Lacquered Stationery Box (Ryoshi-Bako)

A gold lacquered stationery box, or ryoshi-bako, gifted to the President of the United States from the Bakufu, or Shogunate Government of Japan, at Kanagawa in March 1854. It was collected by Commodore Matthew C. Perry during his historic Japan Expedition (1853-1854) that opened Japan to the western world and established a lasting diplomatic, economic and cultural relationship between two Pacific Rim nations. The box features maki-e decorations in a shochikubai (pine, bamboo, and plum blossom) design over the nashiji lacquer finish. Artifacts from Perry's Japan Expedition would become some of the founding objects of the Smithsonian Institution's anthropology collections.