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Author: Kern, Edward Meyer
Title: Peak Horner, Southern Extreme of Japan
Place Published:
Publisher:
Date Published: c.1854-55
Description:

Watercolor and ink on paper. 24x35.5 cm (9¼ x14"). Signed lower left, "Kern delt," titled as above in the lower right. Unmounted, loose in 19th century frame with label of Baltimore framers Eckhard & Mehler on the wood backing board.

Striking and superbly executed view of the peak located at the extreme southwest of Kyushu island near the entrance to the city of Kagoshima's port from the sea, by the artist Edward M. Kern, who had previously accompanied John C. Frémont on his he expeditions of exploration in the American west.

In anticipation of Captain Matthew Perry's success in opening Japan to the West on his 1852(-54) cruise, Congress authorized the United States Navy Department to organize the North Pacific Exploring Expedition to conduct a naval, commercial and scientific survey from the West Coast to China and Japan. From 1853-56, the Expedition traversed the North Pacific Ocean, the Bering Strait, and the China Sea, preparing accurate charts of areas frequented by American whaling ships and documenting safe and direct shipping lanes from the West Coast to China and Japan, all the while gathering specimens and recording the marine life, topography, flora and fauna encountered.

Edward Meyer Kern (1823-1863) was already an experienced expeditionary artist, though all on terra firma in the American West (most notably Frémont's Third and Fourth Expeditions), when he was chosen for the North Pacific Exploring Expedition. He was an artist and photographer, a topographer and cartographer, and also worked as a zoological assistant. This view of Peak Horner is proof of his skill.






Peak Horner, so named by Krusenstern after the astronomer on his circumnavigation of the world (1803-1806), is called Kaimon Dake by the Japanese. It is located at the extreme southwest of Kyushu island near the entrance to the city of Kagoshima's port from the sea. It has always been an important harbor and 'Peak Horner' would be an important landmark for captains in unfamiliar waters to locate and, from which, to triangulate positions of nearby islands, headlands, and harbor. Kern captures its lofty height (924 meters) and distinctive, unmistakably volcanic, profile as it rises from the water, dominating the coast that leads into the harbor. It is informative and picturesque, quite lovely.



The painting itself is also evidence of the newly opened Japan and that the expedition was doing its job by securing safe entry into Japanese ports. William Stimpson, the expedition's zoologist, wrote in his journal that the expedition rounded 'Peak Horner' on 28 December 1854 and "spent nine days in the Bay. W[e w]ere invited to leave by local authorities, but demanded wood and water, since by Perry's treaty United States ships could visit any port when distressed for supplies." This was a loose interpretation of Article X of the Treaty of Kanagawa (March 31, 1853), which states "Ships of the United States shall be permitted to resort to no other ports in Japan but Simoda and Hakodadi, unless in distress or forced by stress of weather," that allowed the expedition to continue surveying the coastal waters of the Japanese archipelago.



The North Pacific Exploring Expedition (also called the Ringgold-Rodgers-Brooke Expedition after its two captains, Commanders Cadwalader Ringgold and John Rodgers, and its astronomer, Lieutenant John M. Brooke) was successfully completed in July 1856 when it arrived in New York City. It was an ambitious and important expedition that is less well known than Lieutenant Charles Wilkes' to the Antarctic and the South Seas and Perry's diplomatic mission to Japan only because its findings were never published due to the onset of the American Civil War.



References: Cole, A. B., ed., Yankee Surveyors in the Shogun's Seas; Heffernan, W. J., Edward M. Kern; Hine, R. V., In the Shadow of Frémont; Johnson, R. J., Recent Mollusca of Augustus Addison Gould, pp. 18-28.

Slight chip at upper left corner; near fine to fine.