The development of France-Japan relations in the 19th century coincided with Japan's opening to the Western world, following two centuries of seclusion under the "Sakoku" system and France's expansionist policy in Asia. The two countries became very important partners from the second half of the 19th century in the military, economic, legal and artistic fields. The Bakufu modernized its army through the assistance of French military missions (Jules Brunet), and Japan later relied on France for several aspects of its modernization, particularly the development of a shipbuilding industry during the early years of the Imperial Japanese Navy (Emile Bertin), and the development of a Legal code. France also derived part of its modern artistic inspiration from Japanese art, essentially through Japonism and its influence on Impressionism, and almost completely relied on Japan for its prosperous silk industry
Context
Japan had had numerous contacts with the West during the Nanban trade period in the second half of the 16th and the early 17th century. During that period, the first contacts between the French and the Japanese occurred when the samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga landed in the southern French city of Saint-Tropez in 1615. François Caron, son of French Huguenot refugees to the Netherlands, who entered the Dutch East India Company, and became the first person of French origin to set foot in Japan in 1619. He stayed in Japan for 20 years, where he became a Director for the company.
This period of contact ended with the persecution of the Christian faith in Japan, leading to a near-total closure of the country to foreign interaction. In 1636, Guillaume Courtet, a French Dominican priest, penetrated into Japan clandestinely, against the 1613 interdiction of Christianity. He was caught, tortured, and died in Nagasaki on September 29, 1637.
Diffusion of French learning to Japan
During its period of self-imposed isolation (Sakoku), Japan acquired a tremendous amount of scientific knowledge from the West, through the process of Rangaku, in the 18th and especially the 19th century. Typically, Dutch traders in the Dejima quarter of Nagasaki would bring to the Japanese some of the latest books about Western sciences, which would be analysed and translated by the Japanese. It is widely thought that Japan had an early start towards industrialization through this medium. French scientific knowledge was transmitted to Japan through this medium.
The first flight of a hot air balloon by the brothers Montgolfier in France in 1783, was reported less than four years later by the Dutch in Dejima, and published in the 1787 Sayings of the Dutch. The new technology was demonstrated in 1805, almost twenty years later, when the Swiss Johann Caspar Horner and the Prussian Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, two scientists of the Krusenstern mission that also brought the Russian ambassador Nikolai Rezanov to Japan, made a hot air balloon out of Japanese paper (washi), and made a demonstration in front of about 30 Japanese delegates. Hot air balloons would mainly remain curiosities, becoming the object of numerous experiments and popular depictions, until the development of military usages during the early Meiji era.
Historical events, such as the life of Napoleon, were relayed by the Dutch and were published in contemporary Japanese books. Characteristically, some historical facts could be presented exactly (the imprisonment of Napoleon "in the African island of Saint Helena"), while others could be incorrect (such as the anachronistic depiction of the British guards wearing 16th century cuirasses and weapons.
In 1840, the Rangaku scholar Udagawa Yōan reported for the first time in details the findings and theories of Lavoisier in Japan. Accordingly, Udagawa also made numerous scientific experiments and created new scientific terms, which are still in current use in modern scientific Japanese, like , , , and .
The Rangaku scholar Takeda Ayasaburō built the fortresses of Goryokaku and Benten Daiba between 1854 and 1866, using Dutch books on military architecture describing the fortification of the French architect Vauban.
Education in the French language started in 1808 in Nagasaki, when the Dutch Hendrik Doeff started to teach French to Japanese interpreters. The need to learn French was identified when threatening letters were sent by the Russian government in this language.
First modern contacts (1844–1864)
First contacts with Okinawa (1844)