ABSTRACT
The opening of Hyogo and Osaka on New Year's Day 1868 was appropriately celebrated by both Westerners and Japanese; foreign warships greeted the long awaited event with salutes and displays of flags, while the Japanese population rejoiced in an atmosphere of festive excitement. Divine showers of paper were confidently reported, and local citizens danced in the streets with bright lanterns and scarlet robes. 1 British diplomats indulged in the rare luxury of a telegram, to report that the opening of the two cities had taken place without hindrance. 2
