Born in New York State in 1804. After a successful business career, he was appointed the first United States Consul General to Japan in 1856, establishing his consulate at Gyokusenji temple in Shimoda, Izu. Initially treated coldly by the shogunate and forced into an isolated existence, he persisted in negotiations. In 1858, under Tairo Ii Naosuke, he concluded the Harris Treaty (Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States and Japan). The treaty contained unequal provisions including lack of tariff autonomy and acceptance of consular jurisdiction (extraterritoriality), becoming the central challenge of Japan's modern diplomacy. Yet Harris genuinely admired Japan and showed concern for preserving Japan's independence. The tragic life of "Okichi" (Tojin Okichi), a Japanese woman who attended to him during his stay in Shimoda, later became famous as the subject of novels and plays. He left Japan in 1862 and died in New York in 1878 at age 74.
Lonely Days at Gyokusenji Temple
In August 1856, Harris established the US Consulate General at Gyokusenji temple in Shimoda. But the shogunate did not welcome him and continually delayed negotiations. Despite falling ill, Harris endured a lonely existence with only his interpreter Heusken, writing in his diary that it was "the most isolated spot in the world." Yet he never gave up, and in 1857 he finally secured an audience with Shogun Iesada at Edo Castle. This tenacity would eventually lead to the historic achievement of the treaty's conclusion.
The Tragedy of Okichi — A Woman Lost Between Two Cultures
The shogunate sent Saito Kichi (Okichi), a Shimoda geisha, to attend to Harris. She left Harris after just three days (some accounts differ), but as "Tojin Okichi" — a woman who had consorted with a foreigner — she faced lifelong prejudice. Her later years were marked by extreme hardship, and she reportedly drowned herself in the Inozawa River in Shimoda in poverty. Okichi's tragedy has been repeatedly portrayed in novels, films, and kabuki as the story of a woman sacrificed to the cause of Japan's opening.
The Treaty of Amity and Commerce — Origin of the Unequal Treaties
On July 29, 1858, Harris signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with Japan under Tairo Ii Naosuke. The treaty stipulated the opening of Kanagawa (Yokohama), Nagasaki, Niigata, and Hyogo (Kobe), as well as permission for trade in Edo and Osaka. However, it contained unequal provisions — lack of tariff autonomy and acceptance of consular jurisdiction — and became the template for the subsequent Ansei Five-Power Treaties with Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Russia. Treaty revision became Meiji Japan's fervent goal, requiring over half a century until Mutsu Munemitsu's abolition of extraterritoriality in 1894 and Komura Jutaro's recovery of tariff autonomy in 1911.