One of the new technologies that Perry brought to demonstrate to the Japanese was the early camera, the Daguerreotype. The making of an early photograph took place in Shimoda on May 7, 1854. Eliphalet M. Brown, Jr., a member of Perry's team, was the official degeurreotypist. At Commodore Perry's request, the governor of Shimoda selected several Japanese ladies to be daguerreotyped. About a hundred people gathered to witness this "experiment with that miraculous box." William Heine, the artist who accompanied Perry, wrote in his journal: "On one occasion I saw six or eight young women tricked out in their most elegant. All were attractive, and some would have been called lovely in different cultures and other lands." The caption on the scroll tells us that the seated lady is a "courtesan" who is having her picture taken so that it can be sent to the "the American king" to show him what "a Japanese beauty looked like." Rumors circulated not long thereafter that anyone who had been photographed would "die within three years." This was just an idle rumor, and the new technology was soon embraced.

Next Image | Previous Image | Image Gallery | Black Ship Scroll Main Page