Archaeological Analysis of Japanese Visual Knowledge of Western Vessels Before 1853

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper is an investigation into Japanese understanding of Western vessels from 1780 to 1853. From 1640 to 1853, Japan held an isolationist outlook on foreign diplomacy, slowly moving to a paradigm of limiting trade and external relations to a few locus points, with the Dutch existing as the sole accepted European presence. At the turn of the 19th century, this world order started to crumble, with a noted increase in American, British, and Russian vessels off the coast of Japan. This increase was in spurts, with four discrete periods, and the fourth leading to the “opening” of Japan in 1853-4 by Commodore Perry of the U.S. Navy. By fully elucidating Japanese knowledge of these vessels through contemporary prints, drawings, and imported line plans, a rounded conception of the vessel, the foreign people, Japanese construction elements, and Japanese attempts at building Western-style vessels emerge.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)

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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow