1853

Kaei 6 (嘉永六年)

Timeline of 1853

• 1853/2/29 American fleet (Black Ships) led by Commodore Matthew Perry lands at Hong Kong.
• 1853/3/27 Perry's fleet lands at Shanghai.
• 1853/4/19 Perry's fleet lands at Naha.
• 1853/4/23 Several of Perry's men seize the main assembly hall / schoolhouse of Tomari, establishing it as an American residence.
• 1853/4/26 The Caprice from Perry's fleet departs Okinawa for Shanghai, carrying laundry, $800 to be deposited into the banks in the name of British missionary Bernard Bettelheim, and post, including a letter from Commodore Perry to the US Secretary of the Navy, and Bettleheim's first missives in 11 months.
• 1853/4/28 The Ryukyuan royal regent visits Perry aboard ship and attempts to convince him to give up his intentions to visit Shuri castle. Perry denies Bettelheim's request to travel with him to Japan.
• 1853/4/30 Perry enters Shuri castle, though he is denied an audience with the king or dowager queen.
• 1853/5/1 Perry holds a full-dress review of his fleet at Naha Harbor.
• 1853/5/2 Perry claims a portion of the Gokoku-ji complex where Bettelheim had been living as pasture for the fleet's flocks.
• 1853/5/3 Two American ships depart Naha for the Ogasawara Islands.
• 1853/5/8 Perry's fleet reaches the Ogasawara Islands, and claims them for the United States.
• 1853/5/17 Perry returns to Naha.
• 1853/5/20 Bettelheim preaches to the Americans aboard the Plymouth at Naha.
• 1853/5/26 Perry leaves Okinawa with four ships, on his first journey to Japan.
• 1853/6/1 Two ships depart Miyako Island, carrying away 280 Chinese coolies who had hidden out on the island, bringing a resolution to the Robert Browne Incident of the previous year.
• 1853/6/3 Perry's fleet lands at Uraga near Edo, presents credentials from Pres. Fillmore to Tokugawa shogunate officials.
• 1853/6 Abe Masahiro reports on the arrival of the Black Ships to the Imperial Court.
• 1853/6/9 Perry delivers the formal letter from President Millard Fillmore, and states that he will return "in due course" to receive the emperor's reply.
• 1853/6/20 Perry and his fleet return to Naha.
• 1853/6/23 Perry meets with the Ryukyuan regent, and receives the formal response to his insistence that the kingdom allow for the construction of a coaling station at Naha and the free welcoming of American ships. The regent denies his request at first, but capitulates once the commodore threatens to seize Shuri castle.
• 1853/6/27 Perry departs Okinawa.
• 1853/7/18 Russian embassy under Putyatin arrives in Nagasaki.
• 1853 July The shogunate consults various daimyô on the issue of opening the country. Tokugawa Nariaki of Mito han is appointed to oversee the country's naval defense.
• 1853 August Construction begins on coastal fort at Shinagawa.
• 1853 September Ban on the construction of large ships is lifted.

Other Events

Births and Deaths

• 1853/6/22 Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi (b. 1793) dies and is succeeded by Tokugawa Iesada.
• Ernest Fenollosa is born (d. 1908).
• Hayashi Tadamasa, Paris-based art dealer, is born (d. 1906).
• Katayama Tôkuma, architect of the Nara and Kyoto National Museums, is born (d. 1917).
• Kimono dealer Kawashima Jinbei II is born (d. 1910).

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