We recently discovered the significance of this salted paper print in our Special Collections. This group photo of American and Japanese officers turned out to be the photograph of the first Japanese Delegation to the United States after Japan ended 鎖国 or sakoku. Sakoku was the isolationist foreign policy during the Edo period, lasting from 1633 through 1853 under the Tokugawa shogunate.
During this period, Japan limited commerce and foreign relationships, but was not completely isolated. There was extensive trade with China through the port of Nagasaki, as well as Korea, the Ainu, and the Ryukyu Kingdom. The Dutch were the only European influence permitted and allowed to stay in Dejima, an artificial island off Nagasaki.
Sakoku policy ended in 1853 when the Perry Expedition commanded by Matthew C. Perry forced the opening of Japan to American interests.
On February 9, 1860, the first Japanese Delegation to the United States set sail on the Kanrin Maru, a ship built by the Dutch. It was the first Japanese vessel to sail to the Western world. The group reached San Francisco with a stopover in Hawaii, then continued to Panama to reach Washington D.C., and onto New York before returning to Japan. Their mission was the formal ratification of the Harris Treaty, which was signed between the United States and the Tokugawa shogunate to open Japanese ports to foreign trade.
Besides three official Japanese emissaries and the sailors on Kanrin Maru, the delegation included the Embassy’s escorts, such as Katsu Kaishu as the captain, Nakahama “John” Manjiro as the official translator, and Fukuzawa Yukichi, the future author, educator, and philosopher, known for his efforts to introduce and promote Western ideas and institutions in Meiji Japan. .
What makes this photograph exceptionally unique are the handwritten notations identifying each figure, including the American officials. The photograph was taken at the Navy Yard at Washington, D.C. in June of 1860.
