Lesson Three

Black Ships & Samurai, Lesson 03

The Black Ships: Multiple Perspectives in
Constructing Historical Narrative

Introduction
The second section of the Essay, “Black Ships,” opens with side-by-side depictions of a warship in Commodore Matthew Perry’s fleet. The image on the left is an American oil painting, the image on the right a Japanese woodblock print impression.

Each piece of art tells a multi-layered “story” of the American mission to Japan. The way these images are presented within the Web site—their placement—can tell yet another story. In this activity, students will consider two layers in this process of constructing a particular narrative of the first encounter between Japan and the United States. The first layer that they will consider is that of the artists and their work. Students will analyze individual visuals of the “Black Ships,” considering the story each work presents to the viewer. Next, they will consider a second layer of the narrative construction—the selection and placement of source material by the author. Students analyze the opening frame of the Black Ships & Samurai Essay, in which the two images of Perry’s ship are juxtaposed, to consider specific messages that the author may have wanted to convey about the initial encounter between Japan and the United States in 1853.

National History Standards

Objectives
At the conclusion of this activity, students will be better able to:
    • Describe different perceptions that the Japanese and Americans had of each other in the mid-19th century, as represented in artwork of the time.
  • Analyze how a Web or art exhibit designer, historian, or other narrator uses images to convey point of view.
  • Develop visual literacy skills.
  • Practice using pictorial evidence to support a hypothesis or position.

Materials
  • Web site access for all students
  • Handout 03-A
  • Handout 03-B

Procedure

Preparation for online assignment:
1. If possible, project the opening screen of the Essay: “Black Ships” section on a screen for students. Introduce the images and the lesson briefly by presenting the information from the Introduction above.

Online assignment:
1. Analyzing the individual pieces. The analysis questions in this activity may be assigned to students for independent or paired work, or may be guides for a focused discussion on “close reading” of the Black Ships images. If the former, provide students with a print version of Handout 03-A, or provide students with the direct link. Explain that students are to work alone or in pairs to analyze the two visual images of the Black Ships using the questions in the handout. Provide students computer access time (about one class period or homework) to complete the assignment.

If students do this assignment individually, bring the class together to debrief the activity, focusing on a few selected questions in the Handout 03-A analysis sheet .

2. Juxtaposed Images. Next, return to the juxtaposed images that open the Essay: “Black Ships” page of the Black Ships & Samurai unit. Ask students to consider the effect of putting these two pieces of artwork together with some of the following questions:

  • How does the American painting contrast with the Japanese woodblock?
  • When viewed side by side, what aspects of the Japanese woodblock does the American painting accentuate, and vice versa?
  • Does seeing the two images together make the message of one or the other more clear?
  • By putting these two images together, what might the author be saying about the encounter between Japan and the United States in 1853?
  • Provide a descriptive title for the juxtaposed images.

3. Alternative perspectives, alternative stories. Explain to students that the author of Black Ships & Samurai made many choices in putting together the images and information for this unit. These choices—what to include, what to leave out, how to put information together—dictate the “story” the unit tells. Such choices also influence the impressions about Japan and the United States that the unit makes on the viewer. This process of selecting and ordering information is the conscientious process of constructing a historical narrative that all historians follow.

Focus attention on this critical element of narrative construction by asking students the following question: how might the initial story of this U.S.-Japanese encounter change if the author had chosen different pieces of artwork to open this section of the unit?

To answer this question through class discussion, have students consider a different American oil painting of Perry's ship—the oil painting “View of the Naval Steamer Powhatan.” Project this image from the “Black Ships” section of the Black Ships & Samurai Essay for the class or assign students to examine this painting on their own.

Guide class analysis using the questions below or assign these questions for individual student viewing (Handout 03-B). If the latter, debrief student analysis in class, with emphasis on questions 6-8.

1. What does this image portray? That is, what is happening in the picture?
2. List five adjectives you would use to describe the ships in this painting.
3. List five adjectives you would use to describe the water in this painting.
4. How would you explain the relationship between the water and the ship in this painting?
5. Look at the objects and the composition (placement of objects in this painting). What would you say is the subject of this painting?
6. What is the message of this picture? What title would you give to this painting and why?
7. Make a comparison between this image of Perry’s ship and the American oil painting at the beginning of the “Black Ships” section.
    In what ways are the two American images of Perry’s ships the same?
    In what ways are they different?
8. Imagine that the American image of Perry’s ship at anchor in a harbor was the American image that the author placed next to the Japanese woodblock print of Perry’s ship at the beginning of the “Black Ships” section.
    Describe at least two ways that you think showing this alternative painting next to the Japanese woodblock print would have changed the message of the exhibit.

4. American History Extension (optional)
The first Perry mission took place in 1853. Consider trends in the United States at the time of Perry’s mission. Two important facts to consider are the following:

  • In 1848, the United States won a war with Mexico. As a result, the United States took possession of foreign territory for the first time.

  • Beginning in the 1830s, American policy makers began to use the term Manifest Destiny to support a claim that the United States had a natural or God-given right to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

A. How does this painting of Perry’s expedition entitled “Perry Carrying the ‘Gospel of God’ to the Heathen, 1853” reflect the ideas and policies of the United States in the mid-1800s?

B. Consult the westward movement unit of your U.S. history textbook or go on the Internet to find a painting from the period of American westward expansion and Manifest Destiny. On the Internet, you can google the following artists and their paintings to find color examples of art depicting the concept of Manifest Destiny in the United States in the mid 1800s:
  • John Gast, “American Progress”
  • Albert Bierstadt, “The Oregon Trail”
  • Emmanuel Leutze, Study for Westward Ho! (“Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way”)

Select a painting of this period. Make a comparison of that painting and the painting of the Perry mission “Perry Carrying the ‘Gospel of God’ to the Heathen, 1853” from this section of the Black Ships & Samurai Essay. What similarities do you see, if any? In looking for comparisons, consider all aspects of the two pieces of art—for example, the subject, the tone, the use of colors, the portrayal of nature and humans, the balance and composition of the pieces, symbolic images, and so on.

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