[PERRY EXPEDITION TO JAPAN]

[Collected Essays on Defence Strategy, and an Account of Perry's Arrival in Japan]

[Edo. 1853-1854]. (9 1/5 x 6 1/2 inches). [104] pp., including illustrations. Light worming to initial leaves, slightly affecting text.

Original grey wrappers, stitched as issued, manuscript cover label

A contemporary Japanese manuscript sammelband recording the defensive anxieties and administrative response prompted by Commodore Matthew C. Perry's return to Japan in 1854, with manuscript maps, plans, and sketches connected with the negotiations at Kanagawa.

This composite manuscript brings together two Japanese reports produced in the immediate context of Perry's expedition to Japan. The first, a "Strategy for Coastal Defence" concerning the area around Edo, is attributed to Yamaga Motomi. The second gives an account of Perry's arrival in 1854, when the American squadron returned to Edo Bay and negotiations with the Tokugawa authorities led to the Convention of Kanagawa. Together they preserve a Japanese view of a decisive diplomatic and military encounter, seen through the practical concerns of coastal defence, official protocol, ship identification, personnel lists, and the exchange of gifts. The Perry account records the names of the American vessels, names of some members of the crews, crew numbers, and a list of gifts presented to Perry by the Tokugawa shogunate. Such details place the manuscript within the administrative culture of information-gathering that surrounded the so-called Black Ships. The arrival of armed steam vessels in Edo Bay demanded rapid assessment, copying, and circulation of foreign intelligence, and this volume appears likely to have been compiled for official or semi-official consultation. The manuscript is particularly notable for its visual material. It includes a two-page manuscript map of the bay near Kanagawa, now part of Yokohama, where the Convention of Kanagawa was signed; a pen and ink plan of the buildings laid out for the signing compound; a pencil sketch of Commodore Perry; a drawing of the obverse and reverse of a one-shilling piece; and two pages of ink sketches of the gravestone of a sailor identified as "R.W.," who died during the expedition and was buried ashore. These illustrations give the volume a documentary immediacy unusual in later printed accounts, preserving the diplomatic outcome alongside the spaces, objects, and individuals through which the encounter was understood by Japanese observers. Perry first entered Edo Bay in July 1853, carrying President Fillmore's request for relations with Japan, and returned with a larger squadron in February 1854. The resulting Convention of Kanagawa, signed on 31 March 1854, opened Shimoda and Hakodate to American vessels and marked the beginning of formal United States relations with Tokugawa Japan. This manuscript belongs to that moment of transition, when Japanese officials, scholars, and military thinkers were recording the appearance of foreign naval power and considering the defence of the shogun's capital.

Item #34754

Price: $12,000.00