Go to Minato!　History of Yokohama Port (1)

　History of Yokohama Port (transition charts, chronology, for the general public)
　Opening of the Port of Civilization and Civilization Municipal Organization-Reconstruction of the Great Kanto Earthquake Earthquake-World War II
　Postwar period of high economic growth 　Container Age - Present

In July 1853 (Kaei era, June 2006), Admiral Perry of the United States led a four-seki ship and arrived in Uraga, and Japan's isolation policy. He urged him to change the policy and open the port.

East India Fleet
Commander-in-Chief Matthew Calbrews Perry
(London News with Pictures, May 7, 1853)
(In Yokohama Archives of History)

Until then, Japan had not been interacting with foreign countries for a long time, except for only a few countries such as the Netherlands, but in March 1854 (March 1854), the Shogunate signed the "Japan-U.S.-Japan Friendship Treaty" (Kanagawa Convention), and then in July 1858 (June 1858) and the U.S.

(Yokohama Minato Museum Collection)

Then, on July 1, 1859 (June 2, 1859), Kanagawa, Nagasaki, and Hakodate (Hakodate) were opened to allow free trade with foreign countries.

However, at the time of the negotiation of the Japan-US Osamu Good Trade Treaty, there were no names of Kanagawa or Yokohama in the opening ports seen by the Consul General of the United States. It is a place related to the Treaty of Friendship between Japan and the United States, and that it is important to accept foreign trade in Edo.

However, Kanagawa, which Harris was thinking, was Kanagawa-juku near the current Higashi-Kannagawa, Kanagawa-ku, while the Shogunate was thinking of Yokohama. As the Shogunate, making the Tokaido post office (Shukuba), which is frequent in order to keep foreigners and Japanese away, is avoided, and strongly advocates the opening of Yokohama. He unilaterally created an opening port in Yokohama.

At that time, Yokohama was a small fishing village with almost no port facilities, so when the port opened, two wharfs were created near the base of the current Osanbashi Bridge.

Ships cannot be attached directly to the wharf, so they are anchored offshore, and a small boat called "Hashike" or "kite" go back and forth between the land. Carryed people.

※() writing up to 1872 (Meiji 5) in the age and month is based on the lunar calendar.

"Major import products of this era"

Cotton fabrics

"Major exports of this era"

Raw silk

Tea (cha)

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