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
Kimura Kaishū
Videos
Kimura Kaishū , also known as Kimura Yoshitake (木村喜毅), was a Japanese admiral known for being the commander of the Japanese Embassy to the United States in 1860, Japan's first foreign embassy mission after the end of sakoku, sailing aboard the Kanrin Maru. He was also the governor of Settsu Province, which covered parts of modern-day Osaka prefecture and Hyogo prefecture.
