{Inter} Cultural Japan

One particular historical event, the Japan-US treaty of amity and the subsequent opening up of the port of Yokohama is highlighted in the Yokohama Archives of History, fittingly housed in a museum standing in the grounds of the former residence of the British consulate general, and wrapping around an offshoot of the camphor tree under which that friendship treaty was signed. It faces onto Nippon Odori, which was the main avenue of the foreign settlement. There are two exhibition rooms, one on the ground floor about the coming of Perry’s Black Ships and the opening of port of Yokohama, and another one upstairs about the modern transformation and growth of Yokohama; there is also a third room here for special exhibitions.

[Yokohama Archives of History. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

Visitors will find models of Perry’s Black Ships; examples of the portraits made of him as a tengu demon; copies of the treaties, also those signed with The Netherlands, Russia, Great Britain and France; Yokohama prints showing the development of the port and the foreign settlement. On the second floor, based on a map of Yokohama on the floor of the exhibition room, we find examples of Yokohama’s fast embrace of gaslight, bricks and other things Western. In contrast to other historical museums, the Archives are generous with signs in English (the first floor exhibit is fully bilingual).

Tel: 045-201-2100

Hours: 9:30 - 17:00; Cl Mon, day after NH, NY

Access: 15 min. walk from Sakuragi-cho Station on JR, Tokyu Toyoko and City Subway lines

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