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The First Japanese Embassy to the United States |
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1853 American ships under Commodore Matthew C. Perry became a catalyst for
changes in Japanese government and society. Perry's "black ships"
provided a sense of urgency for critics of Japanese isolation. Since the early
1600s Japan had been officially closed to the West with the important exception
of the Dutch at Nagasaki. With the arrival of the American warships, a number of
Japanese thinkers sought to remove barriers to western knowledge and trade. A
critical issue was whether the ineffective Tokugawa government could embrace
"modernity" and stave off its own demise at the hands of growing
internal political opposition. |
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New York parade scene taken
from a period stereoview (Click image for larger version of
right-hand image) |
| The First Embassy to the United States |
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| In an effort to preserve its sense of power and respect, the Tokugawa
government organized the first Embassy to the United States in 1860. Its purpose
was to gather useful facts about western knowledge and to formalize relations
between the United States and Japan. The highlight of the journey was to be a
personal audience with President James Buchanan. The embassy toured the country
and was greeted in large cities like New York with lavish parades. The picture
above shows the procession moving down Broadway, with Japanese and American
flags flapping in the breeze. Everywhere they went, newspapers carried numerous
articles about the peculiar Japanese envoys. For a time, they were celebrities
that captured the American imagination. |
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This a photograph of the Japanese translator Tateishi Onojirou Noriyuki or
"Tommy." Among the largely humorless assortment of Japanese
dignitaries, young Tommy drew attention as a lively fellow with an admiration
for American women. Based on visual evidence of the studio setting, this image was taken in
Charles D. Fredricks studio in New York along with the two images below (notice
the floor.) Tommy also appears in the picture below (to my perception)
looking rather bored! |
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The Japanese Translator "Tommy," 1860. |
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The two images
above appear in the work: Melissa Banta and Susan Taylor, eds., A
Timely Encounter: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Japan
(Massachusetts: Peabody Museum Press & Wellesley College Museum,
1988), 18, 20. The group portrait on the right appeared as a
stereoview. Both were taken by the Charles D. Fredricks studio
in New York. |
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Recommended Reading
- Masao Miyoshi. As We Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the
United States. New York: Kodansha, 1994.
- Walter LaFeber. The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations throughout
History. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.
- Peter Duus. The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History
with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.
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Links
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These two images appear in an
online exhibit entitled "Cross-Cultural Camera: How Photography
Bridged East & West," by the American Museum of Photography.
Click the exhibit graphic below for the link. |
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Both images are hand-colored
stereoviews from the Charles D. Fredricks studio. |
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"'Tommy' and
'Members of the First Japanese Embassy' Copyright © MMII The
American Photography Museum, Inc. Used by Permission." |
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