NANPO GUEN. [VISIT TO SHIMODA] by [Perry Japan Expedition]: [Black Ship Scroll - 1856

[N.p., but probably Toky, 1856. Ink and watercolor on twenty-five linen- mounted rice paper panels joined into a scroll, measuring approximately 10 1/2 inches x 29 1/2 feet. Mounted on a wooden roller with silk tie, housed in a custom balsa wood box. Intermittent creasing, fairly regular small chips to bottom edge, sometimes costing a bit of the image area. Very good. An incredible, informative, and beautifully rendered "Black Ship Scroll," giving a thirty- foot long visual account of the visit of Commodore Perry's U.S. naval squadron to Shimoda in the wake of the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa. It is an awe-inspiring artifact of a momentous event in American and Japanese history, and a brilliant work of art.

Perry's 1854 arrival in the remote port of Shimoda aroused great curiosity and was recorded both by anonymous artisans as well as real artists, the latter being the case for the present scroll. One of Perry's interpreters, S. Wells Williams, reported seeing similar scrolls depicting the naval visit just a few weeks after they anchored. He wrote in his account of the visit: "A pictorial representation of our squadron and description annexed, and an account of the war between England and China, were seen today by officers...." Williams goes on the remark that it was forbidden to sell these scrolls to Americans, and in fact being a non- trading closed society, Japanese officials discouraged personal purchases of any kind by U.S. personnel.

Evident in the present scroll is the Japanese fascination with American military technology. Perry's official account made note of the Japanese being insatiably inquisitive when invited on board: "When visiting the ship, the mandarins and their attendants were never at rest: but went about peering into every nook and corner, peeping into the muzzles of the guns....They were not contented to merely observing with their eyes, but were constantly taking out their writing materials, their mulberry bark paper...."

The present scroll depicts the deck and equipment details of one of Perry's frigate steamers, as well as handsome harbor scenes of the numerous ships at anchor (including a moonlight view), brilliantly-colored American flags flying from the masts of the ships, undulating coastlines, maps of the locations of Perry's ships, the narrative of their travel from Edo Bay, a portrait of Commodore Perry and two of his interpreters, and an account of naval gun salutes and the burial of a sailor with a rendering of his tombstone. Also shown is a small American military band, large portraits of several of Perry's ships, a detail of an American landing party departing one of the imposing Black Ships, and much more. On the whole, the expert illustrations give not only the details of Perry, his men, ships and their armaments, but a sense of the level to which the American squadron impressed the Japanese. Accomplished by an artist that would almost certainly have had firsthand knowledge of the visit of the American squadron, it is a far more artistically-polished memorial of Perry's extraordinary visit than many of the more folk-art type scrolls that make up the majority of surviving examples.

Perry's sudden arrival near the entrance to Tokyo Bay at Uraga on July 8, 1853 with two sloops and two paddle-steamer battleships, carrying letters and gifts to deliver to the Emperor, threw the Japanese authorities into a tailspin. The reports went back to the Emperor, who immediately took ill, presumably fearing an invasion. For several days there was a stand-off, the smaller Japanese vessels amassing around the American vessels, one of which had ninety-two cannons. Local warlord families took up arms all around the Bay and made promises of men for the defense of Edo. For five days the stand-off continued and Perry stayed in his cabin and let it be known he had a letter from President Fillmore to deliver to the Emperor, and only the Emperor or his emissary could receive it. The Japanese first threatened him, then tried to bribe him to leave and go to Nagasaki to complete his mission. Perry stood firm and ignored the Japanese demands.

Perry sent out smaller boats to start surveying the area and the Japanese stood aside, wondering if the cannon would strike them. On July 14 a hastily erected tent was put up on the shore of the bay, and two sons of the Emperor, Princes Ido and Toda, came down by Imperial barge from Edo and sat in the tent to receive the letters. Perry arrived with his troops, his marching band playing, flags flying. He formally delivered the letters and said he would be back in a year for an answer to the President's call for a trade treaty with Japan, protection for shipwrecked sailors, and the establishment of refueling stations for American ships in the Western Pacific. The Japanese asked Perry to leave quickly, but he stayed anchored for a further three days, then spent some time doing surveys of other parts of Edo Bay, returning via Okinawa, to winter at the American station in Hong Kong.

Perry returned the following February with a larger flotilla, strengthened by newly- completed battleship steamers sent out from the United States. The second meeting took place at Yokohama from February to June 1854, where Perry insisted that negotiations begin, and at that time there was an exchange of diplomatic gifts. A provisional treaty was signed in 1854 but the full trading treaty was not completed until 1858 after Townsend Harris came to Japan as U.S. Consul, and set about finalizing the negotiations.

Perry's return in 1854, with a much more substantial force, provoked the same curiosity and trepidation among the Japanese populace as his first visit, if not more so, and it is this second visit that is captured in the present scroll. The Americans arrived by steam frigates (the "black ships of evil men") as well as under sail, with their canons and howitzers conspicuous. This second visit to Edo Bay was a purposeful display of the United States' superior military force to impress an essentially feudal society - all the better for Perry to encourage the signing of a treaty allowing American whalers to use the islands as a resupply outpost of America's burgeoning economic empire and Pacific expansion.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854, Perry visited the two ports named as open to American ships, Shimoda and Hakodate. Americans were also allowed to travel inland from these ports to a proscribed distance of seven ri (approximately seventeen miles). Officers were allowed onshore and the manners, appearance, and customs of the Americans were of nearly insatiable interest to the inhabitants of these remote fishing villages. This was the first interaction common Japanese citizens had with Westerners.

The present scroll descends from the Perry family, specifically Calbraith Perry Rodgers, famed aviator and Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry's great-grandnephew. The scroll is accompanied by a later typed transcription of an 1858 account of Commodore Perry's life by R.S. Rodgers.

One of the more impressive examples of a Black Ship Scroll, documenting Perry's second interaction with the Japanese rulers and people, executed by an accomplished Japanese artist, and descended through the Perry family