1860: Japanese Embassy to America Visits Hawaii

In 1860 the Tokugawa government in Japan sent ambassadors to the United States of America to exchange of ratifications covered in the Treaty of Peace and Amity negotiated with U.S. Consul Townsend Harris, and to formalize relations between the U.S. and Japan. Two ships carrying Americans and the Japanese ambassadorial delegation embarked on a journey that would change history. One of the ships, the U.S.S. Powhatan, stopped in Hawaii with the Japanese Embassy for about ten days.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Cross-cultural Camera: Photography and the 1860 Japanese Embassy

I was perusing the Internet where I found this link to the American Museum of Photography. (picture credit)

It's interesting to note how the invention and development of photography helped bridge east and west. So, the timing of the Japanese Embassy's journey to the USA via the Hawaiian Islands is fortuitous.

This link takes online visitors to the section on the 1860 Embassy, focusing particularly on Tateishi Onojiro Noriyuki, known to many as "Tommy." The photos featured here were by renowned photographer Charles D. Fredricks of New York City.

So far I've not found any evidence that photographers were present when the Japanese Embassy and the officers and crew of the U.S. Powhatan stopped in Honolulu in March, 1860.

1860: Japanese Embassy to America Visits Hawaii

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Cross-cultural Camera: Photography and the 1860 Japanese Embassy

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