Kurokawa Kahee was the Japanese official who asked, through an interpreter, how many men would land. In the 2nd month of Kaei 7 (1854), the commodore and five Japanese commissioners met face to face at the meeting hall on the shore at Yokohama. The meeting took place on the 10th day of the 2nd month; the day before, Kurokawa Kahee had confirmed the number of men who would land.
The meeting hall was enclosed on all four sides by curtains, so that the inside could not be seen from outside. When the commodore had an officer ask the reason, the answer was that it was to show respect and to prevent people from intruding. The commodore declared that he would not land unless the curtains were removed, and the Japanese side took them down at once. Offshore, 3 steamships and 6 sailing ships, 9 ships in all, stood in a line abreast.
The number conveyed the day before had been about 30, but around 500 men actually landed. Armed officers and sailors rowed ashore in 27 small boats, and 3 bands also came up carrying pistols. Salutes of 17 guns and 21 guns were fired, and a further 17 guns for Hayashi Daigaku no kami. Tokutomi Sohō writes that the commodore believed it necessary first to startle an opponent who set such store by formality. On the 7th day of the 2nd month, he had told Kurokawa Kahee that, in addition to the 50 warships already in nearby waters, he could gather 100 more in about 20 days.
In the hall, where red cloth was spread over the tatami, the American side observed each of the commissioners in turn. It is recorded that Hayashi Daigaku no kami was about 55 years old and courteous in his manner, and that Isawa Masayoshi was the youngest, fond of joking, and open-minded about dealings with foreign countries. Matsuzaki Mantarō, who sat apart at the lowest seat, was suspected of having the role of watching over the other commissioners. The chief interpreter was Moriyama Einosuke, who knelt at the feet of Hayashi Daigaku no kami and waited for his instructions.
The Japanese reply opened by stating that not everything could be accepted. The reason given was that the former shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi had died and the ceremonies for the new lord were not yet complete. It went on to state that coal, firewood and water, provisions, and the rescue of shipwrecked men would be handled as requested, asked for a grace period of about 5 years before a port could be decided, and said that until then ships might come to Nagasaki from the 1st month of next spring. Tokutomi Sohō regards the few lines promising to supply ships’ shortages with Japanese goods as proof that the closed system had already been broken.
Over the burial of a sailor who had died, the Japanese side answered that the body should be sent to Nagasaki, but the commodore refused, and burial near a temple in Yokohama was approved. At the banquet, the Japanese memorandum recorded the foreigners being unable to use chopsticks and eating with spoons and small knives, and putting sweets, paper and all, into their breast pockets. The third document handed over listed figures for trade with China, and stated that without the arrangement of amity it would become a source of conflict. Tokutomi Sohō concludes that the attached draft treaty went into detail even on taxes and the treatment of consuls, but that the Japanese side at the time could think only of putting the matter off.
What moved at the first Yokohama meeting can be followed through the Japanese reply, the third document, the Japanese memorandum, and the commentary that Tokutomi Sohō began writing at Sannō Sōdō on January 1, Shōwa 3.
The tenth day of the second month of Kaei 7 (1854), Yokohama.Original
The meeting hall on the shore was completely enclosed on all four sides with curtains.Original
From outside, the interior could not be seen.Original
The commodore sent an officer to the shore to ask the reason.Original
The Japanese side’s answer was that it was to show respect to the Americans, and to prevent the intrusion of the people.Original
The commodore declared it “absolutely unnecessary,” and said he would not land unless the curtains were removed.Original
The Japanese side immediately took down the curtains.OriginalOriginal
Tokutomi Sohō begins his account of the first Yokohama meeting with this scene.Original
In the Western calendar, this was March 8.Original
Offshore, three steamships and six sailing ships, nine in all, stood lined up abreast.Original
The curtains, which had looked “as if enclosing a prison within,” vanished at a single word from the commodore.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThirty men and five hundred men
On the ninth day of the second month, prior to the landing, there was an exchange of questions with the interpreter.Original
Kurokawa Kahee, on the Japanese side, asked the total number of men who would land.Original
The meaning conveyed was that about thirty men were intended to land, and this was being stated with due respect beforehand.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryIn fact, about five hundred men landed.Original
At half past eleven in the morning, armed officers, sailors, and seamen boarded twenty-seven boats and rowed in under the command of Commander Buchanan.Original
The officers wore uniforms with epaulettes, swords, and pistols.Original
All three bands landed, and even they were made to carry pistols.OriginalOriginal
When the commodore transferred to the large boat, the Macedonian fired a salute of seventeen guns.Original
On entering the meeting hall, a further twenty-one guns were fired, followed by seventeen in honor of Hayashi Daigaku no kami.Original
At the masthead of the Powhatan, the flag of Japan was raised.OriginalOriginal
For a people like the Japanese, so “formal and artificial in ceremony,” the commodore thought it essential first to overawe them, or so it is said.Original
Two days earlier, on the seventh day of the second month, he had also said this to Kurokawa Kahee.Original
“Fifty warships are kept stationed in the nearby seas, and furthermore fifty more are held ready in California, so that if word is sent at once, within about twenty days a hundred warships will be assembled.”Original
Tokutomi Sohō cites this as an example of “Perry’s intimidation.”OriginalOriginal
The painting of cranes and the five commissioners
The inside of the meeting hall was a chamber of about the same size as that at Kurihama.Original
Red cloth was laid over the tatami.
The windows had oil-paper shoji.Original
Charcoal fires were heaped in copper braziers set on lacquered stands, and on the walls hung many paintings of trees and animals, especially cranes.OriginalOriginal
When the commodore, officers, and interpreters took the seats of honor on the left side, five commissioners emerged from the next room.Original
The American account observes each of them one by one.Original
Hayashi Daigaku no kami was about fifty-five years old, of imposing build; though his manner was very polite and his eyes had a “deeply benevolent” look, his expression was rather severe.Original
Isawa Masayoshi (Mimasaka no kami) was the youngest, not much past forty, a lively man who liked jokes and puns.Original
According to the interpreter, he held far more liberal views on foreign intercourse than his colleagues, and could not sit still once the band began to play.OriginalOriginal
Udono Nagatoshi (Minbu no shōyū) was tall, with a protruding face in the Mongol style.Original
And then there was Matsuzaki Mantarō (Jun).Original
He was the one who had communicated with the other four beforehand and joined later, sitting apart at the lowest seat, while a clerk beside him wrote down the proceedings of the meeting, at times taking Matsuzaki’s advice.Original
The American side regarded him as “probably an official spy watching the other commissioners.”Original
It is even recorded that he was a thin old man of nearly sixty, apparently severely nearsighted, whose face twisted even more whenever he tried to look at something.OriginalOriginal
最後の松崎滿太郞なる男は、其の役目が判らない員と申し通じたる後に一人增加し來つた。其の增加せられたのが彼だ。らくは他の委員を監視する公式探偵であらう。彼は末席に、彼の側には書記が坐して、一切會見の經過を書取つてゐた。
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThe chief interpreter was Moriyama Einosuke.Original
When the commissioners took their seats, he knelt at the feet of Hayashi Daigaku no kami and respectfully awaited instructions.Original
The first five or six minutes were devoted only to greetings.Original
After tobacco, tea, and sweets were served, they moved to a small room partitioned off with indigo silk curtains, and the negotiations finally began.OriginalOriginal
Five years’ grace, Nagasaki in the New Year
“To accept everything would touch upon matters strictly forbidden since the founding of our country by its ancestors, so we cannot give our answer on this at present.”Original
The written reply opens with this.Original
The meaning is that accepting everything touches on matters strictly forbidden since the founders’ time, and so no answer could be given now.Original
The reason given was the death of the former ruler.Original
Last summer, the shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi had died of illness, and although a new ruler had succeeded him, the grand ceremonies were not yet complete.Original
It also states that the Russian envoy had likewise come to Nagasaki but had sailed home for the same reason.Original
After this, however, the reply takes a step forward.Original
Coal, firewood and water, provisions, and the rescue of shipwrecked castaways were matters that “could not be helped,” and so it would be arranged as your country wished.Original
As to which port would be used, that would be decided after hearing the commodore’s answer, so about five years’ grace was requested.Original
However, until the place was decided, they might come to Nagasaki from the New Year of next spring.Original
As for what provisions and how much coal, Japanese products would be given for whatever the ships lacked.Original
It concludes by stating that quantities and prices would be negotiated through Kurokawa Kahee and Moriyama Einosuke.Original
According to the American account, coal was to be delivered at Nagasaki from January 16, 1855.Original
Since this document bore only the signature of Moriyama Einosuke, the commodore returned it once to request the commissioners’ signatures, and received it again the following day.Original
This reply must have been unsatisfactory from the American side’s point of view, but “in reality it was a great concession on Japan’s part.”Original
To supply Japanese goods for the needs of ships in fact amounted to nothing other than permitting trade; it was simply not open and large-scale.Original
“Japan’s system of national seclusion must be considered already broken by this reply alone,” Tokutomi Sohō writes.OriginalOriginal
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Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryThe graves of the dead, and a cup of wine
He added that if he did not succeed, the United States government would send an even larger fleet.Original
He handed over copies of the treaty in English, Chinese, and Dutch, along with two documents, one of them a reply to the letter from Uraga.OriginalOriginal
Next the matter of burial came up.Original
Two days earlier, a sailor from the Mississippi had died.Original
The commodore proposed to purchase a burial ground, to be used for this purpose in the future as well.Original
The commissioners were at a loss and withdrew to another room to confer.OriginalOriginal
Hayashi Daigaku no kami’s reply was that since there was a separate temple in Nagasaki serving as a burial ground for foreigners, the body should first be sent to Uraga and forwarded on when convenient.Original
The commodore refused.Original
“To give the dead a burial ground is a universal rule among all nations.”Original
He proposed that if they refused, he would without fail bury the body on a small island near the fleet’s anchorage, to make the Japanese understand.Original
The commissioners objected to this, but in the end agreed to have the burial take place near a temple in Yokohama, in a spot visible from the fleet.OriginalOriginal
Meanwhile, the banquet had begun.Original
The commodore announced that as a token of friendship he would someday share a meal aboard an American ship, and the commissioners, though unaccustomed to foreign manners, gladly consented.Original
A second and third commissioner also appeared, and cups of wine were exchanged.OriginalOriginal
About six hundred men came ashore, of whom forty ranking officers appeared at the reception hall.Original
The foreigners did not know how to hold chopsticks; some took spoons out of their pockets to scoop food, others stabbed it with knives to eat.Original
With the miso soup they ate only the solid ingredients; they regarded the fish cake with puzzlement and did not touch it, but they said the sponge cake was delicious and ate it.Original
When they tried to wrap rakugan sweets in paper, Mino paper was handed to them, and they seemed most grateful, putting it into their pockets along with the sweets.Original
When the attendants handed out four or five sheets of half-size paper, they accepted it three times over and pocketed it.Original
They brought two dogs to the gathering.Original
“In all things, even in asking for tea or water, they were extremely gentle, with not the slightest sign of violence.”Original
Even in the manner of asking for tea or water they were utterly gentle, and there was not the slightest hint of roughness, it is said.OriginalOriginal
味噌吸物を吸樣を不知、中之實計給候樣子。口取、鳥芋抔給懸、小々宛給殘りは懷中致し、菓子アルヘイ、落雁、カステラ三品、
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryAdams, on the other hand, was described as “extremely difficult in appearance and a wicked-looking man,” and it is said that Udono Nagatoshi remarked that in Japanese terms he would be comparable to one of the eighteen great lords of the grand hall.Original
During the negotiations, in the adjoining great hall, the officers were being entertained with food, and they watched with amusement as a painter who had come from Edo rudely sketched their portraits.OriginalOriginal
What lay inside the curtain
The third document is the one Tokutomi Sohō regards as the most important of the three.Original
Attached to it was a draft agreement with China, listing figures: trade in tea with China amounted to 3,600,000 taels a year, raw silk and silk cloth 300,000 taels, and about 30,000 Chinese came to the United States to work freely, some returning home with savings in their pockets ranging from 30,000 to 10,000 taels.Original
It also stated that the ships passing through these waters for whaling numbered no fewer than five hundred, and that if they were permitted to enter port when short of water and provisions, it would be an “immense act of mercy.”Original
And it stated that if there were no arrangement for amity, it would be “in the extreme most strange and shocking,” and would instead invite the seeds of conflict.Original
This meant that it would be in the utmost degree strange and shocking, and would invite the seeds of conflict, and Tokutomi Sohō reads this as implying that “it might inevitably come even to war.”OriginalOriginal
The document is on its face calm and peaceful, but underneath it there is a determination not to retreat as things stand, and it contains the forceful implication that if the shogunate did not comply with the request, the shogunate itself would have to bear the responsibility for what followed, Tokutomi Sohō says.Original
The draft treaty handed over together with it was essentially the Sino-American treaty transposed almost unchanged into a Japanese-American context, detailed down to duties, consuls, cargo permits, the prohibition of double taxation, the punishment of nationals of both countries, and the exchange of ratifications within eighteen months.Original
Yet the Japanese authorities of the time were “fixated solely on postponement for the moment,” and there was no room to consider the merits or demerits of such a treaty, Tokutomi Sohō concludes.OriginalOriginal
一通り平穩であるが、其の底には、而して若し萬一幕府が此方の註文に應じなければ、幕府が取らねばならぬ强意を、十分に含蓄してゐる
Open the original page at the National Diet LibraryHere let us look back.
In the morning, the commodore had the curtain removed.Original
He would not permit things to remain unseen.
The five hundred soldiers, the salute of guns, and the three bands of music were all instruments meant “to be shown.”OriginalOriginal
On the other hand, was it not the case that the single greatest event of that day appeared showy to no one’s eyes?
A single rolled-up letter.Original
A few lines granting five years’ grace, naming Nagasaki for next spring’s first month, and promising to hand over Japanese goods for whatever supplies ships lacked.Original
Tokutomi Sohō regards the seclusion of the country as “already broken” by this one reply alone.Original
The Japanese who wrote the memorandum had his eyes caught by the spoons, the knives, and the half-size paper.OriginalOriginal
In the middle of this chapter, Tokutomi Sohō adds that on the first day of the first month of Shōwa 3 (1928), he began the first history-writing of the new year at the Sannō Sōdō in Ōmori.Original
One might say that, more than seventy years later, there was a person who tried to see what had been handed over inside the curtain.Original
On that day in Yokohama, what, exactly, were the crowds of onlookers standing beyond the barricade, looking at the square from which the curtain had been removed, actually watching?Original
| Source text | Kinsei Nihon kokuminshi, vol. 32: The Conclusion of the Kanagawa Treaty (1935). National Diet Library Digital Collections (PDM). PID 1223901 |
| Checked against | Ishin shiryō kōyō, vol. 1 (1937). PID 1046665 |
| Dates and names | All 5 dates in the text exist in the calendar for their year, and the Western years given alongside them agree. Of the 7 people named in the text, 6 also appear in Ishin shiryō kōyō, vol. 1. |
| English gates | 109 of 109 sentences passed the checks on the English text. |
This article is a reading of Kinsei Nihon kokuminshi, vol. 32: The Conclusion of the Kanagawa Treaty. Tokutomi Sohō’s views are those of the 1920s and 1930s and may differ from current scholarship. The source text is a century old and may differ from current scholarship.
