Townsend Harris
Townsend Harris was the first Consul General of the United States to Japan, and the founder of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is particularly known for the US-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce, also known as the Harris Treaty.
Following Commodore Perry's 1854 Convention of Kanagawa, a US consulate was established at Shimoda. Harris arrived there in August 1856 with official documents from President Franklin Pierce, and with the aims of concluding a commerce treaty with Japan. Harris became the first US consul general resident in Japan, and entered into negotiations with the shogunate's Lead Elder (rôjû shuza) and gaikoku jimu toriatsukai, Hotta Masayoshi. After roughly two years of negotiations and difficulties, on 1858/7/12 (July 29), he was finally able to convince the Tokugawa shogunate to agree to a treaty, opening a number of ports to US trade, and granting Americans a degree of extraterritoriality, among other points.
He returned to the United States in 1862/4, after more than five and a half years in Japan. His time in Japan and relationship with a geisha named Okichi has been fictionalized in numerous plays and films, including Madame Butterfly, and Berthold Brecht's "The Judith of Shimoda."
References
- Dower, John. "Yokohama Boomtown: Foreigners in Treaty Port Japan (1859-1872)." MIT Visualizing Cultures. 2008.
- Plaque on Townsend Harris statue at Sakura castle.
Other Reading
- Statler, Oliver, Shimoda Story, Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1971.
By the author of Japanese Inn. A blow-by-blow, non-flattering account of Harris's first year in Japan, in Shimoda. The book is particularly interesting because it uses a wealth of Japanese material, both national and local, to show how his presence affected national politics and also how the shogunate as well as the local the Shimoda village officials dealt with this nuisance.
