Man'en 2 (万延二年) / Bunkyû 1 (文久元年)
Timeline of 1861
- 1861/2/3 Russian ship Posadnik drops anchor at Tsushima.
- 1861/5 Sonnô jôi activists from Mito han attack the British legation in Edo, killing 21.
- 1861/5/23-6/9 The Great Comet of 1861 is observed in Okinawa.
- 1861/10/20 Kazu-no-miya departs Kyoto for Edo to marry Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi.
- 1861/12/2 (Jan 1, 1862) The first official Tokugawa shogunate embassy to Europe, led by Takeuchi Yasunori, departs from Edo.
Other Events of 1861
- Currency conversion is undertaken in Ryûkyû, with each copper coin being replaced by two in iron.
- King Shô Tai of Ryûkyû orders a nationwide prayer be held for China, in light of the Taiping Rebellion and Anglo-French invasion of Beijing as part of the Second Opium War.
- Kondô Isami becomes the fourth head of the Tennen Rishin-ryû.
- Sakamoto Ryôma joins the Tosa Loyalist Party.
- A Ryukyuan tribute mission is denied permission to travel to Beijing, and stays in Fuzhou for several months, requesting permission and being denied several times, before finally returning to Ryûykû.
- Political cartoonist Charles Wirgman arrives in Japan.
- China establishes the Zongli Yamen, an office managing China's foreign relations within a Western world order of international relations between nation-states.
Births and Deaths
- 1860/12/5 (January 15, 1861) Henry Heusken is killed (b. 1832).
- Kamekawa Seitô (Mô Yûkei) is born (d. 1893).
- Ukiyo-e dealer Kobayashi Bunshichi is born (d. 1923).
- Diplomat and politician Makino Nobuaki is born (d. 1949).
- Christian thinker & critic Uchimura Kanzô is born (d. 1930).
- Utagawa Kuniyoshi dies (b. 1797).
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