As a result, Weld spent an extended amount of time with his Bostonian friends William Sturgis Bigelow and Ernest Fenollosa.
Among them is a handscroll painting (emaki) depicting the 1159 Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace.
While Fenollosa and Bigelow developed very widespread and inclusive tastes in art during their time in Japan, Weld's interests remained somewhat narrowly focused.
His primary interests in life were sport, boating, and martial activities such as archery.
As a result, he became one of the first Americans to collect Japanese swords, spears, and other martial implements as art.