150th Anniversary of Samurai Delegation to NYC

choi

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June 16, 1860

Clyde Haberman, Dusting Off a 150-Year-Old Ode to the City’s Favorite Samurai. New York Times, June 18, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/nyregion/18nyc.html?scp=1&sq=japan%20tommy&st=cse

Note:
(1) The "number" in "played a sprightly number" is a noun defined as: "one singled out from a group : individual: as * * * b(1): a musical, theatrical, or literary selection or production."
(2) polka (n; Czech, from "Polka" Polish woman, feminine of Polák Pole): "a lively couple dance of Bohemian origin"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polka

(3) TAKEISHI Onojiro 立石 斧次郎
(4) Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860)  万延元年遣米使節
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Embassy_to_the_United_States_(1860)

* abbreviated as 遣米使節団

The embassy stopped over at Hawaii, then visited San Francisco, Washington DC, Baltimore and New York City (all in 1860). In the first leg, the embassy was aboard a United States Navy ship, USS Powhatan, which Kanrin Maru 咸臨丸, escorted. (The Netherlands built and delivered Karin Maru in 1857.) After New York, they crossed the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, all on board the USS Niagara, thus completing a circumnavigation.

** 万延 Man'en, lasting only two years, is one of seven 元号 of 孝明天皇 (Komei Tenno), who reigned from 1846-1867.

(5) Washington Heights, Manhattan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Heights,_Manhattan
(a neighborhood; named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the British forces)
(6) Vanity Fair (magazine, historical)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_Fair_(magazine,_historical)

Quote:

"Vanity Fair has been the title of at least five magazines, including an 1859–1863 American publication, an 1868–1914 English publication, and an unrelated 1902-1904 New York magazine, a 1913–1936 American publication edited by Condé Nast, which was revived in 1983.

"Vanity Fair was notably a fictitious place ruled by Beelzebub, in the book Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Later use of the name was influenced by the well-known 1847-1848 novel of the same name by William Makepeace Thackeray.

* The magazine currently in circulation under that name started in 1983.

(7) The family name NISHIMIYA is 西宮, where 宮 is a Shinto shrine.
(8) daimyo 大名
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimyo
(9) Museum of the City of New York
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_City_of_New_York
(a private non-profit organization which receives government support; founded in 1923)

In this page, take a look at the watercolor depicting the arrival of the Junk Keying in New York harbour in July 1847.

Click "Junk Keying," you will learn: 耆英 (the English name is based on Cantonese pronunciation); a three-masted, 800-ton Foochow Chinese trading junk which sailed from China around the Cape of Good Hope to the United States and England between 1846 and 1848. In US, Keying visited New York City and Boston in July and November, 1947, respectively--THIRTEEN years prior to Japanese embassy.

(10) Walt Whitman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman
(1819-1892; American poet)
(11) swarthy (adj; alteration of obsolete swarty, from swart):
"of a dark color, complexion, or cast"

(12) Lord & Taylor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_%26_Taylor
(based in New York City; the oldest upscale, specialty-retail department store chain in US; Samuel Lord and George Washington Taylor founded the company in 1826)

(13) Tiffany & Co.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffany_%26_Co.
(founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City in 1837)

* or Tiffany's.

(14) MURAGAKI Awaji-no-Kami 村垣 淡路神

* 垣  a fence (籬笆 in Taiwan)
** Awaji Island
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awaji_Island
("As a transit between those two islands [本州 and 四国] Awaji originally means 'the road to Awa'"--"Awa" being 阿波国)
(15) flummox (vt): "CONFUSE"

All English definitions are from www.m-w.com.

(16) Naoyuki AGAWA 阿川 尚之
(17) Keio University 慶應義塾大学, founded by FUKUZAWA Yukichi 福澤 諭吉 in 1858 for Dutch studies 蘭学塾 at Edo (江戸, now Tokyo), is the oldest institute of modern higher education in Japan. The school in 1863 switched to English studies 英学塾, and in 1868 (慶應4年/明治元年) was renamed 慶應義塾, 慶應 being 年号 of 孝明天皇.

Wikipedia in Japanese (ja.wikipedia.org) states that Keio is also the oldest university in Asia, and that Qing Dynasty established the oldest university in China--南洋公学, the predecessor of 交通大学) in 1896  ("アジア最古の高等教育機関でもあり、清朝最古の大学である「南洋公学」（現在の上海交通大学・西安交通大学）1896年（明治29年）創立より早い段階で近代的な学府を確立した").

* Peking University was founded in 1898 as 京師大學堂, to replace 國子監 (in existence since Sui Dynasty 隋朝).

(18) Japanese traditional dance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_traditional_dance
(There are two types of Japanese traditional dance: Odori 踊り, which originated in the Edo period, and Mai, which originated in the western part of Japan. Odori grew out of Kabuki drama and is more oriented toward male sentiments. Mai 舞 is traditionally performed in Japanese rooms instead of on the stage. It was influenced by the Noh Drama 能劇)

My comment: In traditional Japanese dance, men and women did not dance together or interact. That is why the report says, "And, Professor Agawa told the crowd in the ballroom, they [Japan embassy] could not figure out why American men and women hopped together around a room — an activity more familiar to most as dancing."

(19) New York Symphonic Ensemble
http://www.n-y-s-e.org/
(Mamoru TAKAHARA 高原 守, music director and conductor)

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