Japanese Embassy to the United States
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The Japanese Embassy to the United States was dispatched in 1860 by the Tokugawa shogunate (bakufu). Its objective was to ratify the new Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation between the United States and Japan, in addition to being Japan's first diplomatic mission to the United States since the 1854 opening of Japan by Commodore Matthew Perry.
Kanrin Maru (circa 1860)
The three plenipotentiary members of the Japanese embassy: Muragaki Norimasa, Shinmi Masaoki, and Oguri Tadamasa.
Fukuzawa Yukichi with Theodora Alice in San Francisco, 1860.
Reception at the White House
Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States–Japan)
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The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States , also called the Harris Treaty was a treaty signed between the United States and Tokugawa Shogunate, which opened the ports of Kanagawa and four other Japanese cities to trade and granted extraterritoriality to foreigners, among a number of trading stipulations. It was signed on the deck of the USS Powhatan in Edo Bay on July 29, 1858.
Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States, or "Harris Treaty", 29 July 1858. Diplomatic Record Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)
USS Powhatan (1850)
President James Buchanan welcomes the Japanese delegation at a White House gala celebrating the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce.