Rich Lee

First Encounters: The First Japanese Embassy to the United States, 1860 is a graphic novel that tells the story of the first Japanese diplomatic mission to leave Japan after over two centuries of isolation under the Tokugawa Shogunate. On a mid-March day in 1860, the Kanrin Maru, a steamship manned by a Japanese crew, sailed through the Golden Gate after more than a month at sea. It was a remarkable event. Not only was it the first Japanese vessel to make a Pacific crossing, but many Japanese had gotten their first glimpse of a steamship only seven years earlier. Astonished then at the sight of a ship that could move without wind in its sails, the Japanese now proudly demonstrated that they could navigate such a vessel themselves.