Sadahide: Tokugawa Shogun's Western Gunboat Steamship Sailing Near Yokohama with Emperor Komei

Artist: Gountei Sadahide 貞秀  (1807-ca. 1878)  Date: 1864, 1st month

Dramatic show of power that overwhelms everything around it, this illustrates a fascinating slice of Japanese history. Following the very unhappy surprise of Commander Perry’s Black Ships appearing in Edo Bay in 1853, the isolationist Emperor Komei here shows his adoption of western military technology for his own purposes. After unsuccessfully attempting to build domestic steam warships, the Shogunate and the domains in 1861 shifted from building ships at home to buying them from the west. By 1868, apparently 26 were steamers. This steamship is not named in the title, and it would be the job of a scholar to ascertain whether this was a specific ship or a planned or amalgamated dream ship. It’s possible that this is the Kaiten Maru 回天, a paddle corvette of the Prussian Navy named the SMS Danzig that was sold in 1862 to the English firm Dorset and Blythe due to dry rot. She was renamed the Eagle and was bought by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1864, and later saw action during the Boshin war as the Kaiten Maru. 

Sadahide is famous for his depictions of the west’s Black Ships, but here we see a sailing ship with a steam paddle that is filled with the emperor’s samurai; below them is a row of cannons. The deck of the ship is covered with the purple curtains and banners bearing the emperor’s crest , namely “seven-five paulownia”七五桐,  paulownia with seven-petal flower in the center and two 5 petal flowers on both sides, which is used as the second crest of emperor’s family, indicating the presence of the emperor. (The first one is 16 petal chrysanthemum) The red & white stripes of fukinagashi is a warning sign of the oversized dimensions of this ship. Hundreds of samurai are on board. Many traditional Japanese ships are escorting the steam gunboat with soldiers lined up behind the curtains on their stern. In the background we see the city of Yokohama and reclaimed land, all areas carefully titled.

This print was made during the Bakamatsu period, which were the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate during the reign of Emperor Komei. During Komei’s reign there was much internal turmoil as a result of Japan's first major contact with the United States, which occurred under Matthew C. Perry in 1853 and 1854, and the subsequent forced re-opening of Japan to Western nations, ending a 220-year period of national seclusion. Emperor Kōmei did not care much for anything foreign, and he opposed opening Japan to Western powers. His reign would continue to be dominated by insurrection and partisan conflicts, eventually culminating shortly after his death in the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji Restoration. The Port of Yokohama formally opened to foreign trade on the 2nd of June 1859.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. Some wrinkles and very minor soil and one tiny wormhole. The hull of the ship has been given the shiny, lacquer-imitating treatment.

Dimensions: oban triptych ( each sheet approx 37 x 25.3  cm)

Publisher: Fujioka-ya Keijirô at Edo Toori-Abura chô published 江戸通油町藤岡屋慶次郎梓

Signature: Gountei Sadahide ga

SKU: SAD045