Paper short abstract:

Niigata is the forgotten treaty port of Japan, overshadowed by its contemporaries such as Yokohama, who embodied the foreign interaction of Japan in the 19th century. This presentation will study this smallest treaty port in Japan and put it into context within the larger treaty port network.

Paper long abstract:

In the 19th century, the Treaty Ports were key places of connection serving as primary sites of interaction between foreigners and Japanese. Names like Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki and Hakodate are well known and are synonymous for the Japanese engagement with the outside world. In contrast, Niigata, the fifth treaty port opened in July 1869 is often forgotten. In regard to a foreign presence, it was always the treaty port with the smallest foreign population with barely any foreign residents making their homes in the port and few foreign ships clearing their cargo there. It did not even develop a separate foreign settlement, the hallmark of all treaty ports, to demarcate its foreign presence. As a result, it always was and still remains overshadowed by its larger and more bustling contemporaries. But why Niigata never achieved the same fame and fortune as the other Japanese treaty ports?

In this presentation, a closer look will be taken at the treaty port of Niigata. It will be analyzed how this town on the coast of the Sea of Japan was chosen as a treaty port, how it was opened and how it developed. The primary focus will lie on the 1870s, the crucial decade after its opening during which initial hopes for prosperous trade arose and were disappointed. Research has long been focused on the famous treaty ports, to the detriment of smaller ports. Yet, Niigata too was an integral part of the Imperial Western framework that established the treaty port system across East Asia. It might not have the same impact as its larger contemporaries, but like Yokohama or Nagasaki, Niigata too facilitated and framed the interactions between Japan and the globalizing world of the late 19th century.