Second recorded copy of the Kanagawa Treaty of Friendship, resulting in the opening of Japan to trade with the West. The American expection to open Japan was undertaken at the suggestion of its leader, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry (1794-1858). ''The key document caried by Perry to Japan was a letter to the Emperor from President Fillmore, in which the President requested Japan to open relations, cooperate in the development of trade, assist distressed whalers and provide bunkering and supplies for ships on the California to China run.
The Treaty of Friendship (1854) negotiated by Perry provided for 'perfect, permanent and universal piece', and it contained assurances that the Japanese would meet the demands of the United States for safe haven and acces to naval supplies. Two ports, Shimoda and Hakodate, were to be openened for this purpose, and Americans using them were to be allowed to exhange gold and silver for goods 'under regulations for this purpose', and were not to be subject to restrictions on movement as stringent as those applied to the Dutch and Chinese. The treaty does not include provisions for the development of normal foreign trade'' (Howe), but it did provide for the stationing of American consuls in Japan, of which the first was Townshend Harris (1804-1878), an avid student of Engelbert Kaempfer who played an important part in the early economic education of Japanese leadership and among others was the negotiator of the Treaty of Shimoda in 1857 which granted the Americans extraterritorial rights. Fine copy. Extremely rare document concerning the opening of Japan to trade with the West and an important Americanum as well. Howe, The origins of Japanese trade supremacy (London, 1999), pp. 73-74; WorldCat and RLIN (1 copy in Harvard); not in Cordier, Japonica; the Library of Congress; Nipponalia; NUC; Sabin.