Cool Moments in History: The last Samurai visit America in 1860
No Tom Cruise I am afraid, this is the story of a group of 76 Samurai that went on a diplomatic tour to America in 1860. Two things that made this particularly interesting was:
Japan was just beginning to open up and modernise after over 200 years of self imposed isolation
And within the next decade the Samurai would lose their place in Japanese society and be confined to the history books
The Edo era
After centuries of civil and international wars the Tokugawa family consolidated control of japan in 1602 and brought about over 200 years of peace. It did this by imposing a strict caste system and ruling with an iron fist. They also instituted a policy of isolation, rarely trading with outsiders.
This was likely a price the people were willing to pay, after the wars of the past centuries. And it worked, Japan flourished culturally and economically with benefits being felt at all levels of society. This is known as Japans Golden age.
It is at the beginning of the end of this period that our story takes place.
famous art of the time, The Great Wave off Kanagawa
The west comes a calling
In 1853 a flotilla of American navy ships forced Japan to reopen it's trade with the rest of the world. The ships were led by Commodore Matthew Perry and they were only the last of many attempts by western nations to regain access to Japans unique resources.
This was a wake up call to Japan as it realised, industrially, how far behind the west it was. They were worried, and rightly so. When some of the European powers heard of America's success they to sent heavily armed 'trade' missions to japan.
So Japan was reopened, it was a disaster for Japan, the economy crumbled under the weight of the foreign goods, that were of higher quality and cheaper, due to the industrialisation of the importers.
Samurai in New York
So Japan set itself a goal to modernise. One of the ways it did this was to reopen diplomatic ties with other countries. And one of those those diplomatic missions was our 76 samurai.
They arrived in San Francisco at the beginning of 1860. There one of the samurai, Fukuzawa Yukichi, began to learn english after buying an english-chinese dictionary. He would go on to write his own japanese english dictionary, as well as much more. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern Japan.
With Japan having been closed for the last 200 years this delegation was extremely popular, with high levels of media interest. The youngest of the samurai, a Tateishi Onojiro, was nicknamed 'Tommy' and had a number one one song written about him, named Tommy Polka. Video below of Maestro Mamoru Takahara and New York Symphonic Ensemble performing it.
They then traveled via panama to the east coast where they visited Washington, Philadelphia and New York. They met with the President in a White house Gala and were honoured with a parade up Broadway. This must of been quite a culture shock to these samurai, growing up in the, near, fully isolated Japan.
Homecoming
Upon returning to Japan the Samurai were accused of westernising while in America, and indeed some of them had even converted to Christianity. They likely picked up a few more habits along the way.
A struggle broke out between the forces that wanted to westernise and the ones that wanted Japan to return to it's old ways broke out over the next several years. A struggle the Samurai class would not survive.
References
http://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/edo-era-in-Japan
http://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/samurai-in-new-york-city
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Embassy_to_the_United_States_(1860)
http://blogs.bu.edu/guidedhistory/historians-craft/fall-of-samurai/
Pictures from wikapedia, video from youtube
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