LONDON — On Aug. 26, 1858, in Edo (now Tokyo), the Treaty of Yedo was signed by six Japanese commissioners and Britain's Earl of Elgin. This treaty, when ratified in 1859, opened diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries.
Lord Elgin, on the occasion of the signing, presented the shogun's representatives with a luxuriously fitted yacht named The Emperor. The ceremonial handover was marked by an exchange of gun salutes.
The British Treaty was modeled after the U.S.-Japan Treaty concluded several weeks earlier (July 29) via the auspices of Townsend Harris, the U.S. consul in Shimoda and a tough negotiator. The U.S. treaty in turn had come on the heels of Japanese treaties with Russia and the Netherlands, both of which were instrumental in reopening Japan to the Western world 150 years ago.