1854

Kaei 7 (嘉永七年) / Ansei 1 (安政元年)

Timeline of 1854

• Kaei 6/12/22-26 (Jan 20-24) Perry's fourth visit to Ryûkyû. Commodore Perry enters Shuri castle for the second time, as a mere show of authority, but is not granted an audience with any royals.
• 1854/1/4-5 (Feb 1-2) Perry departs Ryûkyû for Edo.
• 1854/1/11-24 (Feb 8-21) A Russian fleet under Yevfimy Vasilyevich Putyatin makes port in Naha.
• 1854/1/14 (Feb 11) Perry's fleet arrives at Edo Bay.
• 1854/2/29 (March 27) Crimean War: Britain and France declare war on Russia.
• 1854/3/3 (March 31) The Convention of Kanagawa is concluded.
• 1854/3/23 Putyatin's fleet arrives once again at Nagasaki.
• 1854/4/5 The USS Saratoga makes port in Honolulu on its way back to the US from Japan.
• 1854/5/17 (June 12) Board Incident - American sailor William Board assaults a woman in Naha (or is simply violently drunk more generally) and is killed by a mob of locals (or drowns on his own).
• 1854/6/2 (June 26) Perry and his fleet depart Shimoda for the final time.
• 1854/6/7 (July 1) Perry arrives in Ryûkyû for the fifth time.
• 1854/6/13 There is a fire in the castle-town of Fukui. The fire spreads to more than a thousand homes.
• 1854/6/17 (July 11) The Treaty of Amity between the Ryûkyû Kingdom and the United States is signed by Commodore Perry and the Ryukyuan officials Shô Kôkun and Ba Ryôsai.
• 1854/6/23 (July 17) Perry and his fleet depart Ryûkyû for Hong Kong, taking Bernard Bettelheim with them.
• 1854/int.7/15 (Sept 7) Rear Admiral Sir James Stirling comes to Nagasaki with four ships, seeking to attack Putyatin.
• 1854/8/23 (Oct 14) The Anglo-Japanese Convention of 1854 is signed.
• 1854/9/2 Shogunate officials meet with VOC factor Jan Hendrik Donker Curtius in Nagasaki and discuss the opening of Shimoda and Hakodate to Dutch ships while continuing to restrict trade to the port of Nagasaki alone.
• 1854/9/18 (Nov 8) Putyatin's fleet, led by the Diana, returns to Japan, making port first at Hakodate, then Osaka, before being told to go to Shimoda instead.
• 1854/11/4 (Dec 23) Ansei-Tôkai Earthquake: An earthquake and tsunami strike Shimoda and surrounding areas.
• 1854/11/9 Ansei-Nankai Earthquake: An earthquake and tsunami hit the Nankaidô region.

Other Events of 1854

• In response to the arrival of the Black Ships and of Putyatin, the bakufu calls for all bells in the country to be melted down and refashioned into cannon and rifles - with the exception of bells at head temples (honzan), those used for timekeeping, and those of great age and fame.
• The Buke shohatto are re-promulgated.
• Ichikawa Ebizô V leads a troupe on a kabuki tour in Kamigata (Kansai).
• Reconstuction of Matsumae castle, begun in 1849, is completed.
• Construction on the tenshu of Matsuyama castle (Iyo), begun in 1820, is completed.
• Expeditionary forces of the Russia-America Company occupy Sakhalin Island; the action, and subsequent Russian claims to the island, are justified by Yevfimy Vasilyevich Putyatin based on the concepts of terra nullius and 'prior occupation.'
• Sakamoto Ryôma completes training in Chiba and returns to Tosa han.

Births and Deaths

• Kaei 6/12/26 (Jan 24) Eli Crosby, 2nd assistant engineer on the USS Susquehanna, dies and is later buried in the Tomari International Cemetery.
• 1854/2/8 (March 6) US Marine Private Robert Williams, a member of the crew of the USS Mississippi, dies and is buried at Zôtoku-in in Yokohama; his body is later moved to Gyokusen-ji in Shimoda.
• 1854/2/10 Oda Nobunori, lord of Kashiwabara han, dies (b. 1836).
• 1854/5/17 American sailor William Board is killed/dies in Naha, and is buried at the Tomari International Cemetery.
• 1854/8/18 (Oct 9) Translator Nishi Kichibei is found dead in his home.
• 1854/8/24 Fukuyama han retainer Yamaoka Hachijûrô commits suicide in protest against the shogunate's foreign affairs stances.
• 1854/9/28 (Nov 18) John Miller, Captain Aft G on the USS Vincennes, dies in the Ryukyus and is later buried in Tomari.
• 1854/10/1 (Nov 20) John Williams of the USS Vincennes dies in the Ryukyus and is later buried in Tomari.
• Kabuki actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII commits suicide while on tour in Osaka (b. 1823).
• Shinsengumi member Ichimura Tetsunosuke is born.
• Architect Katayama Tôkuma is born (d. 1917).
• Tsubaki Chinzan dies (b. 1801).

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