Japanese Embassy to the United States

The Japanese embassy was formally composed of three men: Ambassador Shinmi Masaoki (新見正興), Vice-Ambassador Muragaki Norimasa (村垣範正), and Observer Oguri Tadamasa (小栗忠順).

[4][5] The Kanrin Maru reached San Francisco directly, but the Powhatan (and the embassy) made a stopover in the Kingdom of Hawaii first, where they were greeted by King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma.

[6][7] When it arrived in San Francisco on March 29th, the delegation stayed for a month, touring the city's notable locations and being received by the mayor, and Fukuzawa had himself photographed with an American girl, a photo that has since become one of the most famous in Japanese history.

The Roanoke arrived at New York bay after two weeks, but was instructed to proceed to Hampton Roads to convey the embassy to the president, who had moved to Washington at the time.

on Numerous receptions were held in its honor, including the grandest one at the White House, where the ambassadors met President James Buchanan and presented to him the Harris Treaty.

[16] Other ports on the voyage back to Japan included São Paulo-de-Loande (now Luanda), Angola; Batavia (now Jakarta), Java; and Hong Kong.

However, the Kanrin Maru’s was not the first Pacific crossing by a Japanese ship and crew: at least three such journeys had been made in the 17th century, before Japan's period of isolation: those by Tanaka Shōsuke in 1610, Hasekura Tsunenaga in 1614, and Yokozawa Shōgen in 1616.