub_tenpouhumanity.html) • [2](https://archives.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3-3-6-010.pdf) • [8](https://www.ndl.go.jp/nichiran/e/s1/s1_4.html) The same shock led the bakufu to strengthen coastal defense and reexamine its attitude toward Western learning; elder Takashima Shuhan urged the introduction of Western cannon technology.[8](https://www.ndl.go.jp/nichiran/e/s1/s1_4.html) • [9](https://papers.iafor.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/iicehawaii2017/IICEHawaii2017_34270.pdf) \n\n## Reception and assessment\n\nThe edict is associated with the Mito school ([Mitogaku](https://www.edgepedia.org/mitogaku)) scholars Fujita Yūkoku (1774–1826) and [Aizawa Seishisai](https://www.edgepedia.org/aizawa-seishisai) (1781–1863), and its principle is summarized in the phrase *ninennaku uchiharai*, fire on and repel without hesitation.[11](https://www1.udel.edu/History-old/figal/Hist370/text/lo07.pdf) • [12](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/9/5/164) By the time of Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival in 1853, the association of the jō'i (expel the barbarians) cause with the violent expulsion of Westerners was already familiar to the warrior class.[12](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/9/5/164) A study of the bakumatsu expulsion movement treats the 1825 edict as the point at which expulsion policy, previously directed at Russian ships, was broadened to cover all foreign vessels apart from authorized Dutch and Ryukyuan traders, with mistaken firing on even these exempt ships going unpunished, and as anchored again in the original seclusion law.[7](http://hdl.handle.net/10228/0002002140) • [15](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/kuroshio-frontier/harbingers-of-empire/F25E91A9F0DEA5C5A2FC8DD23DC4A753) A KAKENHI research project on the repelling of foreign ships from the Kansei to the Tenpō period examines such orders as acting on two problems at once, the authority of the shogunate and the formation of Japan's national territory.[13](https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/ja/file/KAKENHI-PROJECT-16K03043/16K03043seika.pdf)\n\n## References\n\n1. 異国船打払令 (Kotobank, Nihon Daihyakka Zensho / Daijirin entry): https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%95%B0%E5%9B%BD%E8%88%B9%E6%89%93%E6%89%95%E4%BB%A4-30343\n2. 異国船打払令 (Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives, document reproduction with transcription): https://archives.pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3-3-6-010.pdf\n3. 無二念打払令 (Kotobank encyclopedia entry): https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%84%A1%E4%BA%8C%E5%BF%B5%E6%89%93%E6%89%95%E4%BB%A4-642105\n4. 天保の薪水給与令, Japan-US Encounters (text of the 1842 decree from the Tokugawa Kinreikō): https://japanusencounters.net/ssl/sub_tenpouhumanity.html\n5. 異国船打払令と海外情勢認識, 史学 (Shigaku) 113-12: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/shigaku/113/12/113_KJ00003653218/_pdf/-char/ja\n6. 海辺に出されたお触れ②（異国船発見時の対応）, Fukui Prefectural Archives: https://www.library-archives.pref.fukui.lg.jp/bunsho/file/617839.pdf\n7. A History of Expulsionism (Jōi) in the Bakumatsu period, 1853–1868: http://hdl.handle.net/10228/0002002140\n8. Part 1: Tracing the History 4. Opening of Japan and Japan-Netherlands Relations, National Diet Library: https://www.ndl.go.jp/nichiran/e/s1/s1_4.html\n9. IICEHawaii2017 conference paper on Japanese maritime defense edicts: https://papers.iafor.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/iicehawaii2017/IICEHawaii2017_34270.pdf\n10. 第2部 5. 幕末の西洋兵学受容, 江戸時代の日蘭交流, National Diet Library: https://www.ndl.go.jp/nichiran/s2/s2_5.html\n11. Lecture outline: Mitogaku and the Expulsion Edict of 1825, University of Delaware: https://www1.udel.edu/History-old/figal/Hist370/text/lo07.pdf\n12. Hostile Natives: Violence in the Histories of American and Japanese Nativism, Religions 9(5):164: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/9/5/164\n13. 16K03043 研究成果報告書, KAKENHI: https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/ja/file/KAKENHI-PROJECT-16K03043/16K03043seika.pdf\n14. Treaty of Nanjing (britannica.com). https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Nanjing\n15. Harbingers of Empire (Chapter 4) - The Kuroshio Frontier, https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/kuroshio-frontier/harbingers-of-empire/F25E91A9F0DEA5C5A2FC8DD23DC4A753\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › Japan › Edo Japan (1603 to 1853) › Rebellions, reforms, and foreign relations*\n\n*Initially written Sep 24, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edict-to-repel-foreign-vessels", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edict-to-repel-foreign-vessels.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/edict-to-repel-foreign-vessels. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels](https://www.edgepedia.org/edict-to-repel-foreign-vessels)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/edict-to-repel-foreign-vessels](https://www.edgepedia.org/edict-to-repel-foreign-vessels). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/edict-to-repel-foreign-vessels. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Edict to Repel Foreign Vessels was an 1825 Edo shogunate decree ordering that all foreign ships approaching Japan be fired upon and driven off." }