View source for Japanese barque Kankō Maru

{{redirect|Kankō Maru|other ships named Kanko (Kanko Maru)|Kanko (disambiguation)}}
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|Ship image= Paddle steamer Soembing gift by King William III.jpg
|Ship caption=''Kankō Maru'', Japan's first steam warship, 1855
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|Ship country=Netherlands
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Netherlands}}
|Ship name=''Soembing''
|Ship namesake=
|Ship owner=[[Royal Netherlands Navy]]
|Ship builder=Amsterdam Naval Yards
|Ship laid down= 25 October 1850<ref>{{Cite news |url= https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010804746:mpeg21:p002 | work = Utrechtsche provinciale en stads-courant | title= Amsterdam 25 October. | language = Dutch | date= 28 October 1850 }}</ref>
|Ship launched= 9 June 1852<ref>{{Cite news |url= https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:000017038:mpeg21:p002 | work = N.R.C. | title= Amsterdam, 9 Junij | language = Dutch | date= 11 June 1852 }}</ref>
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned= 21 February 1853<ref>{{Cite news |url= https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:000016535:mpeg21:p002 | work = N.R.C. | title= Berigten aan onze Binnenlandschen Dagbladen ontleend | language = Dutch | date= 23 February 1853 }}</ref>
|Ship decommissioned=
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|Ship homeport=
|Ship fate= Presented to Japan 1855
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country= [[Empire of Japan]]
|Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|Empire of Japan|civil}}
|Ship name= ''Kankō Maru''
|Ship acquired=25 August 1855
|Ship commissioned=
|Ship decommissioned= March 1876
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
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|Ship fate= Scrapped 1876
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|Ship displacement=  {{convert|781|t|LT|0|lk=out|abbr=on}}
|Ship length=  {{convert|66|m|ftin|abbr=on}} [[Length overall|o/a]]
|Ship beam= {{convert|9.1|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship draught= {{convert|4.2|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|Ship sail plan=[[Jackass-barque]]-rigged
|Ship propulsion= Coal-fired steam engine, {{convert|150|hp|abbr=on}}
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|Ship armament=*1 × 60 pdr muzzle-loading gun,
* 2 × 30 pdr long barrel muzzle-loading gun,
* 1 × 30 pdr muzzle-loading gun
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{{nihongo|'''''Kankō Maru'''''|観光丸||'''Vision'''}} was Japan's first [[steam-powered]] [[warship]]. It was presented to the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] ruling Japan during the [[Bakumatsu period]] as a gift from [[King William III of the Netherlands]] to assist [[Janus Henricus Donker Curtius]], head of the [[Netherlands Trading Society|Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (Netherlands Trading Society)]] in Japan in his efforts to establish formal diplomatic relations and the opening of Japanese ports to Dutch merchant vessels.

==Background==
Since the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Tokugawa shogunate ruling Japan pursued a policy of [[sakoku|isolating the country]] from outside influences. Foreign trade was maintained only with the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] and the [[Qing Dynasty|Chinese]] and was conducted exclusively at [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]] under a strict government monopoly. No foreigners were allowed to set foot in Japan, and no Japanese was permitted to travel abroad.<ref name=Beasley1>W. G. Beasley, ''The Meiji Restoration'', p.74-77</ref> In June 1635 a law was proclaimed prohibiting the construction of large, ocean-capable vessels. However, by the early nineteenth century, this policy of isolation was increasingly under challenge. In 1844, King [[William II of the Netherlands]] sent a letter urging Japan to end the isolation policy on its own before change would be forced from the outside.<ref name=Beasley2>W. G. Beasley, ''The Meiji Restoration'', p.78</ref>

Following the [[Perry Expedition|July 1853 visit]] of [[Matthew Calbraith Perry|Commodore Perry]], an intense debate erupted within the Japanese government on how to handle the unprecedented threat to the national's capital, and the only universal consensus was that steps be taken immediately to bolster Japan's coastal defenses. The law forbidding construction of large vessels was repealed, and many of the [[han system|feudal domains]] took immediate steps to construct or purchase warships. However, the ships produced within Japan were based on reverse-engineering of designs some decades old, and the ships were already obsolete by the time of their completion.   The need for steam-powered warships to match the foreign "[[Black Ships]]" was a pressing issue, and the Tokugawa shogunate approached the Dutch for the supply of such vessels.

Aware that it would take time to either construct or purchase ships from overseas, Donker Curtius asked for one of the warships of the [[Royal Netherlands Navy]] stationed in the [[Netherlands East Indies]] to be presented to the Japanese government.<ref>De Goey, p. 10</ref>

The Dutch warship named {{Nihongo|''[[Mount Sumbing|Soembing]]''|スームビング}}, the name of a volcano on [[Java]], was sent with Naval captain {{ill|Gerhardus Fabius|nl}} to introduce the Japanese to navigation techniques in 1854, and the ship was formally presented to the government of ''[[shōgun]]'' [[Tokugawa Iesada]] at [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]] in the name of the Dutch King, [[William III of the Netherlands|Willem III]] in 1855.  The gift was the subject of heated debates within the Dutch government, as many ministers felt that the expense was too great. She was renamed {{Nihongo|''Kankō Maru''|観光丸}}, after a line in the ''[[I Ching]]'' : {{Nihongo|'''Kan'''koku shi '''kō'''|觀國之光|to view the light of the country|}}.

==Design==

''Kankō Maru'' was a three-masted [[jackass-barque]]-rigged sailing vessel, with an auxiliary single-cylinder coal-fired {{convert|150|hp|lk=in}} reciprocating [[steam engine]] turning a side [[paddlewheel]]. She had an overall [[Length overall|length]] of {{convert|66.8|m|ftin}} and a [[Displacement (ship)|displacement]] of 781 tons. Her armament consisted of six muzzle-loading cannon.

==Operational history==
''Kankō Maru'' was assigned to be a training ship to the newly formed [[Nagasaki Naval Training Center]], under [[Nagai Naoyuki]]. At this time, 22 Dutch sailors, including Lieutenant G. C. C. [[Pels Rijcken]] provided training, and this training was continued by Lieutenant [[H. van Kattendijke]] who arrived in Japan on ''[[Kanrin Maru]]''. This was the first time that the Japanese had received formal military training from the Dutch.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ndl.go.jp/nichiran/e/s1/s1_4.html|title=Opening of Japan and Japan-Netherlands Relations|website=www.ndl.go.jp}}</ref>

She was then transferred to the new [[Tsukiji Naval Training Center]] in [[Edo]] in April 1857, with a Japanese-only crew of 103 students.

Following the [[Meiji Restoration]], she was taken over by the [[Meiji government]] on 28 April 1868 and became one of the first ships of the fledgling [[Imperial Japanese Navy]]. She remained based at the [[Imperial Japanese Naval Academy]] at Tsukiji until she was scrapped in 1876.

===Replica===
[[File:Kankō Maru in yokohama japan side.jpg|thumb|''Kankō Maru'' (replica)]]
A faithful replica of the original ''Kankō Maru'' was built in at the Verolme Shipyards in the Netherlands in 1987 based on the original plans for the ''Soembing'' preserved at the National Maritime Museum in [[Amsterdam]]. She was used as a tourism ship in the [[Huis Ten Bosch (theme park)|Huis Ten Bosch]] theme park in [[Sasebo, Nagasaki]], and has been sailing along the coast of Japan since. The ship requires a 14-man crew, and can carry up to 300 passengers on short day cruises.

===Spaceship project===
''[[Kankoh-maru]]'' is also the name of a proposed Japanese spaceship concept for space tourism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uchumaru.com/spaceship/kankohmaru.htm|title=準軌道宇宙旅行 宇宙丸 - 観光丸|website=www.uchumaru.com}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book | last = Beasley| first = William G. | year = 1972 | title = The Meiji Restoration| publisher = Stanford University Press | isbn=0804708150}}
*{{cite book|last1=Jentschura|first1=Hansgeorg|first2=Dieter|last2=Jung|first3=Peter|last3= Mickel|year=1977|title=Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945|publisher=United States Naval Institute|location=Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=0-87021-893-X|name-list-style=amp}}
* {{in lang|nl}} ''Zijne Majesteits raderstoomschip Soembing overgedragen aan Japan. De drie diplomatieke reizen van kapitein G. Fabius ter opening van Deshima en Nagasaki in 1854, 1855 en 1856''. Onder redactie van J. Stellingwerff. Linschotenvereniging, 1988. 175 p.

==External links==
* [http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/en/items/KONB11:F9400 Soembing/Kanko Maru]
* [http://www.ebha.org/ebha2008/papers/deGoey_ebha_2008.pdf {{aut|De Goey, F.}} (2008) ''Western entrepreneurs and the opening of Japanese ports (c. 1858-1868)'']

{{IJNFoundation}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanko Maru, Japanese barque}}
[[Category:Ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy]]
[[Category:Ships of the Tokugawa Navy]]
[[Category:Ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy]]
[[Category:Paddle steamers]]
[[Category:1852 ships]]
[[Category:Barques]]
[[Category:Three-masted ships]]
[[Category:Auxiliary steamers]]
[[Category:Japan–Netherlands relations]]
[[Category:Rangaku]]
[[Category:Ships built in Amsterdam]]