Woodblock Print, Portrait of Matthew Calbraith Perry
date: label: Accession Date
content: 30 Dec 1960
label: Collection Date
content: 1930
name: label: Donor Name
content: Mrs. Lispenard S. Crocker
notes: label: Notes
content: INSCRIPTION READS: PERURI ZO KITA-AMERIKA JIMBUTSU (PORTRAIT OF PERRY, A NORTH AMERICAN) ORIGINAL DATE OF COLLECTION: 1930'S. DATE OF PRINT, CA. 1854.
label: Notes
content: From card: "Woodblock print. Color portrait of Commodore [Matthew Calbraith] Perry as seen by a Japanese artist, [1854]. Inscription: Peruri zo kita - Amerika jimbutsu (Portrait of Perry, a North American). Donor collected in Japan while her husband served in the US diplomatic service in the 1930's. (Framed). - CSH [Chang-su Houchins], April 1984. Loaned to National Archives & Records Services Jan. 10, 1977."
label: Notes
content: Perry's epaulets in this print have a resemblance to Japanese armor, possibly mail armor (kusari). Also, the whites of Perry's eyes are depicted as blue. Per "Black Ships & Samurai" by John W. Dower - Chapter Two, "Perry", p. 3, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (c) 2008 Visualizing Cultures, http://visualizingcultures.mit.edu : "In feudal Japan, Westerners were sometimes referred to as "blue-eyed barbarians," and it is possible that some artists were a bit confused about where such blueness resided. It was also the case, however, that in Japanese woodblock prints ferocious and threatening figures such as monsters and renegades were stigmatized by the same strange blue eyeball. Whatever the explanation, popular renderings of Perry and his fellow Americans drew on conventions entrenched in Japanese culture."
label: Notes
content: See Chang-Su Houchins. 1995. Artifacts of Diplomacy: Smithsonian Collections from Commodore Matthew Perry's Japan Expedition (1853-1854). Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, Number 37. P. 88.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 18 Nov 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Japan, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Japanese
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 232559
label: USNM Number
content: E398566-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Print