Black Ships Festival returns to Newport

The 29th annual Black Ships Festival returns to Newport. Newport has been the place to be all summer long and here is just one more reason to head to the City by the Sea. 

The annual Black Ships Festival celebrates Japanese art and culture. The event includes a variety of activities that honor and celebrate Japanese art and culture. 

Nicole Sarault, an adviser of the Japan America Society Board, along with taiko drummer Miles Endo, joined The Rhode Show to talk more about the festival.

The Black Ships Festival offers a variety of events that emphasize both Japanese art and culture.

Events include a formal Gala, Japanese Arts & Crafts such as Origami and Ikebana; Martial Arts, and a Japanese Tea Ceremony.

A highlight will be the Taiko Drums! The Black Ships Festival commemorates the historic achievements of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, USN, of Newport, Rhode Island.

The “Black Ships,” or “Kurofune,” refers to the Japanese term for foreign ships which, with one exception, were excluded from Japan for two hundred years until 1854.

Commodore Perry negotiated the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854, the first treaty between the United States and Japan, thus ending two centuries of Japanese isolationism.

The Black Ships Festival celebrates the signing of the treaty, which brought the two countries together as trading partners.

The Black Ships Festivals in Newport and in its Japanese Sister City Shimoda, commemorate this historic event with a celebration of friendship.

This year also celebrates the 52nd anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Newport and Shimoda, Japan.

For further information, contact The Japan-America Society of Rhode Island, 28 Pelham Street, Newport, RI 02840 or call (401) 846-27