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Two
The Road to Multicultural
Gastronomy
Life in the Treaty Ports
The ‘unequal’ treaties of 1858 stipulated that several Japanese ports would
be opened for Western residence and trade. The harbour of Shimoda on
the Izu Peninsula (south-west of Tokyo) and the port of Hakodate in the
northernmost island of Hokkaido had already accommodated Western
ships since 1854. After 1859, however, the port of Yokohama in Tokyo
Bay and Nagasaki at the westernmost tip of the country took the lead as
the centres of international trade. The harbour of Shimoda was closed
and the opening of the ports of Hyōgo (today’s Kobe) and Niigata (at
the Sea of Japan coast) was postponed to 1868 because of rising antiforeign
sentiments. 1
A large proportion of the Westerners who settled in Japan did not
come directly from Europe or America. Instead, major Western trading
firms operating in China, such as Jardine, Matheson & Co., Dent & Co. and
Fletcher & Co., set up agencies in Japan and relocated their employees from
Amoy (today’s Xiamen), Ningpo (today’s Ningbo), Shanghai and other
treaty ports on the China coast. The same held for diplomatic personnel.
For example, the first two British consuls in Japan, Sir Rutherford Alcock
(1809–1897) and Sir Harry Parkes (1828–1885), served as consuls in China
prior to their appointment in Japan. 2 Western enclaves similar to those
operating in China soon asserted themselves in Hakodate, Nagasaki and
Yokohama. Within a few years, Yokohama outshined the other two as the
centre of trade and the chief place of foreign residence, soon followed by
Kobe, newly opened in 1868.
Estimates indicate that the Western community in Japan grew
roughly from a few hundred in the 1860s to approximately 5,000 three
decades later. The British constituted a majority in the ports; as early as
1861, 55 out of 126 Westerners residing in Yokohama were British citizens.
Twenty-five years later, Kobe counted 228 Britons out of 390 Western
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