This museum introduces well the history of shipping that opened Japan to the world. “The arrival of Matthew C. Perry (1794 – 1858)”, a Commodore of the United Sates Navy, who played a leading role in the opening of Japan, occurred in 1853, and “Yokohama port opening”, was in 1859. A passenger and cargo ship, Tosamaru, left for London in 1896. In the Edo period (1603 – 1868), there were only domestic ships, like Kitamae-bune, cargo ships that sailed the Japanese Sea.
In just 30 years, Japan learned ocean voyage technology and could provide even Western services to foreign customers. It shows the spirit of the Japanese in the Meiji period (1868 – 1912).

This museum is located in a quiet mountain of Shimoda, where Townsend Harris (1804 – 1878), the first United States Consul General to Japan, came over to meet with Toklugawa Iesada (1824 – 1858), the 13th Shogun of Tokugawa Shogunate, at Edojo Castle in 1857. This museum has a collection of modern western paintings by Jean Camille Corot (1796 – 1875), a French painter of Italian Landscapes and Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973), a Spanish artist who lived in France.
It also exhibits modern Japanese paintings by Kawai Gyokudo (1873 – 1957), Umehara Ryuusaburo (1888 – 1986), Suda Kunitaro (1891 – 1961), Higashiyama Kaii (1908 – 1999), and others. You can enjoy the modern breadth of Japan, in paintings and with the relaxing, surrounding mountains.

This temple used to be a thatched hut of the Shingon sect. After this belonged to the Soto school of Zen in the 1580s, this temple was renovated and relocated.
By the Conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and Amity between the United States and Japan in 1856, Townsend Harris (1804 – 1878), who came from New York and was the first United State Consul General to Japan, came this temple with the first US Consulate. Stars and Stripes, the National flag of the USA, and raised it in the garden of this temple for 2 years and 10 months.
This temple possesses Harris’s favorite relics, and the diary of Hamada Yoheiji, the headman of Kakisaki Village, which clearly conveyed the affairs at that time. This temple has the oldest daguerreotype in Japan of Russian officers, too.

By the Conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and Amity between the United States and Japan in 1856, Townsend Harris (1804 – 1878), who came from New York and was the first United State Consul General to Japan, came to Gyokusenji Temple to open the first US Consulate. Harris often walked along the path on the Kakizaki coast in front of Gyokusenji.
Harris was a trader and not a professional diplomat. Even when diplomatic relations were held, the problems of administrative sovereignty of the Imperial Court and the Shogunate were entangled, and the desired negotiation results were not reached. It was the scenery of this path that healed Harris, who was tired every day.

This memorial museum opened in 1998. Tokutomi Soho (1863 – 1957) was a journalist, historian, and politician who loved the nature of Lake Yamanaka, visited every summer from 1932 to 1945, and stayed at a villa named Sogiso. Soho wrote “Kinsei Nihon Kokumin shi – A History of Early Modern Japan: Japanese overview of history from the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573 – 1603) to the Meiji period (1868 – 1912),”. He started to write this at age 56 in 1918, and completed 100 volumes over 35 years. You can experience his tough life.
– Suho insisted that after World War II, even within the Globalization of democracy, Imperialism guards the principle of people, based on universal providence.