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but the Japanese were prohibited, under severe penalties, from constructing any ship of large dimensions, the scope of shipbuilding being henceforth confined to small sailing craft only adapted for coasting trade.

In the 6th year of Koye (1853) Commodore Perry of America appeared in the port of Uraga with a squadron of warships, and presented official communications to the Shogunate Government, demanding the establishment of friendly and commercial intercourse between the two countries. Previous to this the war-vessels of England, Russia, the United States, and other countries, had, for thirty or forty years, occasionally called at Japanese ports; while the neighbouring country, China, had, in consequence of an unsuccessful conflict with England and France, been compelled to cede Hong Kong and open Shanghai and other ports for foreign trade. Then, again, the King of Holland sent a letter to the Shogun pointing out the unadvisability of the policy of isolation, and urging the advantages of opening relations of amity and commerce with foreign nations. These circumstances combined had helped more or less to disturb the long-continued slumber of the nation, so that when the Tokugawa Government was confronted with the above-mentioned demand of the American Government, its eyes were opened not only to the importance of foreign intercourse, but also to the necessity of creating a navy.

Impressed as the feudal Government of Tokugawa was with the importance of building up a navy, there was, thanks to its own policy of seclusion, no man in the country who possessed the necessary knowledge and experience for undertaking such a task. The country, it is true, was not altogether destitute of men who knew something about the arts and science of the West. Neither was the condition of things abroad altogether unknown to the Japanese. However, long-established institutions and customs did not permit the carrying out of a sweeping innovation like this all at once. The Tokugawa Government had, therefore, to be contented, as the first step toward the creation of the much-needed navy, with the issue of a proclamation revoking the interdiction then in force as to the construction of ships of large dimensions.

The issue of this proclamation was attended with very encouraging results, for, although the Japanese knew little or nothing about the art of shipbuilding as practised in Europe, the issue of the proclamation in question was followed by the construction in various parts of the country of a new style of vessels modelled upon European schooners. To mention a few instances, the Tokuwaga Government built at Uraga a two-masted sailing vessel of this type, 152 by 50 feet in dimensions.