About – 150th GANNENMONO Celebration

THE 150 GANNENMONO

In 1860, King Kamehameha IV proposed a friendship treaty between Japan and the Kingdom of Hawaii when two groups of delegates visited Honolulu, one with the chief and deputy delegates on the Powhatan in March 1860 and another with John Manjiro and Yukichi Fukuzawa on the Kanrin-Maru in May the same year. In 1865 Eugene Van Reed, a Japan based American businessman, was appointed as Consul General of Hawaii in Japan by the Kingdom of Hawaii. History then took an important turn: the government of the shogun, based in Edo Castle, surrendered in May of 1868 and the process of restoring the imperial court to power began, symbolized by the advent of the new era known as Meiji. The Meiji government, however, did not permit overseas travel. So, in May of 1868, about 150 Japanese nationals departed the port of Yokohama on the ship Scioto landing in Honolulu on June 20th. The Gannenmono (meaning “first-year folks”) were not highly regarded in Japan because they were technically illegal travelers, although they got along well with the local community in Hawaii and were highly regarded there. Out of approximately 150 Gannenmono that arrived, 7 passed away before their contract ended, 54 eventually returned to Japan, and among those who didn’t return to Japan, nearly half of them moved to the mainland and the rest chose to settle in Hawaii.