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unusual facts about Black Ships


Black Ships

A TV miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain entitled Shōgun (1980) was based on a novel of the same name by James Clavell, described the fictional experiences of an English sea pilot named John Blackthorne, shipwrecked in Japan around 1600.


Edo period

The cause for the end of this period is controversial but is recounted as the forcing of Japan's opening to the world by Commodore Matthew Perry of the US Navy, whose armada (known by Japanese as "the black ships") fired weapons from Edo Bay.

Nakahama Manjirō

Pacific Overtures, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's unconventional musical about the arrival of the black ships in Japan.

Yokohama Archives of History

The Archives include a museum which tells the story of Japan and Yokohama's opening to the West from the arrival of Commodore Perry and his black ships.


see also