A Comparative Study of Russian and Japanese Primary Sources on Antipin and Shabalin’s Expedition to Hokkaidō in 1778–1779

• In Event: The Mist-Covered Borderland – Early Modern Ainu-Japanese-Russian Relations in Ezo

Abstract

The expedition to the Kuril Islands and Hokkaidō led by Ivan Antipin and Dmitriĭ Shabalin, which was sponsored by the Siberian merchant Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin, visited Hokkaidō twice (in 1778 and 1779), and holds an important place in the history of Russian attempts to open up trade relations with Japan in late 18th and early 19th centuries. This expedition was originally assigned the task of exploring the possibility of establishing trade relations with Japan. According to Russian sources, it ended up collecting i͡asak (fur tribute) from 1500 Ainu from the southern Kuril Islands, thus turning them, from the Russian point of view, into subjects of the Tsar, and even initiated unofficial, indirect trade relations with Japanese merchants via the Ainu. However, the circumstances around the sending and conduct of this expedition were frequently disregarded by researchers of early Russia-Japan relations. Most unfortunate is the fact that Japanese sources about this expedition have generally still not been analyzed by scholars.

In comparing the published Russian sources with some unpublished Japanese sources, this presentation discovers a range of significant discrepancies, mostly related to the dates of the visits and the names of main negotiators. It is likely that the members of Russian expeditions on Hokkaidō in 1778 dealt with not Matsumae domain officials, as previously thought, but with representatives of trading houses active on the island. Both Russian and Japanese sources also provide an opportunity to reconsider the role of Ainu in preparing for and conducting the negotiations as well.

Author

• Vasilii V Shchepkin, Russian Academy of Sciences