Lucas Cuatrecasas - The U.S.S. Columbus and Vincennes in Japan
Lucas Cuatrecasas
The U.S.S. Columbus and Vincennes in Japan
In this American lithograph representing Commodore Biddle’s 1946 expedition to Japan, the stiff, black forms of the U.S. Columbus and Vincennes sprout masts that pierce the horizon, rupturing the dreamy hills of a landscape that is clearly unfamiliar. Infinitely many small, wooden boats swarm about the two American vessels. The waters appear calm and bright, and the cloudy sky is blanched with warm sunlight. The atmosphere of this scene is rather placid, and yet the disconcerting number of Japanese boats crowded around the two American warships gives the image an air of urgency and tension. What, if anything, can this image tell us about how the American public conceived of the Japanese? Equally important, what can it tell us about how the Japanese received Biddle’s failed attempt at a diplomatic overture?
Produced using sketches done by John Eastly [1], this lithograph was published in 1848, two years after Biddle’s landing southeast of Edo bay. In broad historical terms, the mid-nineteenth century was a time when curiosity about Japan and the possibilities of economic links to Asia were beginning to catch on in America. Some views from this time may clarify the origins of this lithograph, the expedition it represents, and it message it was supposed to covey. In a 1849 pamphlet, rabidly pro-Japan businessman Aaron Haight Palmer exalts Japan as a paragon of order and national cohesion. “The Japanese are a vigorous, energetic people...” he states, “and they are distinguished from all other Orientals by a lofty, chivalrous sense of honor.” [2] Indeed, this strange idealization of Japan may be found in the text that accompanies our image: “The Country around was beautifully green and the fields... were in fine order and to all appearance well cultivated.” “The people polite, amiable and exceedingly jealous of their customs...” [3] Perhaps this image, with its mystical landscape and profusion of small boats, was meant to lend credence to the notion of a peaceable yet stern Japan.
As for what this image may tell us about what happened on the Japanese side, history gives us excellent context for what this image withholds. We know that, while Biddle’s mission did not succeed in opening Japanese ports to trade, it represented a trend of increasing foreign pressure on Japan and on the Tokugawa regime especially. As Andrew Gordon points out, grappling with powers larger than itself, “[s]uddenly the Tokugawa bakufu’s very legitimacy was called into question.” [4] Some of this anxiety is perceptible in our image in the enormous amount of boats that surround Biddle’s warships. Also important is that the landscape shows little evidence of settlements, which may reflect the centralization of urbanity and culture in Edo (hidden from view in this lithograph) during the Tokugawa period. Nevertheless, we must keep in mind that the emptiness of the landscape could very well have been exaggerated by American assumptions of Japanese rurality. While it’s certain that contemporary American ideas about Japan have had clear effects on this artwork, the realism of the scene invites us to think of what the Japanese might have been experiencing on the other side of the pictorial wall, amid the rapid changes that Biddle’s ships foreshadowed.
Footnotes:
1 Presumably an artist employed by the state to record scenes from the mission, similar to Wilhelm Heine during Perry’s voyage. It is equally possible, however, that Eastly produced his sketches using only his imagination. Unfortunately, Eastly did not achieve quite the same recognition as Heine, as evidenced by the fact that information on Eastly is rather difficult to find.
2 Aaron Haight Palmer, “An American Businessman’s View of Japan (1849).” In Peter Duus, The Japanese Discovery of America. Boston: Bedford, 1997. pp. 67-70.
3 Based on sketches by John Eastly, “The U.S.S. Columbus and Vincennes in Japan,” Japan's Samurai Revolution, accessed September 28, 2014, http://samurairevolution.omeka.net/items/show/5.
4 Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.