Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860)

The was dispatched in 1860 by the Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

(bakufu). Its objective was to ratify the new Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation

Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States-Japan)

The , also called Harris Treaty, between the United States and Japan was signed at the Ryōsen-ji in Shimoda on July 29, 1858. It opened the ports of Yokohama and four other Japanese cities to American trade and granted extraterritoriality to foreigners, among other stipulations.-The Treaty:The...

between the United States and Japan, in addition to being Japan’s first diplomatic mission to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

since the 1854 opening of Japan by Commodore Matthew Perry.

Another significant facet of the mission was the bakufu’s dispatch of a Japanese warship, the Kanrin Maru, to accompany the delegation across the Pacific and thereby demonstrate the degree to which Japan had mastered Western navigation techniques and ship technologies barely six years after ending its isolation policy

Sakoku

was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and remained in effect until...

of nearly 250 years.

Background

On January 19, 1860, the Kanrin Maru set sail from Uraga

Uraga

is a subdivision of the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is located on the south eastern side of the Miura Peninsula, at the northern end of the Uraga Channel, at the entrance of Tokyo Bay.-History:...

for San Francisco under the leadership of Captain Katsu Kaishū

Katsu Kaishu

was a Japanese statesman, naval engineer during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and early Meiji period. Kaishū was a nickname which he took from a piece of calligraphy by Sakuma Shōzan. He went through a series of given names throughout his life; his childhood name was and his real name was...

, John Manjiro

Nakahama Manjiro

, also known as John Manjirō , was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the Opening of Japan.-Voyage to America:...

, and Fukuzawa Yukichi

Fukuzawa Yukichi

was a Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and political theorist who founded Keio University. His ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji Era...

with 96 Japanese men and an American officer, John M. Brooke, on board. Fukuzawa had volunteered his services to Admiral Kimura Yoshitake (木村喜毅).

The Japanese embassy itself traveled aboard a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Powhatan, which the Kanrin Maru escorted. The Japanese embassy was formally composed of three men: Ambassador Shinmi Masaoki (新見正興), Vice-Ambassador Muragaki Norimasa (村垣範正), and Observer Oguri Tadamasa (小栗忠順).

San Francisco

The Kanrin Maru reached San Francisco directly, but the Powhatan (and the embassy) made a stopover in Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

first. When it arrived in San Francisco, the delegation stayed for a month, and Fukuzawa had himself photographed with an American girl, a photo that has since become one of the most famous in Japanese history. Fukuzawa also acquired an English–Chinese Webster’s Dictionary

Webster's Dictionary

Webster's Dictionary refers to the line of dictionaries first developed by Noah Webster in the early 19th century, and also to numerous unrelated dictionaries that added Webster's name just to share his prestige. The term is a genericized trademark in the U.S.A...

, from which he began to seriously study English and prepare his own English–Japanese dictionary.

Washington, D.C., New York, and return

When the Kanrin Maru returned to Japan, the Powhatan continued with the Embassy to Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

, where its members crossed the isthmus to the Atlantic via the recently opened Panama Railway

Panama Railway

The Panama Canal Railway Company is a railway line that links the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean across Panama in Central America. It is jointly owned by the Kansas City Southern Railway and Mi-Jack Products...

. Changing ships for the USS Roanoke

USS Roanoke (1855)

|- External links :**...

, the 72-man diplomatic then proceeded to Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

. Numerous receptions were held in its honor, including one at the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

, where the diplomats met President James Buchanan

James Buchanan

James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....

. Buchanan presented them with a gold watch engraved with his likeness as a gift to the Shōgun

Shogun

A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

.

The Japanese delegation traveled north to Philadelphia. Their attention to activities planned by local officials was distracted by the news of what became known as the "Sakuradamon incident"

Sakuradamon incident (1860)

The on 24 March 1860 was the assassination of Japanese Chief Minister Ii Naosuke , by rōnin samurai of the Mito Domain, outside the Sakuradamon gate of Edo Castle.-Context:...

in Tokyo. The Tairo

Tairo

Tairō was a high-ranking official position in the bakuhan taisei government of Japan. The tairō would preside over the governing Rōjū council in the event of an emergency. A tairō would be nominated from among a group of samurai families who supported Tokugawa Ieyasu...

Ii Naosuke

was daimyo of Hikone and also Tairō of Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan, a position he held from April 23, 1858 until his death on March 24, 1860. He is most famous for signing the Harris Treaty with the United States, granting access to ports for trade to American merchants and seamen and...

had been assassinated on March 24; and accounts of the event were sped by pony express

Pony Express

The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the High Sierra from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 3, 1860 to October 1861...

across the American continent. This murdered official had been the highest ranking signer Japanese-American 1858 "Harris Treaty", which was a follow-up to the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa.

The delegation continued on to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, where their procession up Broadway from the Battery was a grand parade.

From New York, they crossed the Atlantic

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

and Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

s, all on board the USS Niagara

USS Niagara (1855)

The second USS Niagara was a steam frigate in the United States Navy.Niagara was launched by New York Navy Yard on 23 February 1855; sponsored by Miss Annie C. O'Donnell; and commissioned on 6 April 1857, Captain William L...

, thus completing a circumnavigation. After leaving New York on June 30, the Niagara reached the harbor at Porto Grande

Porto Grande

For São Vicente's main port, see Porto Grande, Cape VerdePorto Grande meaning large port) is a municipality located in the southeast of the state of Amapá in Brazil. Its population is 14,675 and its area is 4,402 km²...

, Cape Verde Islands, on July 16. Other ports on the voyage back to Japan included São Paulo-de-Loande (now Luanda

Luanda

Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of at least 5 million...

), Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

; Batavia (now Djakarta), Java; and Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. The frigate finally sailed into Tokyo Bay

Tokyo Bay

is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...

on November 8 to disembark her passengers.

Significance

The Kanrin Maru’s voyage from Uraga to San Francisco is often cited as the first crossing of the Pacific

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

by an all-Japanese crew sailing a Japanese ship, although the crew was advised by John M. Brooke. However, the Kanrin Maru’s was not the first Pacific crossing by a Japanese ship and crew: at least three such journeys had been made in the 17th century, before Japan's period of isolation: those by Tanaka Shōsuke

Tanaka Shosuke

Tanaka Shōsuke was an important Japanese technician and trader in metals from Kyoto during the beginning of the 17th century.According to Japanese archives he was a representative of the great Osaka merchant Gotō Shōsaburō...

in 1610, Hasekura Tsunenaga

Hasekura Tsunenaga

Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga or was a Japanese samurai and retainer of Date Masamune, the daimyo of Sendai....

in 1614, and Yokozawa Shōgen

Yokozawa Shogen

' was a Japanese samurai of the 16th century, who served Date Masamune, ruler of the Sendai domain.In September 1616, under an order by Date Masamune, Yokozawa went to Mexico on the San Juan Bautista in order to fetch his compatriot Hasekura Rokuemon who was coming back from an embassy to...

in 1616.

Background

San Francisco

Washington, D.C., New York, and return

Significance

See also