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Category: History

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Perry in Edo Bay: The Dawn of the U.S.-Japanese Relationship

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The Library of Congress recently acquired one of the most famous Black Ship scrolls -- "Kinkai kikan" ("Strange View off the Coast of Kanagawa") by Otsuki Bankei, a Japanese artist and scholar -- that depicts the arrival of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry and his fleet of steamships in Edo Bay in 1854. The gunboat diplomacy established American relations with Japan.