Where: East-West
Center Gallery; Honolulu, Hawaii. When: Nov.
30, 2003 – Dec.
7, 2003. Gallery hours for this exhibit are Monday – Friday,
8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, Noon – 4:00
p.m.
What: This exhibition introduces three aspects
of Commodore Perry’s mission to Japan in 1853-1854: the
Black Ships, Encounters, and Portraits.
Reproductions drawn from numerous sources in
Japan and United States are juxtaposed here for the first time
to illuminate the many dimensions of this momentous encounter.
Visitors can also see an intimate, often humorous
first-hand illustration, the “Black Ship Scroll,” unfold
on screen much as it might have been viewed by Japanese those
many years ago.
: Dec.
6, 2003; 2:00 p.m.; East-West Center Gallery. Admission: Free.
Parking: Visitor parking on the adjacent UH
campus is $3 and is usually easily available on the Upper
Campus after 4 p.m. weekdays; Sunday parking is normally
free and ample.
Presented by: JAIMS, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, the Consulate General of Japan in
Honolulu, and the East-West
Center.
Sponsors: This exhibit is made
possible through the generous support of AIG
Hawaii Insurance Company, Inc., Aloha
Airlines and Island Air, Apple
Computers, Inc., BearingPoint,
Inc., Becker
Communications,The Consulate General of Japan in
Los Angeles,
First
Insurance Company of Hawaii, Ltd.,
Howard and Joanne Hamamoto,
Hawaiian
Host, Inc., Hawaii Pacific Rim Society,
Hawaii
Prince Hotel Waikiki,
,
Island
Movers, Inc.,
ITOEN
(USA) Inc.,
JTB
Goodwill Foundation,
Kobayashi Development Group, and Floyd Takeuchi and Kris Tanahara.
History
Black Ships and Samurai: 1853-1854
above left:
S. Wells Williams (a missionary from China who knew some Japanese), detail
from an 8-fold screen entitled, “Assembled Paintings of Commodore Perry’s
Visit,” color on paper, unknown Japanese artist, 1854, (c) Tokyo University
Historiographical Institute.
above right:
Chief Magistrate of Napha, lithograph based on daguerreotype by Eliphalet Brown,
Jr., from the official Narrative of Perry’s Expedition, US Navy, 1856.
On July 8, 1853, residents of Uraga on the
outskirts of Edo, the sprawling capital of feudal Japan, beheld
an astonishing
sight. Four foreign warships
had entered their harbor under a cloud of black smoke, not a sail visible
among them. They were, startled observers quickly learned, two coal-burning
steamships towing two sloops under the command of a dour and imperious
American. Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry had arrived
to force the long-secluded
country to open its doors to the outside world.
Perry departed after establishing preliminary
relations with the feudal government. He returned the
next year for a longer visit that culminated in a treaty opening
two ports to foreign vessels. Japan’s long epoch
of isolation, dating back to the 1630s, was shattered forever. There
was no turning back after 1854.
This initial encounter between the United States
and Japan was eye-opening for all concerned, involving a dramatic
confrontation between peoples of different racial, cultural,
and historical backgrounds. We can literally see this
encounter of “East” and “West” unfold
through the splendid, yet little known, artwork produced by
each side at the time.
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