page_title: Sakoku
section_title: End of isolationism
hierarchical_section_title: Sakoku / End of isolationism
caption_attribution_description: Commodore Perry's second fleet. Caption reads Susquehannah, Saratoga, Saint Mary's, Supply, Plymouth, Perry, Mississippi, Princeton-View of the vessels composing the Japanese squadron Русский: Второй флот коммодора Перри. Надпись гласит: Саскуэханна, Саратога, Св. Мария, Саплай, Плимут, Перри, Миссиссиппи, Принстон - вид судов, составляющих японскую эскадру Català: La flota de Perry, en la seva segona visita al Japó, el 1854. Italiano: La seconda flotta di Perry, al suo ritorno in Giappone nel 1854.
context_page_description: Sakoku was the isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate under which, for a period of 214 years, relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, nearly all foreign nationals were barred from entering Japan and common Japanese people were kept from leaving the country. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633 to 1639, and ended after 1853 when the American Black Ships commanded by Matthew Perry forced the opening of Japan to American trade through a series of treaties.
  It was preceded by a period of largely unrestricted trade and widespread piracy. Japanese mariners and merchants travelled Asia, sometimes forming Nihonmachi communities in certain cities, while official embassies and envoys visited Asian states, New Spain, and Europe. This period was also noted for the large number of foreign traders and pirates who were resident in Japan and active in Japanese waters.
  The term sakoku originates from the manuscript work Sakoku-ron written by Japanese astronomer and translator Shizuki Tadao in 1801.
context_section_description: The following year, at the Convention of Kanagawa (March 31, 1854), Perry returned with seven ships and forced the Shogun to sign the "Treaty of Peace and Amity", establishing formal diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States. The United Kingdom signed the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty at the end of 1854.
  Between 1852 and 1855, Admiral Yevfimiy Putyatin of the Russian Navy made several attempts to obtain from the Shogun favourable trade terms for Russia. In June 1853, he brought to Nagasaki Bay a letter from the Foreign Minister Karl Nesselrode and demonstrated to Tanaka Hisashige a steam engine, probably the first ever seen in Japan. His efforts culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Shimoda in February 1855.
  Within five years, Japan had signed similar treaties with other western countries. The Harris Treaty was signed with the United States on July 29, 1858. These "Ansei Treaties" were widely regarded by Japanese intellectuals as unequal, having been forced on Japan through gunboat diplomacy, and as a sign of the West's desire to incorporate Japan into the imperialism that had been taking hold of the continent. Among other measures, they gave the Western nations unequivocal control of tariffs on imports and the right of extraterritoriality to all their visiting nationals. They would remain a sticking point in Japan's relations with the West up to the turn of the 20th century.
caption: Commodore Perry's fleet for his second visit to Japan in 1854.
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