Stand under the tree that watched Japan open
Where the Convention of Kanagawa was signed
The Yokohama Archives of History occupies the site where the Convention of Kanagawa was signed on 31 March 1854, in the former British Consulate building of 1931. It holds around 250,000 items, and its courtyard camphor, the Tamakusu, descends from the tree in Wilhelm Heine's woodcut of Perry's landing.
Why it's unique
There is exactly one place where the treaty that ended Japan's isolation was signed, and this is it. The museum on the site tells the story of the opening of the port from its own archive.
The tree is the link you can stand under. The Tamakusu camphor descends from the one drawn in Heine's woodcut of the landing; it was gutted by the 1866 fire, regrew from shoots, survived the 1923 earthquake and was moved to its present position in 1930.
Before you go
School-age students get in free every Saturday, and Yokohama residents over 65 on the second Wednesday of the month.
A long-run exhibition of mid-1950s Yokohama street photography runs from 18 July to 27 December 2026. The building is a Yokohama Cultural Asset and certified Modern Industrial Heritage. Zou-no-hana Park, where Perry came ashore, is two minutes away.