VLVL2 Japanese context

[pynchonoid]

Black Ships & Samurai
http://www.blackshipsandsamurai.com/

In the early days of July 1853, the residents of Uraga
on the outskirts of
the feudal capital of Japan at Edo were privy to a
rather unusual sight:
Four hulking foreign warships had entered their harbor
under the power of
coal, and under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry
of the United States.
So began one of the pivotal cultural interactions
between East and West.
Commodore Perry came as an emissary of the United
States in order to create
a formal relationship with the empire of Japan.
Developed by Professors John
W. Dower and Shigeru Miyagawa from MIT, this site
brings together a wealth
of rarely seen graphics from both sides of this
historic encounter, and
original textual commentaries by Professor Dower. The
Core Exhibit area
contains the bulk of these amazing visual materials,
including those
renderings of the initial encounters of the two
cultures in the years 1853
and 1854 and some revealing portraits of both Japanese
officials and
Commodore Perry himself. Visitors should not leave the
site without viewing
at least part of the interactive recreation of the
30-foot-long Japanese
Black Ship Scroll, which was painted in 1854. The
scroll features a number
of scenes documenting these encounters, and also
includes explanatory text
as well. 

...from The Scout Report 9 Apr 04


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