[Perry Expedition - Black Ship Scroll]

[PERRY EXPEDITION - BLACK SHIP SCROLL]

NANPO GUEN. [VISIT TO SHIMODA] CA. 1856

Ink and watercolor on 25 joined linen-mounted rice paper panels in a scroll, 240 mm x 9 meters. On a wooden roller with a silk tie, in wooden box.

A wonderfully illustrated account of the visit of Commodore Perry's U.S. naval squadron to Shimoda following the Treaty of Kanagawa

Perry's 1854 arrival in the remote port of Shimoda aroused great curiosity and was recorded both by anonymous artisans (see previous lot) as well as artists, such as the case with the present lot. One of Perry's interpreters, S. Wells Williams, reported seeing similar scrolls depicting the naval visit just a few weeks after they anchored, "A pictorial representation of our squadron and description annexed, and and account of the war between England and China, were seen today by officers..." Williams goes on the remark that these scrolls couldn't be purchased by Americans) in fact Japanese officials discouraged personal purchases by U.S. personnel). 

What is evident in the present scroll is the Japanese fascination with American military technology. Perry's official account made note of the Japanese being insatiably inquisitive when invited on board. "When visiting the ship, the mandarins and their attendants were never at rest: but went about peering into every nook and corner, peeping into the muzzles of the guns... They were not contented to merely observing with their eyes, but were constantly taking out their writing materials, their mulberry bark paper..." 

The present scroll depicts the deck and of equipment details of one of Perry's frigate steamers, as well as harbor scenes of the ships at anchor (including a moonlight view), maps of their locations, the narrative of their travel from Edo Bay, a portrait of Commodore Perry and two of his interpreters and an account of naval gun salutes and the burial of a sailor with a rendering of his tombstone.

Accomplished by an artist that would almost certainly have had firsthand knowledge of the ships, it is a far more artistically accomplished memorial of Perry's extraordinary visit than many of the more folk-art scrolls that make up the majority of surviving examples.

See previous lot for partial census of extant scrolls and fragments.

PROVENANCE:

Perry Family. Accompanied by a typed transcription of an 1858 account of Commodore Perry's life by R. S. Rodgers (see previous lot for Cailbraith Perry Rodgers provenance. Both properties are from the same estate).