Japan's Closed Country Edict (1635)
Audience
The Closed Country Edict of 1635 was addressed to the Nagasaki commissioners Sakakibara Motonao (who held the title of Lord of Hida) and Sengoku Hisataka (Lord of Yamato). These two individuals were the highest-ranking officials in Nagasaki. The Tokugawa leadership had appointed them and placed them under the direction of the senior councillors in Edo, which was evidence of the importance of their role as commissioners. At the beginning of the Tokugawa Era, there had been just one commissioner, and he had carried out duties in Nagasaki only while foreign ships were in port. But in 1633 (the year that the first Closed Country Edict was issued), the shift was made to two commissioners, one of whom spent the year in Nagasaki and the other in Edo; the next year they would switch places, a practice that would be followed throughout the Tokugawa Era. Appointments to these posts were for just two years, though they were occasionally renewed.
For the commissioners Sakakibara...
