Hildreth's "Japan as It Was and Is": A Handbook of Old Japan, Volume 2 (of 2)

by Richard Hildreth

CHAPTER XLV

Foreign Relations—New Shōgun—Dutch Trade—Chinese Trade—American Embassy—Its Object—Letter to the Emperor—Perry’s first visit to the Bay of Yedo—Death of the Shōgun—Perry’s second visit to the Bay of Yedo—Negotiation of a Treaty—The Treaty as agreed to—Shimoda—Hakodate—Additional Regulations—Japanese Currency—Burrow’s visit to the Bay of Yedo—Third visit of the American Steamers—Russian and English Negotiations—Exchange of Ratifications—Earthquake.

We have seen in the last chapter how the whale fishery, on the one hand, and the opening of China to foreign trade, on the other, had more and more drawn attention to Japan; in the conduct of whose functionaries, however, no indication appeared of any disposition to abandon their ancient exclusive policy. It has even been asserted[112] that a new Shōgun [Iyeyoshi], who had succeeded in 1837 (after a fifty years’ reign on the part of his predecessor), had imposed new restrictions on foreign products, and, by special encouragement to home productions of similar kinds, had endeavored to supersede the necessity of receiving anything from abroad. It is certain that the Dutch trade rather diminished than increased. The amount of that trade, from 1825 to 1833, inclusive, is stated by Jancigny, from official returns, or those reputed to be such, at 289,150 florins ($115,620) for importations, and 702,675 florins ($281,078) for exportations. In 1846, the importations reached only 231,117 fr. ($92,446), and the exportations 552,319 fr. ($220,927); and those of the preceding year had been about the same. The private trade, and the attempts at smuggling connected with it, were very narrowly watched. Within the preceding ten years, one interpreter had been executed, and another had been driven to cut himself open, in consequence of complicity in smuggling. The private trade had been farmed out, for the benefit of those interested in it, at 30,000 fl. ($12,000) annually,—the amount at which Kämpfer had reckoned the profits from that source of the director alone. Among the Dutch imports upon government account, woollens, silks, velvets, cotton goods, gold, silver, tin, lead, mercury, and a few other articles are mentioned. Sugar, formerly a leading article, no longer appears on the list. The returns continued to be exclusively in camphor and copper, the latter furnished by the Japanese government at the old rates, much below the current price, by which advantage alone was the Dutch trade sustained. Among the private importations were spices, chemicals, and a great variety of Paris trinkets, for which various Japanese manufactures and products were taken in exchange.

The Chinese trade had declined not less than that of the Dutch. The ten junks a year, to which it was now restricted, all came from Sha-po (not far from Chusan), half of them in January and the other half in August—their cargoes, which include a great variety of articles, being partly furnished by private merchants who come over in them, but chiefly by a commercial company at Sha-po, for whom the captains of the junks act as supercargoes. Except as to some trifling articles, this trade seems, like that of the Dutch, to be pretty much in the hands of the government, who, or some privileged company under them, purchase the imports and furnish a return cargo to each junk, two fifths in copper and the remainder in other articles. The Chinese, however, still continued to be allowed much more liberty than the Dutch of personal intercourse with the inhabitants of Nagasaki.

The settlement of California, the new trade opened thence with China, and the idea of steam communication across the Pacific, for which the coal of Japan might be needed, combined with the extension of the whale fishery in the Northern Japanese seas to increase the desire in America for access to the ports of Japan. Shortly after the visit of the “Preble,” the American government resolved to send an envoy thither, backed by such a naval force as would ensure him a respectful hearing—the cases of Biddle and Glyn seeming to prove that the humoring policy could not be relied upon and that the only way to deal successfully with the Japanese was to show a resolution not to take no for an answer.

Accordingly, Mr. Webster, as Secretary of State, prepared a letter from the President to the Emperor of Japan; also a letter of instructions to the American naval commander in the China seas, to whom it was resolved to entrust the duty of envoy, and whose force was to be strengthened by additional ships. The sailing, however, of these ships was delayed till after Mr. Webster’s death; and in the mean time Commodore Matthew C. Perry was selected as the head of the expedition. A new letter,[113] dated November 5, 1852, addressed from the State Department to the Secretary of the Navy, thus defined its objects:

“1. To effect some permanent arrangement for the protection of American seamen and property wrecked on these islands, or driven into their ports by stress of weather.

“2. The permission to American vessels to enter one or more of their ports, in order to obtain supplies of provisions, water, fuel, &c.; or, in case of disasters, to refit so as to enable them to prosecute their voyage. It is very desirable to have permission to establish a dépôt for coal, if not on one of the principal islands, at least on some small, uninhabited one, of which it is said there are several in their vicinity.

“3. The permission to our vessels to enter one or more of their ports for the purpose of disposing of their cargoes by sale or barter.”

The mission was to be of a pacific character, as the President had no power to declare war; yet the show of force was evidently relied upon as more likely than anything else to weigh with the Japanese. The Dutch government, it was stated, had instructed their agents at Deshima to do all they could to promote the success of the expedition. Indeed, if we may believe Jancigny,[114] who speaks from information obtained during a residence at Batavia in 1844-45, the King of Holland had, as long ago as that time, addressed a letter to the Emperor of Japan, urging him to abandon the policy of exclusion. The letter of instructions disavowed any wish to obtain exclusive privileges; but, as a matter of policy, nothing was to be said about other nations.

A new letter to the Emperor of Japan was also prepared in the following terms:

“Millard Fillmore, President of the United States of America, to his Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan.

“Great and Good Friend:

“I send you this public letter by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, an officer of the highest rank in the navy of the United States, and commander of the squadron now visiting your imperial majesty’s dominions.

“I have directed Commodore Perry to assure your imperial majesty that I entertain the kindest feelings towards your majesty’s person and government, and that I have no other object in sending him to Japan but to propose to your imperial majesty that the United States and Japan should live in friendship and have commercial intercourse with each other.

“The constitution and laws of the United States forbid all interference with the religious or political concerns of other nations. I have particularly charged Commodore Perry to abstain from every act which could possibly disturb the tranquillity of your imperial majesty’s dominions.

“The United States of America reach from ocean to ocean, and our Territory of Oregon and State of California lie directly opposite to the dominions of your imperial majesty. Our steamships can go from California to Japan in eighteen days.

“Our great state of California produces about sixty millions of dollars in gold every year, besides silver, quicksilver, precious stones, and many other valuable articles. Japan is also a rich and fertile country, and produces many very valuable articles. Your imperial majesty’s subjects are skilled in many of the arts. I am desirous that our two countries should trade with each other, for the benefit both of Japan and the United States.

“We know that the ancient laws of your imperial majesty’s government do not allow of foreign trade except with the Chinese and the Dutch; but, as the state of the world changes, and new governments are formed, it seems to be wise, from time to time, to make new laws. There was a time when the ancient laws of your imperial majesty’s government were first made.

“About the same time America, which is sometimes called the New World, was first discovered and settled by the Europeans. For a long time there were but a few people, and they were poor. They have now become quite numerous; their commerce is very extensive; and they think that if your imperial majesty were so far to change the ancient laws as to allow a free trade between the two countries, it would be extremely beneficial to both.

“If your imperial majesty is not satisfied that it would be safe altogether to abrogate the ancient laws, which forbid foreign trade, they might be suspended for five or ten years, so as to try the experiment. If it does not prove as beneficial as was hoped, the ancient laws can be restored. The United States often limit their treaties with foreign states to a few years, and then renew them or not, as they please.

“I have directed Commodore Perry to mention another thing to your imperial majesty. Many of our ships pass every year from California to China; and great numbers of our people pursue the whale fishery near the shores of Japan. It sometimes happens, in stormy weather, that one of our ships is wrecked on your imperial majesty’s shores. In all such cases we ask, and expect, that our unfortunate people should be treated with kindness, and that their property should be protected, till we can send a vessel and bring them away. We are very much in earnest in this.

“Commodore Perry is also directed by me to represent to your imperial majesty that we understand there is a great abundance of coal and provisions in the empire of Japan. Our steamships, in crossing the great ocean, burn a great deal of coal, and it is not convenient to bring it all the way from America. We wish that our steamships and other vessels should be allowed to stop at Japan and supply themselves with coal, provisions, and water. They will pay for them in money, or anything else your imperial majesty’s subjects may prefer; and we request your imperial majesty to appoint a convenient port, in the southern part of the empire, where our vessels may stop for this purpose. We are very desirous of this.

“These are the only objects for which I have sent Commodore Perry, with a powerful squadron, to pay a visit to your imperial majesty’s renowned city of Yedo: friendship, commerce, a supply of coal and provisions, and protection for our shipwrecked people.

“We have directed Commodore Perry to beg your imperial majesty’s acceptance of a few presents. They are of no great value in themselves; but some of them may serve as specimens of the articles manufactured in the United States, and they are intended as tokens of our sincere and respectful friendship.

“May the Almighty have your imperial majesty in his great and holy keeping!

“In witness whereof, I have caused the great seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed, and have subscribed the same with my name, at the city of Washington, in America, the seat of my government, on the thirteenth day of the month of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.

Your good friend.
(Seal attached.)
“Millard Fillmore.
“By the President:
Edward Everett, Secretary of State.”[115]

Players at the Game of “Go”

Furnished with these orders, and this letter splendidly engrossed and enclosed in a gold box of the value of a thousand dollars, and provided also with a variety of presents, Commodore Perry, towards the end of 1852, sailed from the United States in the steam-frigate “Mississippi,” and, after touching at Madeira and the Cape of Good Hope, arrived at Hong Kong in April, 1853, whence he proceeded to Shanghai. The dispersion of the vessels of the squadron, delay in the arrival of others from the United States, difficulty in obtaining coal, and the claim of the American merchants in China, in consideration of existing civil commotions, to the protecting presence of a naval force, caused some delays. But, at length, after touching at Lew Chew [Riūkiū], and making a visit to the Bonin Islands,[116] Perry, with the steam-frigate “Susquehanna,” now the flag-ship, the “Mississippi,” and the sloops-of-war “Plymouth” and “Saratoga,” made Cape Izu about daybreak on the 8th of July. Many rumors had been current on the coast of China of extensive warlike preparations by the Japanese, aided by the Dutch, and the squadron was fully prepared for a hostile reception. Perry had made up his mind, instead of attempting to conciliate by yielding, to stand upon his dignity to the utmost, to allow no petty annoyances, and to demand as a right, instead of soliciting as a favor, the courtesies due from one civilized nation to another.

The promontory constituting the province of Izu appeared, as the vessels ran along it, to be a group of high mountains, their summits scarred with slides, and their sides mostly wooded, though here and there a cultivated spot could be seen. By noon the ships reached Cape Sagami, which separates the inner from the outer bay of Yedo. The shores of this point rose in abrupt bluffs two hundred feet high, with green dells running down to the waterside. Further off were groves and cultivated fields, and mountains in the distance.

Leaving behind some twelve or fifteen Japanese boats, which put off from Cape Sagami to intercept them, the vessels stood up through the narrowest part of the bay, not more than five to eight miles wide, but expanding afterwards to fifteen miles, having now also in sight the eastern shore, forming a part of the province of Awa.[117]

Within half an hour after passing Cape Sagami, they made another bold promontory from the west, forming a second entrance to the upper bay. In the bight formed by it lay the town of Uraga, visible from the ships, which, sounding their way, anchored within a mile and a half of the promontory,—a mile or more in advance of the anchorage ground of the “Columbus” and “Vincennes.”

As the ships dropped their anchors two or three guns or mortars were fired from the second promontory, and four or five boats put off. They were of unpainted wood, very sharp, their greatest breadth well towards the stern, and propelled with great rapidity by tall, athletic rowers, naked, save a cloth about the loins, who shouted lustily as they pulled. In the stem of each boat was a small flag, with three horizontal stripes, the middle one black, the others white, and about it were four or five well-dressed men with two swords in their girdles.

Some parley took place before anybody was admitted on board, that favor being refused except to the person highest in authority in the town. The conversation was carried on in Dutch, which the Japanese interpreter spoke very well; and, from what he said, it was evident that the vessels had been expected. After a long parley, in which the high rank of the commodore, and the necessity of his being met by persons of corresponding rank, were very much insisted upon, an officer, representing himself as second in command at the town in sight, was admitted on board. The commodore, however, declined to see him in person, and turned him over to Mr. Contee, the flag lieutenant, who, assisted by the two interpreters—one for Dutch, the other for Chinese[118]—had a long interview with him and his interpreter in the cabin. He was told that the object of the expedition was to deliver a letter from the President of the United States to the Emperor, and that some high officer must be sent on board to receive it; also, that the squadron would not submit to be watched and guarded, after the Japanese fashion, but that all the guard-boats must withdraw. The officer, as usual, was very inquisitive. He wanted to know whether the vessels came from Boston, New York, or Washington, how many men they had, etc., etc.; but these questions he was given to understand were regarded as impertinent.

Seeing the determination evinced, the Japanese officer, by name Nakashima Saburosuke, Yoriki of the governor of Uraga, returned on shore, taking back his official notifications in French, Dutch, and English, addressed to ships arriving on the coast (like those given p. 267), which the lieutenant refused to receive. He was followed by the boats, which, after that, kept at a respectful distance. He came back in about an hour to excuse his superior from receiving the letter addressed to the emperor. He spoke of Nagasaki as the proper place for foreign ships to touch at, and doubted if the letter would be answered; but all this was cut short by the assurance that if his superior did not send for the letter, the ships would proceed still higher up the bay to deliver it themselves; upon which information, much agitated, he stipulated for permission to return in the morning. As he departed, looking at the long gun in the cabin, he exclaimed, with an interrogative look, “Paixhan?” showing that the Japanese were not ignorant of the modern improvements in gunnery any more than of American geography.

It was noticed that, towards night, the boatmen put on their Japanese gowns, most of them blue, with white stripes on the sleeves, meeting angular-wise on the shoulders, and with a symbol or badge on the back. Others wore gowns of red and white stripes, with a black lozenge upon the back. A few had broad bamboo hats, like a shallow basin inverted; but most of them were bareheaded. The officers wore light and beautifully lackered hats, with a gilded symbol in front.

During the night watch-fires blazed along the coast, and bells were heard sounding the hours. The next morning (Saturday), Koyama Yezaimon, first in command at the town, came on board, and made another attempt to beg off from receiving the letter to the emperor. Finally, he proposed to send to Yedo for permission, and was allowed three days to do it in.

Meanwhile surveying parties from the ships ran up the bay a distance of four miles, finding everywhere from thirty to forty fathoms of water. They sounded round the bight within which the ships lay, keeping about a cable’s length from the shore, and finding five fathoms. Yezaimon represented that this survey was against the Japanese laws, but was told that, if forbidden by the laws of Japan it was commanded by the laws of America. On approaching the forts, of which there were five, two apparently of recent construction, the soldiers, armed with matchlocks, came out; but, as the boats drew near, they retired again. These forts were very feeble, mounting only fourteen guns in the whole, none larger than nine-pounders. Of soldiers, about four hundred were seen, many of them armed with spears. There was also, as usual, a great show of canvas screens; but, on the whole, the warlike means of the Japanese seemed contemptible. From the town to the end of the promontory, a distance of a mile and a half, was an unbroken line of villages. At least a hundred small craft lay in the harbor. The hills behind, some five hundred feet high, were dotted with pines and other trees. In the morning and evening, when the air was clear, Mount Fuji might be seen in the west, sixty miles distant. The presence of the American ships did not seem to disturb the coasting trade. Sixty or seventy large junks, besides hundreds of boats and fishing-smacks, daily passed up and down the bay, to and from Yedo.

On Monday, the 11th, the same surveying party proceeded up the bay some ten miles, followed by the “Mississippi.” They were constantly met by government boats, the officers on board which urged them by signs to return, but of which they took no notice. Deep soundings were everywhere obtained, with a bottom of soft mud. A deep bay was found on the western shore, with good and safe anchoring ground.

In the evening Yezaimon returned on board, well pleased, apparently, to be able to give information of the probability of good news from Yedo, but rather troubled at the explorations by the boats. The flag lieutenant, with whom he had his interviews, describes him as “a gentleman, clever, polished, well-informed, a fine, large man, about thirty-four, of most excellent countenance, taking his wine freely, and a boon companion.”

The next day (the 12th) he brought information that the emperor would send down a high officer to receive the letter. No answer would be given immediately, but one would be forwarded through the Dutch or Chinese. This latter proposition the commodore treated as an insult. As, however, if he waited for an answer, excuses might easily be found for protracting his stay in an inconvenient manner, and at last wearying him out, he agreed to allow time for its preparation, and to return to receive it. The following Thursday (the 14th) was appointed for the interview with the commissioners appointed to receive the letter, which was to take place two miles south of the town, at a picturesque spot, on the left side of a narrow valley, extending inland from the head of the bight. Its retired situation, and the facility it afforded for the display of a military force, were probably the motives of its selection.

At the hour appointed for the meeting, as the two steamers approached the spot, long lines of canvas walls were seen stretching, crescent-wise, quite round the head of the bight, and in front files of soldiers with a multitude of brilliant banners. Near the centre of the crescent were nine tall standards, with broad scarlet pennons, in the rear of which could be seen the roof of the house prepared for the interview. On the right, a line of fifty or sixty boats was drawn up, parallel to the beach, each with a red flag at its stern.

The foremost files of the Japanese soldiers stood about a hundred yards from the beach, in somewhat loose and straggling order. The greater part were behind the canvas screens. There were a number of horses to be seen, and in the background a body of cavalry. The Japanese stated the number of troops at five thousand. On the slope of the hill, near the village, was collected a crowd of spectators, of whom many were women.

The “No” Dance

Chrysanthemum Figures
Theatrical Representations

As soon as the steamers dropped their anchors, they were approached by two boats, containing their former visitors, the first and second officers of the town, with the interpreters, very richly dressed in silk brocade, bordered with velvet, and having on their garments of ceremony. The steamers lay with their broadsides to the shore, ready for action in case of treachery. Fifteen launches and cutters were got ready, from which three hundred and twenty persons, officers, seamen, marines, and musicians, were landed on an extemporaneous jetty which the Japanese had formed of bags of sand. Last of all the commodore landed with due formality, when the whole body, preceded by the Japanese officers and interpreters, marched to the house of reception, carrying with them the president’s letter, the box which held it wrapped in scarlet cloth, as was also that containing the letter of credence. In front of the houses prepared for the interview were two old brass four-pounders, apparently Spanish, and on each side a company of soldiers, those on one side armed with matchlocks, those on the other with old Tower muskets, with flint locks and bayonets. The reception building was a temporary structure, evidently put up for the occasion. The first apartment, about forty feet square, was of canvas. The floor was covered with white cotton cloth, with a pathway of red felt leading across to a raised inner apartment, wholly carpeted with the same red felt. This apartment, of which the front was entirely open, was hung with fine cloth, stamped with the imperial symbols in white on a ground of violet. On the right was a row of arm-chairs for the commodore and his staff. On the opposite side sat the two commissioners appointed to receive the letters, and who were announced by the interpreters as the princes of Izu and Iwami [Toda Izu-no-kami, and Ido Iwami-no-kami, Bugiōs of Uraga]. The former was a man about fifty, with a very pleasing and intelligent face. The latter was older by fifteen years or so, wrinkled with age, and of looks much less prepossessing. Both were splendidly dressed, in heavy robes of silk tissue, elaborately ornamented with threads of gold and silver. As the commodore entered, both rose and bowed gravely, but immediately resumed their seats and remained silent and passive as statues.

At the end of the room was a large scarlet-lackered box, standing on gilded feet, beside which Yezaimon and one of the interpreters knelt, at the same time signifying that all things were ready for the reception of the letters. They were brought in, and the boxes containing them being opened so as to display the writing and the golden seals, they were placed upon the scarlet box, and along with them translations in Dutch and Chinese, as well as an English transcript. The prince of Iwami then handed to the interpreters, who gave it to the commodore, an official receipt in Japanese, to which the interpreter added a Dutch translation, which translated literally into English was as follows:

“The letter of the President of the United States of North America, and copy, are hereby received and delivered to the emperor. Many times it has been communicated that business relating to foreign countries cannot be transacted here in Uraga, but in Nagasaki. Now, it has been observed that the admiral, in his quality of ambassador of the president, would be insulted by it; the justice of this has been acknowledged; consequently the above-mentioned letter is hereby received, in opposition to the Japanese law.

“Because the place is not designed to treat of anything from foreigners, so neither can conference nor entertainment take place. The letter being received, you will leave here.”

The commodore remarked, when this receipt was delivered to him, that he should return again, probably in April or May, for an answer. “With all the ships?” asked the interpreter. “Yes, and probably with more,” was the reply. Nothing more was said on either side. As the commodore departed, the commissioners rose and remained standing, and so the interview ended, without a single word uttered on their part.

The Japanese officers of the town, with the Japanese interpreters, accompanied the American party back to the “Susquehanna,” whose machinery they examined with much interest. When off the town, they were set ashore; but the steamers, to show how lightly the injunction to leave was regarded, proceeded up the bay, and anchored a short distance above the point reached by the “Mississippi.” In spite of the solicitude of the Japanese officers, who came again on board, the whole bight between the promontory of Uraga and another north of it was carefully surveyed. At the head a river was found. The shores were studded with villages, whose inhabitants offered to the surveying party cold water, and peaches from their gardens. To the place where the steamers lay the name was given of “American anchorage.”

The next day (Friday, the 15th) the “Mississippi” proceeded on an excursion ten miles further up, and reached, as was supposed, within eight or ten miles of the capital. On the western shore were seen two large towns. On the extremity of a cape in front, some four miles distant, stood a tall white tower, like a lighthouse. Three or four miles beyond was a crowd of shipping, supposed to be the anchorage of Shinagawa, the southern suburb of Yedo. At the point where the steamer put about, she had twenty fathoms of water. On Saturday, the 16th, the vessels moved to a new anchorage, five or six miles down the bay, and much nearer the shore, and here the surveying operations were renewed. The same day an interchange of presents took place with Yezaimon, who, however, was induced to accept those offered to him only by the positive refusal of his own, except on that condition. Thus pressed, he finally took them, except some arms—articles, he said, which the Japanese neither gave nor received. In the afternoon he came again, in excellent humor, his conduct probably having been approved on shore, bringing a quantity of fowls, in light wicker coops, and three or four thousand eggs, in boxes, for which a box of garden-seeds was accepted in return.

The next day, 17th, and the tenth since their arrival, the vessels weighed and stood for Lew Chew, the bay being covered with boats, to witness their departure.[119]

Commodore Perry spent the remainder of the year on the coast of China, keeping one vessel, however, at Lew Chew, and prosecuting the survey of the Bonin Islands. Shortly after his visit, the Shōgun died, and an attempt was made to take advantage of that circumstance to delay or prevent the return of the American ships. A communication, forwarded to Batavia by the Dutch ship that left Nagasaki in November, and communicated by the Dutch governor-general at Batavia to the commodore, represented that the necessary mourning for the deceased sovereign, and other arrangements consequent on his death, as well as the necessity of consulting all the princes, must necessarily delay the answer to the president’s letter, and suggested the danger of confusion, or “broil,” should the squadron come back at so unseasonable a moment.

Undeterred, however, by this representation, on the 12th of February, 1854, Commodore Perry reappeared in the bay of Yedo, with three steam frigates, four sloops-of-war, and two store-ships, and the steamers taking the sailing vessels in tow, they all moved up to the American anchorage.

About two weeks were spent here in fixing upon a place to negotiate, the Japanese importuning the commodore to go back to Kamakura, twenty miles below Uraga, or, at least, to the latter place, while he insisted upon going to Yedo. As he declined to yield, and caused the channel to be sounded out within four miles of Yedo, they proposed, as the place of meeting, the village of Yokohama,[120] containing about ten thousand people, and situated on the shore, just opposite the anchorage of the ships. To this the commodore agreed, and the ships drew in and moored in line, with broadsides bearing upon the shore, and covering an extent of five miles.

“On the 8th of March,” says a letter dated on board the “Vandalia,” and published in the New York “Journal of Commerce,” “the day appointed for the first meeting, about nine hundred officers, seamen, and marines, armed to the teeth, landed, and, with drums beating and colors flying, were drawn up on the beach, ready to receive the commodore. As soon as he stepped on shore the bands struck up, salutes were fired, the marines presented arms, and, followed by a long escort of officers, he marched up between the lines and entered the house erected by the Japanese expressly for the occasion. Thousands of Japanese soldiers crowded the shore and the neighboring elevations, looking on with a good deal of curiosity and interest. The house was nothing but a plain frame building, hastily put up, containing one large room—the audience hall—and several smaller, for the convenience of attendants, etc. The floor was covered with mats, and very pretty painted screens adorned the sides. Long tables and benches, covered with red woollen stuff, placed parallel to each other, three handsome braziers, filled with burning charcoal, on the floor between them, and a few violet-colored crape hangings suspended from the ceiling, completed the furniture of the room. As we entered, we took our seats at one of the tables. The Japanese commissioners soon came in, and placed themselves opposite to us, at the other table; while behind us both, seated on the floor on their knees[121] (their usual position, for they do not use chairs), was a crowd of Japanese officers, forming the train of the commissioners.

“The business was carried on in the Dutch language, through interpreters, of whom they have several who speak very well, and two or three who speak a little English. They were on their knees, between the commissioners and the commodore. Our interpreter was seated by the side of the latter. It was curious to see the intolerable ceremony observed by them, quite humiliating to a democratic republican. A question proposed had to pass first through the interpreters, and then through several officers ascending in rank, before it could reach the commissioners, every one bowing his forehead to the floor before he addressed his superior. Refreshments were served in elegantly lackered dishes; first of all, tea, which, as in China, is the constant beverage; then different kinds of candy and sponge cake (they are excellent confectioners, and very fond of sugar); lastly, oranges and a palatable liquor distilled from rice, called sake. A flimsy banquet like this was not very agreeable to such hungry individuals as we, and we were the more disappointed, for, the Japanese using only chopsticks, we had, previously to coming ashore, taken the precaution, as we shrewdly thought, to provide ourselves with knives and forks. Imagine, then, our chagrin when finding nothing substantial upon which to employ them. What was left on our plates was wrapped in paper, and given to us to carry away, according to the usual custom in Japan.

“The commissioners were intelligent-looking men, richly dressed in gay silk petticoat pantaloons, and upper garments resembling in shape ladies’ short gowns. Dark-colored stockings, and two elegant swords pushed through a twisted silk girdle, finished the costume. Straw sandals are worn, but are always slipped off upon entering a house. They do not cover the head, the top and front part of which is shaved, and the back and side hair, being brought up, is tied so as to form a tail, three or four inches long, that extends forward upon the bald pate, terminating about half way between the apex and the forehead. It is a very comfortable fashion, and, were it not for the quantity of grease used in dressing it, would be a very cleanly one.

“Two audiences a week were held, at which the same programme was performed as related above, except that we fared more luxuriously.[122] Becoming better acquainted with our taste, they feasted us with a broth made of fish, boiled shrimps, hard-boiled eggs, and very good raw oysters. At one of the interviews (March 13), the presents from our government were delivered. They consisted of cloths, agricultural implements, fire-arms, etc., and a beautiful locomotive, tender, and passenger-car, one-fourth the ordinary size, which we put in motion on a circular track, at the rate of twenty miles an hour. A mile of magnetic telegraph was also erected on shore, and put in operation. The Japanese were more interested in it than anything else, but never manifested any wonder. So capable are they of concealing and controlling their feelings, that they would examine the guns, machinery, etc., of the steamers, without expressing the slightest astonishment. They are a much finer-looking race than the Chinese—intelligent, polite, and hospitable, but proud, licentious, unforgiving, and revengeful.”

The death of a marine afforded an opportunity, at the first meeting with the commissioners, of demanding a burying-place. It was proposed to send the body to Nagasaki; but, as the commodore would not listen to that, a spot was assigned near one of their temples, and in view of the ships, where the body was buried, with all the forms of the English church service, after which the Japanese surrounded the grave with a neat enclosure of bamboo.

A formal letter of reply to the propositions contained in the letters delivered at the former visit, repeated the story of a change of succession, and the necessity of delays. The justice, however, of the demands in relation to shipwrecked seamen, wood, water, provisions, and coal, was conceded; but five years were asked before opening a new harbor, the Americans, in the mean time, to resort to Nagasaki.

Japanese Wrestlers

Of Nagasaki, however, the commodore would not hear, nor of any restrictions like those imposed on the Dutch and Chinese at that port. He demanded three harbors, one in Nippon, one in Yezo, and a third in Lew Chew. As to the two last, the Japanese pleaded that they were very distant countries, and only partially subject to the emperor, especially the last, upon which the commodore did not insist. In Nippon he asked for Uraga, and for Matsumae in Yezo, but acceded to the Japanese offer of Shimoda and Hakodate, having first sent a ship to examine the former.

The commissioners were exceedingly tenacious, even upon points of phraseology, but gave evidence of acting in entire good faith, and the commodore conceded everything which did not seem absolutely essential. The extent of the liberty to be allowed to American visitors was one of the greatest difficulties.

Shortly before the treaty was concluded, the commodore gave an entertainment on board the “Powhatan” to the Japanese officials, about seventy in all. In conformity to their customs, two tables were spread, one in the cabin for the commissioners and the captains of the fleet, another on deck for the inferior officers. “They did full justice,” says the letter-writer already quoted, “to American cookery, and were exceedingly fond of champagne, under the influence of which they became so very merry and familiar that one of them vigorously embraced the commodore, who, until his epaulets began to suffer in the struggle, was very good-naturedly disposed to endure it.”

Three copies of the treaty, in Japanese, signed by the commissioners, were delivered to the commodore, for which he exchanged three copies in English, signed by himself, with Dutch and Chinese translations. This method was adopted to satisfy the commissioners, who alleged that no Japanese could lawfully put his name to any document written in a foreign language. The TREATY was as follows:

“The United States of America and the Empire of Japan, desiring to establish, firm, lasting, and sincere friendship between the two nations, have resolved to fix, in a manner clear and positive, by means of a treaty or general convention of peace and amity, the rules which shall in future be mutually observed in the intercourse of their respective countries; for which most desirable object, the President of the United States has conferred full powers on his commissioner, Matthew Calbraith Perry, special Ambassador of the United States to Japan; and the august Sovereign of Japan has given similar full powers to his commissioners, Hayashi-Daigaku-no-kami, Ido, prince of Tsushima, Izawa, prince of Mimasaki, and Udono Mimbushōyu, member of the Board of Revenue.

“And the said commissioners, after having exchanged their said full powers, and duly considered the premises, have agreed to the following articles:

“Article I.—There shall be a perfect, permanent, and universal peace, and a sincere and cordial amity, between the United States of America on the one part, and between their people, respectfully (respectively), without exception of persons or places.

“Article II.—The port of Shimoda, in the principality of Izu, and the port of Hakodate, in the principality of Matsumae, are granted by the Japanese as ports for the reception of American ships, where they can be supplied with wood, water, provisions, and coal, and other articles their necessities may require, as far as Japanese have them. The time for opening the first-named port is immediately on signing this treaty; the last-named port is to be opened immediately after the same day in the ensuing Japanese year.

“Note.—A tariff of prices shall be given by the Japanese officers of the things which they can furnish, payment for which shall be made in gold and silver coin.

“Article III.—Whenever ships of the United States are thrown or wrecked on the coast of Japan, the Japanese vessels will assist them, and carry their crews to Shimoda or Hakodate, and hand them over to their countrymen appointed to receive them. Whatever articles the shipwrecked men may have preserved shall likewise be restored; and the expenses incurred in the rescue and support of Americans and Japanese who may thus be thrown upon the shores of either nation are not to be refunded.

“Article IV.—Those shipwrecked persons, and other citizens of the United States, shall be free as in other countries, and not subjected to confinement, but shall be amenable to just laws.

“Article V.—Shipwrecked men, and other citizens of the United States, temporarily living at Shimoda and Hakodate, shall not be subject to such restrictions and confinement as the Dutch and Chinese are at Nagasaki; but shall be free at Shimoda to go where they please within the limits of seven Japanese miles (or ri) from a small island in the harbor of Shimoda, marked on the accompanying chart, hereto appended; and shall, in like manner, be free to go where they please at Hakodate, within limits to be defined after the visit of the United States squadron to that place.

“Article VI.—If there be any other sort of goods wanted, or any business which shall require to be arranged, there shall be careful deliberation between the parties in order to settle such matters.

“Article VII.—It is agreed that ships of the United States resorting to the ports open to them, shall be permitted to exchange gold and silver coin, and articles of goods, for other articles of goods under such regulations as shall be temporarily established by the Japanese government for that purpose. It is stipulated, however, that the ships of the United States shall be permitted to carry away whatever articles they are unwilling to exchange.

“Article VIII.—Wood, water, provisions, coal, and goods required, shall only be procured through the agency of Japanese officers appointed for that purpose, and in no other manner.

“Article IX.—It is agreed, that if, at any future day, the government of Japanese shall grant to any other nation or nations privileges and advantages which are not herein granted to the United States and the citizens thereof, that these same privileges and advantages shall be granted likewise to the United States and to the citizens thereof without any consultation or delay.

“Article X.—Ships of the United States shall be permitted to resort to no other ports in Japan but Shimoda and Hakodate, unless in distress or forced by stress of weather.

“Article XI.—There shall be appointed by the government of the United States consuls or agents to reside in Shimoda, at any time after the expiration of eighteen months from the date of the signing of this treaty; provided that either of the two governments deem such arrangement necessary.

“Article XII.—The present convention, having been concluded, and duly signed shall be obligatory, and faithfully observed by the United States of America and Japan, and by the citizens and subjects of each respective power; and it is to be ratified and approved by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by the august Sovereign of Japan, and the ratification shall be exchanged within eighteen months from the date of the signature thereof, or sooner if practicable.

“In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries of the United States of America and the empire of Japan, aforesaid, have signed and sealed these presents.

“Done at Kanagawa[123] this thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, and of Kayei the seventh year, third month, and third day.”

The day after the signing of the treaty a number of presents were sent on board for the president, the commodore, and other officers of the squadron.

In agreeing to negotiate at Yokohama, Commodore Perry had stated his intention to carry the ships, at some future time, close up to Yedo, and to anchor them there, “as well to do honor to his imperial majesty by salutes as to be in full view of the palace, and convenient to be visited by such of the court as may desire to examine the steamers.” Accordingly, on the 8th of April, to the great distress of the Japanese officials, he got under way; but, as the Japanese interpreters threatened to cut themselves open if he proceeded, he presently turned about and took a lower anchorage down the bay. The published official letters of the commander say nothing of this movement; the letters from the fleet, published in the newspapers, do not agree as to how far up the commodore went. According to one letter, Yedo was full in sight.

On the 18th of April the fleet sailed for Shimoda, one of the ports granted in the treaty, of which a letter dated on board the “Powhatan,” and published in the New York “Tribune,” gives this account:

Shimoda is situated near Cape Fògu [?], sixty miles west from Point Sagami, at the entrance of the bay of Yedo. It is a good, commodious harbor, well sheltered by hills several hundred feet high, with a rock within the entrance which affords a still more protected anchorage. The town, of about one thousand houses, is situated at the northwestern end of the harbor, on the banks of a small stream flowing down through a fertile valley, which is often not more than half a mile wide, but sometimes widens to one and a half miles. Several little brooks offer good watering-places for the ships. The larger Japanese junks mostly anchor at Kakizaki, a village of about three hundred houses, on the northeastern end and opposite Shimoda. There are eight temples, some of which are very large, in the town, and little chapels (miya) on almost every eminence, and by the roadsides.

“The country is exceedingly picturesque, and resembles very much the lower ranges of the Alps. Along the little river of Shimoda are many villages, and numbers of rice-mills stamp and grind along its banks. About six miles above the bay this river separates into several branches. Following either of them, you pass through numerous gorges and glens, and finally reach the barren tops of mountains, some three thousand feet high. Their summits and the narrow tablelands are covered with bushy grass, among which a certain berry, upon which pheasants and partridges feed, grows very plentifully.

“In one of the larger temples a place has been arranged for the daguerreotype, and Mr. Brown is actively at work. He has obtained many very fine daguerreotypes of the Japanese, and will have a fine collection to show when he reaches home. Mr. Heine continues his sketching, drawing, painting, gunning, skinning, pressing, and preserving plants. Lieutenants Murray, Bent, Whiting, Nicholson, etc., etc., have been busily engaged in the survey, and deserve no small credit for their exertions and the important results they have obtained.”

Of this visit to Shimoda, the officer of the “Vandalia” already quoted thus speaks:

“Here we were permitted to go on shore and ramble about in a circuit for ten miles, much to our delight as we all felt the want of exercise. Excepting at Yokohama, where we were not allowed to go far from the audience house, we had not been on shore since we left Lew Chew. They watched us very closely at first, sending guards of soldiers to accompany us, shutting the shops, and concealing the women; but in a few days these restrictions were removed, and we were left undisturbed to wander where we pleased. The town, containing eight thousand people, is pleasantly situated in a well-cultivated valley, surrounded by high hills that conceal from view the entrance to its safe and picturesque harbor. The streets are wide and straight, and the better class of houses two stories high, plastered, and roofed with elegant tiles.[124] The interior is kept very clean and neat, and the rooms, covered with mats, are separated from each other by sliding screens, that are closed or removed at pleasure. There are no chimneys in Japan. A charcoal fire is built in a little sandpit in the middle of the floor, around which the family are usually found seated on their knees (qu. heels?), drinking tea and smoking their pipes. Not a chair or any other piece of furniture can be seen. Tubs of water are kept in front of each house, as well as on the roofs, in readiness against any fire, for conflagrations are so frequent and extensive that whole towns are sometimes burnt down.

“The temples, chiefly Buddhist, are beautifully situated in the suburbs. The entrance to them leads generally through rows of elegant trees and wild camellias. They are large, plain structures, with high, peaked roofs, resembling the houses pictured on Chinese porcelain. In the space immediately in front is a large bell for summoning the faithful, a stone reservoir of holy water, and several roughly hewn stone idols. The doorway is ornamented with curious-looking dragons and other animals, carved in wood. Upon entering, there is nothing special about the buildings worth noting, the naked sides and exposed rafters having a gloomy appearance. The altar is the only object that attracts attention. It so much resembles the Roman Catholic, that I need not describe it. Some of the idols on these altars are so similar to those I have seen in the churches in Italy, that if they were mutually translated I doubt whether either set of worshippers would discover the change. The priests count beads, shave their heads, and wear analogous robes, and the service is attended by the ringing of bells, the lighting of candles, and the burning of incense. In fact, except that the cross is nowhere to be seen, one could easily imagine himself within a Roman Catholic place of worship.

“I saw some very pretty girls here. They understand the art of applying rouge and pearl powder, as well as some of our ladies at home. The married women have a horrid and disgusting fashion of staining their teeth black.”

Commodore Perry

After remaining three weeks at Shimoda, which soon after was made an imperial city, the sailing-vessels departed for Hakodate, followed a few days after by the steamers. Of the island of Ōshima, near the entrance of the bay of Yedo, and close to which the “Powhatan” passed, the “Tribune” correspondent gives the following description:

“About noon we were within three miles of the island of Ōshima, and had a fine opportunity of observing the traces of volcanic action which it presents. The whole island is one immense volcano, the top of which has fallen in and formed a great basin, which incessantly belches forth white smoke and ashes. The edges of the crater are black, as if charred by fire, and on the southwestern side of the island a stream of lava reaches from the summit to the sea. Some large crevices continue still smoking, and others are filled with ashes. A bluff near the sea, about two hundred feet high, appears to be of recent formation, for the bushes and trees along the edges of the lava have a yellow, burnt appearance. The slopes of the mountain are covered with luxuriant vegetation; and there are two towns, one on a narrow table-land, and the other on the top of a steep cliff, near a suspicious-looking crater. There is said to be a third village on the northwestern side of the island.”[125]

Of Hakodate, in the island of Matsumae, already known to us by Golownin’s description, which the squadron visited in the month of May, the same letter affords the following account:

“Hakodate is another Gibraltar. It has the same long, low isthmus, ending in the same mighty rock, with another city sitting at its feet. The bay is seven or eight miles wide, with an entrance of two or three miles in width; it is deep enough for ships-of-the-line to approach within a mile of the shore, and its clayey bottom, free from rocks or shoals, affords excellent anchorage, while it is defended from the sea by a sand-bank, a prolongation of the isthmus. Behind the bay the land is quite level, but at the distance of six or eight miles it rises into a range of hills from one to three thousand feet high. These hills, still covered with snow, send down several streams to the bay, furnishing the best of water for ships. The plain is finely cultivated, and fishing villages line the shore. We took fish plentifully,—one day twenty buckets, with more than twenty fine salmon, some weighing fifteen pounds.

“The city has, I should guess, about four thousand houses, and perhaps five times as many inhabitants. The two main streets are parallel, and run along the foot of the mountain. Narrower streets run from the wharves up the mountain, crossing both the principal streets, one of which is about thirty feet higher than the other. The lower of these is almost as broad as Broadway, and infinitely cleaner. The houses on it are well built; most of them have two stories, with shops on the ground floor. The manner of building reminds one very strongly of Switzerland. A flat, projecting roof is covered with shingles, which are fastened by long poles, with stones laid upon them; broad galleries run quite around the upper story; before the door is a little wooden porch; this, too, with projecting gable, which, as well as the pillars that support it, are often adorned with rich carving. The temples, one of which is at least two hundred and fifty feet square, are profusely ornamented with carvings. Dragons, horses, bulls, and hares figure largely, but tortoises and cranes carry the day.”

From Hakodate, where the intercourse with the local officials was entirely satisfactory, the ships returned to Shimoda, where, according to an appointment previously made, the commodore met the four commissioners, and three new ones, with whom he proceeded to negotiate the following Additional Regulations:

“Article I.—The imperial governors of Shimoda will place watch-stations wherever they deem best, to designate the limits of their jurisdiction; but Americans are at liberty to go through them, unrestricted, within the limits of seven Japanese ri, or miles (equal to sixteen English miles); and those who are found transgressing Japanese laws may be apprehended by the police and taken on board their ships.

“Article II.—Three landing-places shall be constructed for the boats of merchant ships and whale ships resorting to this port; one at Shimoda, one at Kakizaki, and the third at the brook lying south-east of Centre Island. The citizens of the United States will, of course, treat the Japanese officers with proper respect.

“Article III.—Americans, when on shore, are not allowed access to military establishments, or private houses, without leave; but they can enter shops and visit temples as they please.

“Article IV.—Two temples, the Ryōsen-ji, at Shimoda, and the Gyokusen-ji at Kakizaki, are assigned as resting-places for persons in their walks, until public houses and inns are erected for their convenience.

“Article V.—Near the Temple Gyokusen, at Kakizaki, a burial-ground has been set apart for Americans, where their graves and tombs shall not be molested.

“Article VI.—It is stipulated in the treaty of Kanagawa, that coal will be furnished at Hakodate; but as it is very difficult for the Japanese to supply it at that port, Commodore Perry promises to mention this to his government, in order that the Japanese government may be relieved from the obligation of making that port a coal dépôt.

“Article VII.—It is agreed that henceforth the Chinese language shall not be employed in official communications between the two governments, except when there is no Dutch interpreter.

“Article VIII.—A harbor-master and three skilful pilots have been appointed for the port of Shimoda.

“Article IX.—Whenever goods are selected in the shops, they shall be marked with the name of the purchaser and the price agreed upon, and then be sent to the Goyōsho, or government office, where the money is to be paid to Japanese officers, and the articles delivered by them.

“Article X.—The shooting of birds and animals is generally forbidden in Japan, and this law is therefore to be observed by all Americans.

“Article XI.—It is hereby agreed that five Japanese ri, or miles, be the limit allowed to Americans at Hakodate, and the requirements contained in Article I. of these Regulations are hereby made also applicable to that port within that distance.

“Article XII.—His Majesty the Emperor of Japan is at liberty to appoint whoever he pleases to receive the ratification of the treaty of Kanagawa, and give an acknowledgment on his part.

“It is agreed that nothing herein contained shall in any way affect or modify the stipulations of the treaty of Kanagawa, should that be found to be contrary to these regulations.”

Another important matter, in which the Japanese seem entirely to have carried the day, was the settlement of the value of the American coins to be received in payment for goods and supplies—a subject referred to a commission composed of two United States pursers and nine Japanese.

The Japanese circulating medium was found to consist of old kas, round, with a square hole in the middle, like the Chinese cash, but thinner, and containing more iron; of four-kas pieces, in weight equal to less than two of the others, probably, Kämpfer’s double zeni; but principally of a new coin rated at one hundred kas,—apparently a substitute for the strings of kas mentioned by Kämpfer and others. These are oval-shaped pieces of copper, about the size and shape of a longitudinal section of an egg, introduced within a recent period, and weighing only as much as seven of the old kas (or, compared with our cents, a little less than two of them). This over-valuation has, of course, driven the old kas out of circulation, and made this depreciated coin the integer of the currency. At the same time, it has raised the nominal value of everything, as is evident in the case of silver and gold. Instead of one thousand kas to the tael of silver, the rate in former times, the government, which appears to have the monopoly of the mines, sells silver bullion for manufacturing use at two thousand two hundred and fifty kas for the tael,—a rate fixed probably under some less depreciated state of the currency. But when coined, a tael’s weight of silver is reckoned in currency at six thousand four hundred kas, that is, at six tael and four mas, or precisely the valuation, in Kämpfer’s time, of the gold koban; and as the ichibu of his day, that is, one fourth part, as the word signifies in Japanese, represented sixteen hundred kas in real weight of silver, so the ichibu of the present day, of which there is both a silver and a gold one, represents sixteen hundred kas of currency. The bullion price of gold in Japan is only eight and a half times that of silver instead of sixteen times, as with us; while in currency the difference in value is only about as one to three and a half, the price in silver, or copper hundred-kas pieces, of a tael’s weight of gold bullion being nineteen taels, and the same when coined passing as twenty-three taels, seven mas and five kanderin. Besides the gold ichibu, the Japanese are represented as having three other gold coins, thin, oval pieces, of the currency value respectively of one, ten, and twenty taels;[126] also a coin, made of gold and silver, worth half an ichibu, or eight hundred-kas pieces, and a small silver piece, worth a quarter of an ichibu, or four hundred-kas pieces.

The Japanese commissioners insisted that our coin was but bullion to them, the effect of which is to put our silver dollar, so far as payments in Japan are concerned, precisely on a level with their silver ichibu, which weighs only one third as much. Our gold coins, compared with their gold coins, stand better, the relative weight of our gold dollar and their gold ichibu being as 65.33 to 52.25; but as the copper hundred-kas piece is their standard, and as its value in relation to gold is rated so much higher than with us, our gold dollar, estimated in this way, becomes worth only eight hundred and thirty-six kas, or little more than eight and a third hundred-kas pieces, or not much more than half an ichibu; the effect of all which is to give the Japanese government, through whose hands all payments are made, a profit, after recoinage, of sixty-six per cent, upon all payments in American coin. As the Japanese commissioners would not depart from this scheme, the commission dissolved without coming to any agreement on this point. But the supplies furnished to the squadron were paid for at the rate insisted upon by the Japanese; nor can private traders, as matters stand, expect any better terms.

The rates of pilotage at Shimoda were fixed at fifteen dollars for vessels drawing over eighteen feet, five dollars for vessels drawing less than thirteen feet, and ten dollars for those of intermediate size; only half of these rates to be paid in case of anchorage in the outer harbor. Water was to be furnished at fourteen hundred kas the boat-load, the ship finding casks. Wood was to be delivered on board at seven thousand two hundred kas per cube of five American feet.

The price put by the Japanese upon a few tons of inferior coal, brought to Shimoda, amounted, at their rate of exchange, to twenty-eight dollars the ton. It did not appear that coal was anywhere else mined except at the spot visited by Kämpfer and Siebold near Kokura, and another mine in the province of Awa, in the island Shikoku.

The business thus completed, a parting entertainment was given on board the “Mississippi”; and, after an interchange of presents, the vessels on the 26th of June took their departure. Stopping at Lew Chew, Commodore Perry negotiated a compact with the authorities of that island, which, from all the information he could obtain, he concluded to be a nearly independent sovereignty.

Within fifteen days after Commodore Perry’s departure from Shimoda, the clipper ship “Lady Pierce,” from San Francisco, fitted out for the express purpose of being the first American ship to arrive in Japan after the opening of commercial relations, entered the bay of Yedo, with the owner, Silas E. Burrows, on board.

He had with him a Japanese seaman, the sole survivor of a crew of fifteen men, belonging to a junk which had been blown out to sea, and was picked up near the Sandwich Islands, after having drifted about for seven months. This man, who is represented as quite intelligent, and who had resided for some time at San Francisco, was received with lively demonstrations of pleasure by his countrymen.

The Reception of Commodore Perry by the Japanese Emperor

With a party of the Uraga officials on board, the “Lady Pierce” proceeded to within ten miles of Yedo, and her owners expressed a desire to anchor off that city; but this was objected to by the officers, who said, “It is not good; Commodore Perry did not go there, and we hope you will not.”

During the stay of the vessel, every part of her was crowded with visitors; and although at one time there must have been several thousands in and around the ship, and although everything, silverware included, was thrown open to their inspection, not a single article was stolen.

Large presents of silk, porcelain, lackered ware, etc., were made to Mr. Burrows, who, however, was informed that henceforward no foreign intercourse would be permitted with Yedo, but that all vessels must proceed either to Shimoda or Hakodate. Mr. Burrows himself proceeded to Shimoda, but does not seem to have formed a very high idea of the prospects of trade there.[127]

On the 18th of September, the steam-frigate “Susquehanna” again appeared at Shimoda, on her way home via the Sandwich Islands, followed on the 21st by the “Mississippi”; three days after which, the “Susquehanna” left, and the “Mississippi” on the 1st of October. The reception given to the officers of both ships was very cordial, and their intercourse both with officials and the towns-people was almost entirely free from any marks of that restraint and apparent suspicion exhibited on former occasions. Besides an interchange of visits and dinners, several Japanese officials attended, on a Sunday, divine service on board the “Susquehanna.”

“Many of us,” writes an officer of the “Mississippi,” “entered houses very frequently, and sat down with the people to smoke or drink tea. One day the sound of a guitar attracted me, and I found an olive girl, of some fifteen or sixteen years, who, not perceiving my presence, continued her play. It was a strange tune, wild and melancholy, and often abruptly interrupted by harsh accords. After a while some women that had assembled around us made the girl aware of my presence; she threw down her instrument and began to cry, and I could not induce her to play again. The guitar was made of wood, with the exception of the upper lid. Of the three strings, two were in the octave, the middle one giving the fifth. The strings were not touched by the fingers, but with a flat piece of horn, held between the thumb and third finger of the right hand, in shape not unlike the one painters use to clean their palettes and mix their colors.

“On another occasion I heard a young man playing a flute. This instrument was of the most primitive description, consisting only of a piece of hollow bamboo, bored with seven finger-holes, and the hole for the mouth. The tunes were very strange, and appeared to me more like a mass of confused sounds, than a regular harmony.[128]

“At the beginning of the new moon, I saw in several houses a sort of domestic worship. A number of women had assembled before the shrine of the household god, and, divided in two parties, were singing hymns, one party alternately answering the other. Their song was accompanied by strokes upon a little bell or gong, with a small wooden hammer; and, as the bells were of different tones, the effect was by no means unpleasant.”

“There are a number of temples near Shimoda,” writes an officer of the “Susquehanna,” “and attached to each is a graveyard. At one of these, situated near a village, there is a place set apart for Americans. Here Dr. Hamilton was buried, being laid by the side of two others who had died on the second visit of the ships. Each grave has its appropriate stone, as with us, and by many of them are evergreens set in vases, or joints of bamboo, containing water. Cups of fresh water are also set by the graves, and to these, birds of dazzling plumage and delightful song come and drink. The graves of the Americans were not forgotten.”

The officers were permitted to go into the country any distance they wished, and the country people were found pleasant and sociable; but upon this second visit the advantages of Shimoda as a place of trade, or the prospects of traffic under the treaty, do not seem to have struck the visitors very favorably. “The harbor,” writes an officer of the “Susquehanna” to the “Tribune,” “is a small indentation of land, running northeast and southwest, about a half-mile in extent, and is capable of holding five or six vessels of ordinary size. It is, however, entirely unprotected from the southwest winds, which bring with them a heavy sea, and which renders the anchorage very unsafe. With the wind from the north and the east, the vessel rides at her ease at her anchorage. Good wood and sweet water, as well as a few provisions, were obtained from the authorities, for the use of the ships, at the most extravagant prices. Numerous articles, such as lackered and China ware, of a very fine and delicate quality, and far superior to that manufactured in China, were purchased by the officers; but every article had to pass through the hands of the Japanese officers, and the amount due the merchants had to be paid, not to them but to the Japanese officials who had been appointed for that very purpose by the mayor of the city and the governor of the province. This article of the treaty will be most scrupulously enforced; and this is decidedly its worst feature.”

“Shimoda,” writes another officer, “does not appear well calculated, upon the whole, for a place of trade, and it can never become an active commercial town. Neither is it a manufacturing town. This, added to the fact that the harbor is a bad one, will make it appear evident that the Japanese commissioners got the better of us in the treaty, as far as this place is concerned.

“The surrounding country (wherever nature will permit it) is highly cultivated. The valley of the creek is broad and well tilled, yielding rice, millet, Egyptian corn and maize.[129] The ears produced by the last are very small, being not more than from two to four inches in length. Sweet potatoes and the eggplant are also raised in great abundance. There are no horses about Shimoda, and bullocks are made to supply their places. Provisions, with the exception of eggs and vegetables, cannot be obtained here. The shark and bonito are the only large fish found in the harbor. Small fish are plentiful, and they seem to form almost the only article of food of the inhabitants, besides rice.”

The following description of the houses at Shimoda, by Mr. S. Wells Williams, will serve to illustrate the descriptions of Japanese houses already given from Kämpfer and Thunberg, and will show how little, as to that matter, Japan has altered since their time:

“The houses in Shimoda are built merely of pine boards, or of plaster thickly spread over a wattled wall of laths, the interstices of which are filled in with mud. In some cases these modes of construction are combined—the front and rear being of boards, or sliding panels, and the sides of mud. When thoroughly dried, the mud is whitewashed, and the plain surface worked into round ridges, three inches high, crossing each other diagonally from the roof to the ground; the ridges are then washed blue, and give the exterior a checker-board look, which, though singular, is more lively than a blue mud wall. The plaster is excellent, and these walls appear very solid and rather pretty when new; at a distance one would even think them to be stone; but after a few years the ridges loosen, the rain insinuates itself beneath the outer coating, and the whole begins to scale and crack off, disclosing the mud and rushes, and then the tenement soon falls to pieces. Still the progress of decay is not so rapid as one would think, judging only by the nature of the materials, and the walls are well protected by the projecting eaves. No bricks are used in building, nor are square tiles for floors seen; and the manner of making walls common in southern China, by beating sanded clay into wooden moulds, is unknown.

“Some of the best houses and temples have stone foundations, a few only of which are made of dressed stone. Half a dozen or more storehouses occur, faced entirely with slabs of stone, and standing detached from other buildings, and are doubtless fire-proof buildings. There are no cellars under the houses; the floors are raised on sleepers only two feet above the beaten ground, and uniformly covered with straw mats stuffed with chaff, or grass an inch thick. The frames are of pine, the joists four or five inches square, and held together by the flooring of the attic, as well as the plates and ridge-pole. The houses and shops join each other on the sides, with few exceptions, leaving the front and rear open. There is no uniformity in the width of the lots, the fronts of some shops extending twenty, thirty, or more feet along the street, while intermediate ones are mere stalls not over ten feet wide.

“The shops succeed each other without any regular order as to their contents, those of the same sort not being arranged together, as is often the case in China. The finer wares are usually kept in drawers, so that, unless one is well acquainted with the place, he cannot easily find the goods he seeks. The eaves of the houses project about four feet from the front and are not over eight feet from the ground; the porch thus made furnishes a covered place for arranging crockery, fruits, etc., for sale, trays of trinkets on a movable stall, baskets of grain, or other coarse articles, to attract buyers. The entrance is on one side, and the path leads directly through to the rear. The wooden shutters of shops are all removed in the daytime, and the paper windows closed, or thrust aside, according to the weather. On a pleasant day the doors are open, and in lieu of the windows a screen is hung midway so as to conceal the shopman and his customer from observation, while those goods placed on the stand are still under his eye. A case, with latticed or wire doors, to contain the fine articles of earthen ware, a framework, with hooks and shelves, to suspend iron utensils or wooden ware, or a movable case of drawers, to hold silks, fine lackered ware, or similar goods, constitute nearly all the furniture of the shops. Apothecaries’ shops are hung with gilded signs and paper placards, setting forth the variety and virtues of their medicines, some of which are described as brought from Europe. The partition which separates the shop from the dwelling is sometimes closed, but more usually open; and a customer has, generally speaking, as much to do with the mistress as the master of the establishment. When he enters, his straw sandals are always left on the ground as he steps on the mats and squats down to look at the goods, which are then spread out on the floor. A foreigner has need of some thoughtfulness in this particular, as it is an annoyance to a Japanese to have his mats soiled by dirty feet, or broken through by coarse shoes.

Scene in the Harbor of Uraga

“The rear of the building is appropriated to the family. Here the domestic operations are all carried on; here the family take their meals in the day; here, on the same mats, do they sleep at night; receiving visitors and dressing the children are also done here, and sometimes the cooking too. Usually this latter household task is performed in the porch in the rear, or in an out-house, so that the inmates are not so much annoyed with smoke as they are in Hakodate. No arrangements for warming the dwelling are to be found, except that of hand-braziers placed in the middle of the room with lighted charcoal, around which the family gather. In most of the houses there is a garret, reached by a ladder,—a dark and small apartment, where some goods can be stored, or servants can be lodged. There is not a house in the town whose occupants have arranged this attic with windows and stairways to make it a pleasant room; a few such were, however, seen near the capital, at Kanagawa, and in its vicinity.

“The roofs of all the best buildings are hipped, and covered with bluish tiling, each tile being about eight inches square, shaped somewhat like a wedge; the thick side is so made that, when laid on the rafters, it laps sideways over the thin edge of the adjoining tile in the next row, and thus forms gutters somewhat like the Chinese roofs. They are washed in alternate rows of white and blue, which, with the checkered walls, imparts a lively aspect, and contrasts pleasantly with the more numerous dingy thatched roofs. The thatched roofs are made of a species of Arundo, grown and prepared for this purpose, and answering admirably as a cheap and light covering to the wooden tenements occupied by most of the people. It is matted into a compact mass eighteen inches thick, as it is laid on, and then the surface and the sides are neatly sheared. The ridge-pole is protected by laying the thatch over a row of hoops that enclose it enough to overlap the edges on both slopes, and prevent the rain finding entrance. One cannot feel surprise at the ravages fires make in Japanese towns, where the least wind must blow the flame upon such straw coverings, which, like a tinder-box, would ignite at the first spark. Wires are stretched along the ridges of some of the tiled roofs in Shimoda to prevent birds from resting on the houses.

“In the rear yards, attached to a large number of the dwellings, are out-houses, and sometimes, as in the lodging-houses, additional sleeping-rooms. Kitchen-gardens are not unfrequently seen, and more rarely fancy fish-ponds, dwarfed trees, and even stone carvings. A family shrine, made like a miniature house, containing images of penates and lares, is met with in most of the yards. Only a few of them are adorned with large trees, and still fewer of them exhibit marks of care or taste, presenting in this respect an observable contrast to the neatness of the houses. High hedges or stone walls separate these yards when they are contiguous, but the depth of the lots is usually insufficient to allow room for both the opposite dwellings the luxury of a garden.

“There is not much variety in the structure of the various buildings in Shimoda, and their general appearance denotes little enterprise or wealth. The paper windows and doors, not a few of them dirty and covered with writing, or torn by children to take a peep inside, impart a monotonous aspect to the streets. Dyers’, carpenters’, blacksmiths’, stone-cutters’, and some other shops, have latticed fronts to admit more light, which are elevated above the observation of persons passing by. In front of those dwellings occupied by officials, a white cotton curtain, three feet wide, is stretched along the whole length of the porch, having the coat of arms of the occupant painted on it in black; the names of the principal lodgers are also stuck on the door-posts. Signs are mostly written on the doors, as the windows are drawn aside during the day; but only a portion of the shops have any. Lodging-houses, barbers’ shops, restaurants, or tea-houses, apothecaries, and a few others, are almost always indicated by signs. One dealer in crockery and lackered ware has the sign of a celebrated medicine placed on a high pole, and, the more to attract attention, has written the name in foreign letters. As in China, placards for medicines were the most conspicuous of all, but none are pasted upon blank walls; all are suspended in the shops. However, no dwelling or shop is left unprotected from the ill-usage of malignant spirits, every one having a written or printed charm or picture (sometimes a score or more) over the door to defend the inmates from evil.”

In the interval between Commodore Perry’s first and second visits to the bay of Yedo, Nagasaki was visited by a Russian squadron. On the 7th of September, 1854, just before the last visit of the “Mississippi” and “Susquehanna” to Shimoda, a British squadron of three steamers and a frigate arrived at Nagasaki under Admiral Sterling. These British vessels, which found the annual Dutch trading-ship, two large Chinese junks, also a Dutch steamer, lying in the harbor, encountered the usual reception, being served with notices, surrounded with boats, and denied liberty to land. At length, however, after a deal of negotiation and threats to proceed to Yedo, it was agreed to furnish supplies, tea, rice, pigs, etc., and to receive payment through the Dutch. On the 15th the admiral landed, and was conducted in state to the governor’s house. The guard-boats were withdrawn, and the men were allowed to land on an island to recreate themselves. Other interviews followed, presents were interchanged, and, on the 19th, the squadron left. These particulars are drawn from the published letter of a medical officer on board, who describes the supplies furnished as very good, and the Japanese soy as cheap and nice, but who does not seem to have relished the sake, which he likens in taste to acetate of ammonia water.

The American war-steamer “Powhatan” visited Shimoda February 21, 1855, to complete the exchange of ratification, which done, she sailed again two days after. The town of Shimoda was found in a state of desolation and ruin, from the effects of a disastrous earthquake, on the 23d of December previous, in which the Russian frigate “Diana,” then lying in the harbor to complete the pending negotiations, was so damaged as to have sunk in attempting to make a neighboring port for repairs. Ōsaka and Yedo were reported to have suffered severely, and Yedo still more from a subsequent fire.

[See also “Matthew Calbraith Perry” (Griffis) and the Official Report of Commodore Perry’s Expedition.—Edr.]