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To begin, please choose a chapter above...
On July 8, 1853, residents of Uraga
on the outskirts of Edo, the sprawling capital of feudal
Japan, beheld an astonishing sight. Four foreign warships
had entered their harbor under a cloud of black smoke, not
a sail visible among them. They were, startled observers
quickly learned, two coal-burning steamships towing two
sloops under the command of a dour and imperious American.
Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry had arrived to force the
long-secluded country to open its doors to the outside world.
Thus begins the extraordinary story that follows. In 1854, Commodore
Perry returned to Japan to complete his mission. The events
of 1853 and 1854 constitute a pivotal moment in the modern encounter
between “East” and “West.”
This initial interaction of Americans and Japanese was eye opening
for all concerned. It involved a dramatic confrontation between
peoples of different racial, cultural, and historical backgrounds
- and we can literally see this unfolding through the artwork
produced by each side at the time.
These wonderful visual materials have never before been brought
together in a comprehensive manner. The lengthy “Core
Exhibit” that follows weaves approximately 200 Japanese
and American graphics together with an analytical text to demonstrate
how each side depicted the other - and, indeed, how each depicted
the same events.
It is difficult to imagine another moment in history where the
first great interaction of two sophisticated cultures and peoples
produced such a vivid and illuminating outburst of visual expression.
NOTE: Any use of textual and/or visual materials in this
website must give full credit to “Visualizing Cultures”
and the MIT OpenCourseWare project. This includes attribution
of the text to John W. Dower and any images to the original
sources indicated with each individual graphic.
Black Ships & Samurai © 2004
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A project of professors John W. Dower & Shigeru Miyagawa
Developed for the MIT OpenCourseWare initiative
Design and production: Ellen Sebring, Scott Shunk, and Andrew Burstein |
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