Black Ships

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Japanese 1854 print describing Commodore Matthew Perry's "Black Ships".

The Black Ships (in Japanese, 黒船, kurofune) was the name given to Western vessels arriving in Japan between the 15th and 19th centuries. In particular, it refers to Mississippi, Plymouth, Saratoga, and Susquehanna, that arrived on July 14, 1853 at Uraga Harbor (part of present-day Yokosuka) in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan under the command of United States Commodore Matthew Perry.^[1] The word "black" refers to the black color of the older sailing vessels, and the black smoke from the coal-fired power plants of the American ships.

Commodore Perry's superior military force was a factor in negotiating a treaty allowing American trade with Japan, thus effectively ending the Sakoku (鎖国^?) period of more than 200 years in which trading with Japan was only allowed to the Dutch and Chinese.

The following year, at the Convention of Kanagawa, Perry returned with eight ships and was presented by the shogun's officals with the "Treaty of Peace and Amity", establishing formal diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States. Within five years, Japan had signed similar treaties with other western countries. The Harris Treaty was signed with the United States on July 29, 1858.

The surprise and confusion these ships inspired are described in this famous kyoka (a humorous poem similar to the 5-line waka):

Commodore Perry's fleet for his second visit to Japan in 1854.

This poem is a complex set of puns (in Japanese, kakekotoba or "pivot words"). Taihei (泰平) means "tranquil"; Jōkisen (上喜撰) is the name of a costly brand of green tea containing large amounts of caffeine; and shihai (四杯) means "four cups", so a literal translation of the poem is:

Awoken from sleep

of a peaceful quiet world

by Jokisen tea;

with only four cups of it

one can't sleep even at night.

However, there is an alternate translation, based on the pivot words. Taihei can refer to the "Pacific Ocean" (太平); jōkisen also means "steam-powered ships" (蒸気船); and shihai also means "four vessels". The poem, therefore, has a hidden meaning:

The steam-powered ships

break the halcyon slumber

of the Pacific;

a mere four boats are enough

to make us lose sleep at night.

'Black Ships' (Kurofune) is also the title of the first Japanese Opera, composed by Kosaku Yamada, "based on the story of Tojin Okichi, a geisha caught up in the turmoil that swept Japan in the waning years of the Tokugawa shogunate" ^[2] and premiered in 1940.^[3]

See also

• French Military Mission to Japan (1867-1868)
• Gunboat diplomacy
• History of Japan
• Manifest destiny
• Sakoku
• Unequal Treaties
• United States Korean Expedition of 1871
• Pacific Overtures
• Madama Butterfly, a representation of the roughly the same times in a European perspective

Notes

References

• Perry, Matthew Calbraith. (1856). Narrative of the expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, 1856. New York : D. Appleton and Company. [digitized by University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, "China Through Western Eyes." ]
• Taylor, Bayard. (1855). A visit to India, China, and Japan in the year 1853 New York : G.P. Putnam's sons. [digitized by University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, "China Through Western Eyes." ]

External links

• New National Theatre Tokyo
• Opera Japonica