Imagine living in a "closed country." Japan was such for over two centuries, from the anti-Christian hysteria of the 1630s to the incursion in the 1850s of the American "Black Ships."
Imagine living in a doorless, windowless, airless room. You know there's life beyond the walls — you keep hearing voices, though you can't make out the words. You're stifling, you feel your mind atrophying. It craves nourishment, but Confucian thought no longer nourishes, and anything else is criminal.
One fall day in 1838 an informal club called the Shoshikai held a meeting. The club's name can be translated as Old Men's Association. The members were young, restless. Youth and restlessness were subversive. The name was chosen to conceal, not reveal.
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