Description
- Abstract:
- Translated as: This pictorial scroll depicts the event when American warships come eastward. According to history, in June, the summer of the sixth year in the Kaei Reign (1853), the government of the United States of North America deployed four large warships and soldiers led by Navy commander Perry to Uraga in order to request for peace treaty and trade exchange, which later was being rejected. Because Americans did not follow Japanese order, the Shogunate had no choice but to establish a temporary office in Kulihama, Uraga. When the American ambassadors landed, they marched swaggeringly, which made all pedestrians feel offended. On the same day, the American ambassadors acted somehow arrogantly. Sometimes, they fired empty artillery shells; sometimes, they robbed civilian houses and intruded into the Japanese inner sea to measure and draw the marine chart. This pictorial scroll recorded what really happened at that time. When I saw and displayed this scroll, the event popped out vividly. Until recently, we have got used to and not felt uncommon about those ships from many foreign countries coming in order to request for peace treaties. If this scroll does not exist, our descendants would not be able to know what the unscrupulousness of foreigners' arrival like this, which is exactly the same as this scroll depicts. Tracing back to the time when Westerners entered into our country, starting from East Guangdong (Kwangtung) (Province) then came to my hometown Ning area [possiblly Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, since Wang is a native of Cixi near Ningbo], fierce and imperious, which were just very similar to this scroll. At that time, I was very young and able to remember what happened. Unfortunately, there is no picture to record those events. When I saw this scroll, I could not stop lamenting. Having wrote the title for the scroll, I then dropped down a few lines of my thoughts following the pictures in order to show my commemoration.
- Notes:
- Part of a 12-panel scroll by an anonymous Japanese artist, origin unknown, but similar to other scrolls produced during this period, such as the Black Ship Scroll.
Access Conditions
- Rights
- No Copyright - United States
- Restrictions on Use
- Collection is open for research.
Citation
"Scroll description"
Perry in Japan: a visual history.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:304543/
Relations
Collection:
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Perry in Japan: a visual history
Materials for use in cross-cultural evaluation of Perry's encounter with the Japanese....