Black Ships

The Black Ships (in Japanese: 黒船, romanized: kurofune, Edo period term) was the name given to Western vessels arriving in Japan in the 16th and 19th centuries.

In 1543,

Their arrival marked the reopening of the country to political dialogue after more than two hundred years of self-imposed isolation. Trade with Western nations followed five years later with the Treaty of Amity and Commerce. After this, the kurofune became a symbol of the end of isolation.

First kurofune ships: nau do trato

In 1543 Portuguese traders arrived in Japan initiating the first contacts with the West. Soon they established a trade route linking their headquarters in

Carracks of 1200 to 1600 tons,[4] named nau do trato ("treaty ship") or nau da China by the Portuguese,^[5] engaged in this trade had the hull painted black with pitch, and the term^[6] came to apply for all western vessels. The name was inscribed in the Nippo Jisho, the first western Japanese dictionary compiled in 1603.

In 1549 Spanish missionary

Commodore Perry's superior military force was the principal factor in negotiating a treaty allowing American trade with Japan, thus effectively ending the Sakoku period of more than 200 years in which trading with Japan had been permitted to the Dutch, Koreans, Chinese, and Ainu exclusively.

The sight of the four ships entering

The following year, at the Convention of Kanagawa, Perry returned with a fleet of eight of the fearsome Black Ships, to demonstrate the power of the United States navy, and to lend weight to his announcement that he would not leave again, until he had a treaty. In the interim, after a debate by officials the Japanese government had decided to avoid war and agree to a treaty with the United States.^{[10] [8]}

After roughly a month of negotiations, the

In Japanese culture

The surprise and fear inspired by the first visit of the Black Ships are described in this famous

humorous poem in 31-syllable waka

form):

泰平の	Taihei no
眠りを覚ます	Nemuri o samasu
上喜撰	Jōkisen
たった四杯で	Tatta shihai de
夜も眠れず	Yoru mo nemurezu

^{[citation needed]}

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.

There is an alternative 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:

Breaking the halcyon slumber
of the Pacific;
The steam-powered ships,
a mere four boats are enough
to make us lose sleep at night.

Kosaku Yamada and premiering in 1940, "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".^[11][12]

See also

• Treaty of Shimoda
• Russian frigate Pallada
• French Military Mission to Japan (1867-1868)
• Gunboat diplomacy
• Dutch missions to Edo
• Sakoku
• United States expedition to Korea
• Pacific Overtures, a musical about Japan's westernization in the 19th century by Stephen Sondheim
• Madama Butterfly, an opera about a US Navy officer and his Japanese wife by Giacomo Puccini

Notes

1. ISBN 0060100443
   .
2. ^ "Perry Ceremony Today; Japanese and U. S. Officials to Mark 100th Anniversary". New York Times. July 8, 1953.
3. ^ Charles Ralph Boxer (1951). The Christian Century in Japan: 1549–1650. University of California Press. p. 91. GGKEY:BPN6N93KBJ7. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
4. ISBN 0-582-05069-3
   .
5. ^ Rodrigues, Helena. "Nau do trato". Cham. Archived from the original on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
6. ISBN 978-0-415-23980-6
   . Retrieved July 23, 2013.
7. ^ Ronald P. Toby, State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, (1984) 1991.
8. ^
   ISBN 9780824821272
   .
9. ^
   ISBN 0804708150
   .
10. ISBN 0060100443
    .
11. ^ "'Black Ships' opera". New National Theatre Tokyo.
12. ^ "Simon Holledge's interview with Hiroshi Oga citing the premiere of the 'Black Ships' opera". Archived from the original on 2010-05-31.

References

• Arnold, Bruce Makoto (2005). Diplomacy Far Removed: A Reinterpretation of the U.S. Decision to Open Diplomatic Relations with Japan (Thesis). University of Arizona. [1]
• 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. Archived from the original on 2017-05-19. Retrieved 2008-08-13. [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. Archived from the original on 2016-03-11. Retrieved 2008-08-13. [digitized by University of Hong Kong Libraries, Digital Initiatives, "China Through Western Eyes." ]

External links

• Black Ship Festival celebrating the arrival of the Blackships and the opening of Japan to the world.
• New National Theatre Tokyo
• Opera Japonica