Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912

Even during these hectic days there were occasional agreeable interludes. In the eleventh month of 1857, Sachinomiya, in his sixth year, composed a poem,27 the first of his 100,000 tanka.

Harris warned that if war broke out with England, Japan would lose. Finally, he promised that if Japan signed a treaty with the United States, the latter would include a guarantee to prohibit the sale of opium, in this way distinguishing America from England.

President Franklin Pierce

On December 7, 1857, the shogun Tokugawa Iesada granted Harris an audience in the Hall of State Ceremonies.

Harris left Shimoda on November 23, 1857, accompanied by his Dutch interpreter, Henry Heusken,20 and escorted by a great many soldiers provided by the shogunate, anxious to ensure that no mishap occur on the way. In the number of soldiers, the heralds, and in many other respects, it was much like a daimyo’s procession. Harris wrote in his diary, “T

Again, in correspondence with other countries your country’s attitude is often arrogant, and when addressing them the language used is that of giving commands to a vassal state. This is something that all foreigners find disagreeable. At present the major countries in the world are England, America, Russia, and France. Your country is about to open

Life inside the palace fell increasingly behind life elsewhere in Japan. Traditional rites were performed exactly as in the past, and they, rather than modern medicine, were used to cure illness. Although the efficacy of vaccination against smallpox had become fairly well known elsewhere in Japan, and Meiji as a small boy was secretly vaccinated,13

Two days after Harris’s arrival in Shimoda, Jan Hendrik Donker Curtius (1813–1879), formerly the chief merchant of the Dutch trading station on Deshima but now the Netherlands government commissioner, sent (by way of the Nagasaki magistrate) a letter to the shogunate in which he urged that the policy of the closed country be abandoned.

The emperor, his consort, the prince, and the others of the court moved in procession to the new palace on January 1, 1856.