“The usual dress of the Japanese nobles is of silk; but the court dress is made of a coarse yellow glass-cloth, and for a coronet they wear a black lackered affair that looks like a distracted night-cap. I did not see a single gem, jewel, or ornament of any kind, on the person of the Emperor, or on those of his courtiers, who comprised the great nobility of Japan.
“From the audience-chamber I was taken to another room, when I found the five great Councillors of State, who, having been presented to me, congratulated me on my audience, and expressed their wonder and astonishment at what they called my ‘greatness of heart.’ When I asked for an explanation, they said that they were filled with admiration to see me stand erect, look the awful ‘Tycoon’ [Taikun] in the face, speak plainly to him, hear his reply—and all this without any trepidation, or any ‘quivering of the muscles of the side.’ I write all this to let you see that the Japanese princes understand the use of court compliments. I was then shown a present of fifteen silken robes from his Majesty, and was taken to a room where a banquet, set out on sixty trays, twelve inches high, was prepared for my single stomach. There was food enough for one hundred hungry men!
“You must know that the dinner-trays (like the breeches) are a mark of rank in Japan; and the rank indicated by the height of the trays, which vary from three to twelve inches in height. Again, if the trays are lackered it diminishes the honor connected with the actual height of the tray, for it indicates that it can be used on another occasion; but if it be made of unpainted cypress wood, the honor is complete, for it says, as plain as words can do, ‘You are so sublime in your rank that no one can dare to eat from a tray that you have used!’ My attention was particularly called both to the height of the trays, and to the flattering fact, that, ‘by a special edict,’ they were made of unvarnished wood. You must know that this same dinner had been the subject of grave discussion, both in Shimoda and in Yedo. They were very anxious that I should eat at the Palace. I replied that I would do so cheerfully, provided a person or persons of suitable rank would eat with me; but said that self-respect would forbid my eating at a table where my host or his representative declined to sit down. When I had admired the very neat arrangement of the banquet, I was again asked to sit down. I then said, ‘Say to his Majesty that I thank him for his offered entertainment.’ At last the whole affair was sent to my quarters, where I distributed it among my Shimoda followers.
“After the exhibition of the dinner I was reconducted to the room I first entered, and, after I had drank of the celebrated ‘powdered tea,’ I left, being conducted to the entrance by the two chamberlains, who knocked head with all the force that was due to one who had ‘seen the king, and yet lived.’ By the way, I forgot to state that the old formula of an audience, which was ‘kneel down,’ ‘knock head, so that the by-standers can hear your skull crack,’ if it ever did exist at the court at Yedo, was not used in my case. A faint request was made to me, at Shimoda, that I would kneel, but I told them the request was offensive, and must not be repeated. That ended it.
“My return to Shimoda was on a steamer presented to the Japanese by the Dutch.”
In April, 1858, Mr. Harris returned again to Yedo, and after three months spent in arguing with the Japanese that it would be impossible for them to maintain their policy of isolation, he succeeded in negotiating a new treaty. By this treaty, the port of Kanagawa, present Yokohama, a suburb of Yedo, was substituted for Shimoda as a place for American trade and residence; and in 1860, Hiōgo, the harbor of the most commercial city of Ōsaka, was also to be opened to them. American residents were to enjoy religious freedom, and the privilege of direct trade with the Japanese merchants. The right to have an ambassador resident at Yedo was also included; a position since filled by Mr. Harris himself.
Within a few weeks after the negotiation of this treaty, Lord Elgin, British commissioner to China and Japan, arrived at Shimoda with a considerable British squadron. Mr. Harris went on board his ship, and accompanied him to the Bay of Yedo. On the 20th of August, a treaty was signed with the Japanese by Lord Elgin, on the basis of the American treaty. It contained the additional provision,—of which we also have the benefit to render the clause of our treaty giving us all privileges bestowed on other nations,—that no export duty should be charged higher than twenty per cent; certain articles, including cotton and woollen goods, to be admitted at five per cent. On the 9th of October, a similar treaty was signed with Baron Gros, who had visited Yedo as French commissioner. Similar privileges, it is understood, are granted to the Dutch and Russians.
With the signing of these treaties the Japanese authorities may be considered as having yielded the point of the re-establishment of foreign intercourse. But a great difference of opinion as to this policy is understood still to exist among the nobles and princes of the Empire; and it is not impossible that these concessions to foreigners may lead to internal commotions.
By one of the articles of this new treaty, negotiated by Mr. Harris, the Japanese agreed to send an embassy to Washington, as bearers of the Emperor’s ratification. The fulfilment of this promise was for some time delayed, partly, perhaps, by reason of the caution and slowness characteristic of Japanese policy, but principally, it is supposed, on account of the strong opposition of a large party of the princes and nobles to the new scheme of foreign intercourse. At length, however, on the 27th of February, 1860, the ambassadors, three in number, with a suite of seventy-three persons, embarked on board the United States steamer, the “Powhatan,” the American government having undertaken to convey them to the United States, and to carry them back again. The “Kanrin-maru,” a war steamer of two hundred and fifty tons, built for the Japanese by the Dutch, and manned with a Japanese crew of seventy men, arrived at San Francisco on the 14th of March, after a passage of forty days from the Bay of Yedo, to give notice of the approach of the ambassadors. The “Powhatan,” after touching at the Sandwich Islands, reached Panama on the 25th of April. The ambassadors, with their attendants, were immediately conveyed on the railroad to Aspinwall, where, the next day, they embarked on board the U.S. steamer “Roanoke,” lying there to receive them. The “Roanoke” sailed for New York, but on arriving at Sandy Hook she was ordered to Norfolk, it having been determined that the embassy should be first received at Washington. At Norfolk the Japanese were transferred to the steamer “Philadelphia.” They reached Washington on the 14th of May, disembarked at the Navy Yard, and were then conveyed to quarters which had been provided for them at Willard’s Hotel. To protect them against imposition, and to provide for their comfort and security, three navy officers who had visited Japan were appointed to the general oversight of the embassy while it remained in this country. On the 14th they visited General Cass, the Secretary of State, and on the next day had a formal audience from the President. Though received as ministers plenipotentiary, their powers appeared to be limited to an exchange of the ratifications of the treaty, and to obtaining information as to the relative value of Japanese and foreign coins,—a point which still remained unsettled in Japan, and was the occasion of much complaint on the part of the foreign residents.
