Invaluable manuscript chronology of the earliest ships entering the port of Shimoda after the implementation of the Japanese-American treaty which opened up foreign trade with the previously isolationist nation, covering two years from February 1854 to February 1856, presented in the meticulous hand of a contemporary observer who compiled firsthand information as well as his own, together with a manuscript drawing of a Dutch sea captain in naval attire, made by Kitajima Toen. Manuscript: 8vo. 30 pages plus titled cover, string-tied at center of spine with rolled up paper, opening from left to right, measuring approximately 17 x 24 cm. Text is in Japanese, with occasional annotations in red ink. Drawing: Single leaf measuring approximately 24 x 33 cm, titled and signed in manuscript, with red ink stamp. Some creasing and indication of burrowing, otherwise in very good and original condition, clean and bright internally, an invaluable log of the earliest trade activity from the onset of the Convention of Kanagawa. With precise details, the writer keeps a record of vessels from America, Russia and France, arriving at Edo Bay, beginning with the return of Commodore Perry in February 1854 for the signing of what would be the Kanagawa Treaty, and continuing for two full years, featuring descriptions of the ships including dimensions and armament, repairs and supplies procured, captains' names and crew sizes, and their activities in Shimoda. This document is not only an invaluable historical log of the first and most significant foreign vessels to interact with Japan during the formative years of the Unequal Treaties, it may have been used in the Japanese study of foreign ships for their own benefit. Immediately after bowing to the demands of the powerful Western ships and their commanders, an active assimilation of Western technological advances in warships ensued in the Japanese Navy. In 1855 Japan acquired its first steam driven warship, and in 1857 its first screw driven warship. Japanese Naval students were sent abroad to naval schools in England, France, the Netherlands, and the like. By the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1867, its navy would possess eight western-style steam warships. The first vessels mentioned in the manuscript are from Perry's daunting and expanded 'Black Ships' fleet, including the Mississippi which had been one of the original four, as well the Vandalia, the Southampton, the Powhatan, and the Supply, the latter of which joined the squadron after the actual landing on 8 March. The Russian vessels being described in 1854, include the Russian Imperial Navy flagship frigate 'Diana' commanded by Vice-Admiral Euphimy Vasil'evich Putiatin, and possibly his former flagship frigate 'Pallada' which had been performing survey missions around the Japanese coast since 1853 and whose crew was transferred to Diana upon her arrival. The crew members of the Diana are listed by name, including her Imperial Navy officers, a cook, a waiter, and an interpreter. The earliest French vessel to arrive after Commodore Perry's successful treaty implementation, was a cruiser that arrived in Shimoda in February 1855, being 'Le Lion' which also landed at the Ryukyu Islands with the French missionaries from the 'Missions Étrangères de Paris', Girard, Furet and Mermet, hoping to discuss their interests in evangilizing. Catholicism was strictly forbidden in Japan. They also landed at Naha, the main port of Okinawa, on 26 February. The cruiser was denied any official communication as a formal agreement did not exist between France and Japan. On this voyage, Father Louis Théodore Furet, an apostolic missionary, carried out instrumental observations at Nafa [Naha, Okinawa] on the Ryûkyû Islands. A set of the meteorological manuscripts by Father Furet was given to Jean Barthe, the physician onboard the French frigate 'La Sibylle', who forwarded them to the 'Académie des Sciences' in Paris and to the 'Société Météorologique de France'. Meteorological observations were also carried out by Jean Barthe from 'La Sibylle'. Although negotiations were denied, the two French warships were permitted at the port of Hakodate, in Hokkaido, and members of the crew of La Sibylle who suffered severely from dysentery and scurvy received medical aid and food in a Buddhist temple. In Spring 1855, France sent an embassy under Commander-in-Chief of the French Oriental Naval Force, Captain Nicolas Francois Guerin, commanding the French warship 'La Virginie', in order to obtain similar advantages to those of other Western powers. Guerin is known for playing the primary role on behalf of the French, in pressing for, obtaining the first negotiations, and then signing a Treaty of Amity between France and the Ryûkyû Kingdom.
