Kanrin Maru Day

What Is Kanrin Maru Day?

Every February 26th is "Kanrin Maru Day" (咸臨丸の日, Kanrin-maru no Hi) in Japan. On February 26, 1860 (January 19, 1860 by the old lunar calendar), the Japanese warship Kanrin Maru (咸臨丸) departed Uraga for San Francisco — becoming the first Japanese-crewed vessel to cross the Pacific Ocean. The voyage, which reached San Francisco on March 17, 1860, was a landmark demonstration that Japan had mastered Western navigation technology and was capable of participating in international maritime activities as an equal of Western nations.

The Kanrin Maru and Its Historic Voyage

The Kanrin Maru was a steam-powered corvette — one of the first Western-style warships in the Tokugawa Shogunate's navy — purchased from the Netherlands in 1857. The 1860 Pacific voyage carried a Japanese diplomatic mission to ratify the Harris Treaty with the United States; the Kanrin Maru sailed in parallel with the American warship Powhatan, which carried the main diplomatic delegation. Japanese officers commanded the Kanrin Maru — though the American navigator John Mercer Brooke provided assistance during the challenging North Pacific crossing.

Katsu Kaishū: The Commander

The Kanrin Maru was commanded by Katsu Kaishū (勝海舟, 1823–1899) — a remarkable naval officer who would later play a crucial role in the peaceful handover of Edo to imperial forces at the Meiji Restoration. Among the crew was Fukuzawa Yukichi (福沢諭吉) — Japan's future leading intellectual and educator — who used the voyage as his first experience of the Western world. Fukuzawa's subsequent educational and writing career would fundamentally shape modern Japanese thought.

The Voyage's Significance

The Kanrin Maru's Pacific crossing demonstrated that Japan could engage with Western maritime technology, navigation, and international diplomatic practice on its own terms. The voyage signaled Japan's determination to participate in the modern world not as a subordinate recipient of Western technology but as a competent operator of it — a harbinger of the Meiji Restoration's broader project of adopting and mastering Western knowledge.

Fun Facts

• Fukuzawa's observations: Fukuzawa Yukichi's accounts of what he saw in San Francisco — the democratic society, the lack of hereditary class distinctions, the independent spirit of ordinary Americans — profoundly influenced his subsequent advocacy for Japanese modernization and his famous work "An Encouragement of Learning" (学問のすゝめ).
• Katsu's peaceable nature: Katsu Kaishū later became famous for negotiating the bloodless surrender of Edo Castle to the Meiji imperial forces in 1868 — demonstrating the same pragmatic commitment to avoiding unnecessary conflict that had made him a capable naval commander.