1855

Ansei 2 (安政二年)

Timeline of 1855

• Ansei 1/11/25 (Jan. 12) Commodore Perry arrives in New York.
• Ansei 1/12/9 (Jan 26) The USS Powhatan returns to Shimoda with the ratification instruments for the Convention of Kanagawa, signed the previous year.
• Ansei 1/12/21 (Feb 7) Treaty of Shimoda signed between Russia and Japan.
• 1855/1/5 (Feb 21) Commander Henry A. Adams of the Powhatan and Japanese representatives exchange ratified copies of the Convention of Kanagawa, completing the agreement process, and the Powhatan departs Japan the following day.
• 1855/1/21 (March 9) The Ryûkyû-USA Treaty of Amity is ratified by the US Congress and officially announced by President Franklin Pierce.
• 1855/2/22 The shogunate declares all of Ezo territory under direct shogunate control, leaving the Matsumae clan in control only of a certain area of land immediately around Matsumae.
• 1855/5/19 A Ryukyuan mission to Edo departs from Naha.
• 1855/5/29 The Ryukyuan mission to Edo arrives at Kagoshima.
• 1855/10 French ships call at Ryûkyû.
• 1855/10 The shogunate grants permission for samurai and commoners to settle in Ezo and offers loans to those who engage in developing the land.
• 1855/10/2 Ansei Earthquake strikes Edo.
• 1855/10/15 A Treaty of Amity is signed between France and the Kingdom of Ryûkyû, allowing a French mission to be established, and for Frenchmen to move freely within the kingdom.
• 1855/12/3 Tokugawa Yoshinobu (head of the Hitotsubashi family) and Ichijô Mikako marry.

Other Events of 1855

• Abe Masahiro steps down as Tairô.
• Bernard Bettelheim publishes his translation of the Gospel of Luke into Okinawan.
• The Dutch gift the shogunate a telegraph.
• The Kyoto Imperial Palace is rebuilt.
• Muslims in China's southwestern provinces rise up in rebellion; they are not suppressed until 1873.
• Paris hosts a World's Fair for the first time - the Exposition Universelle of 1855.
• The Ryukyuan mission to Edo is canceled, and returns home to Ryûkyû from Kagoshima, in the aftermath of the Ansei Earthquake.
• Yôgakusho (Bureau of Western Studies) is founded by the shogunate.

Births and Deaths

• Yôga painter Goseda Yoshimatsu is born (d. 1915).
• Inukai Tsuyoshi is born (d. 1932).
• Yûzen artist Nishimura Sozaemon XII is born (d. 1935).
• 1855/2/16 Former Gonnodainagon Takakura Nagamasa dies.
• 1855/4/20 Maeda Toshiyoshi, lord of Daishôji han, dies.
• 1855/5/26 Chôshû retainer Murata Seifû born.
• 1855/7/28 Tsugaru Tsugutomi, heir to the lord of Hirosaki han, dies. Retainers Ôyatsu Iwagorô and Tateyama Gen'emon follow him in death.
• 1855/10/15 Sagara Nagatomi, lord of Hitoyoshi han, dies.

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