---
title: "Commodore Perry Expedition — AP Art History Definition"
description: "The 1853-54 U.S. naval mission that forced Japan to open its ports, flooding the West with Japanese prints and sparking Japonisme in European art."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/ap-art-history/key-terms/commodore-perry-expedition"
type: "key-term"
subject: "AP Art History"
unit: "Unit 8"
---

# Commodore Perry Expedition — AP Art History Definition

## Definition

The Commodore Perry expedition (1853-1854) was the American naval mission that pressured Japan to open its ports to Western trade, sending Japanese art (especially ukiyo-e woodblock prints) flowing into Europe and America and fueling the cross-cultural exchange AP Art History tests in Unit 8.

## What It Is

In 1853, U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry sailed warships into Japanese waters and demanded that Japan, which had been largely closed to Western trade for over two centuries, open its ports. By 1854 Japan agreed, and goods, images, and ideas started moving between Japan and [the West](/ap-art-history/unit-3/theories-interpretations-early-european-colonial-american-art/study-guide/2I6Vfolgqfw2zP0h817g "fv-autolink") at a totally new scale.

For [AP Art History](/ap-art-history "fv-autolink"), the expedition matters less as a military event and more as an art-history hinge point. Once Japanese ports opened, woodblock prints, [ceramics](/ap-art-history/key-terms/ceramics "fv-autolink"), textiles, and folding screens poured into European and American markets. Western artists became obsessed with Japanese flat color, bold outlines, and unusual cropping, a craze known as Japonisme. The expedition is your go-to piece of context for explaining how interactions with other cultures affect art and art making (LO 8.3.A), and it's the modern chapter in the much older story of Asian art moving along global trade networks (INT-1.A.24 and INT-1.A.25).

## Why It Matters

This term lives in [Unit 8](/ap-art-history/unit-8 "fv-autolink") ([South, East, and Southeast Asia](/ap-art-history/key-terms/south-east-and-southeast-asia "fv-autolink"), 300 BCE-1980 CE), under Topic 8.3 on interactions within and across cultures. It directly supports LO 8.3.A, which asks you to explain how contact between cultures shapes art. The CED's essential knowledge stresses that Asian art "was and is global" and that trade routes, both the overland Silk Route and maritime networks, drove artistic exchange. The Perry expedition is the 19th-century version of that same idea, just delivered by steamship instead of caravan. It's also one of the best bridge facts in the whole course, because it explains why late-19th-century European and American art (Unit 4) suddenly looks Japanese. If you can name the Perry expedition as context, you can connect Hokusai to Cassatt in one sentence.

## Connections

### Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave) by Hokusai (Unit 8)

[Hokusai](/ap-art-history/key-terms/hokusai "fv-autolink") made this woodblock print before Perry arrived, but the expedition is why the West saw it. Once Japan's ports opened, prints like the Great Wave became cheap, portable exports, and the wave itself became the global face of Japanese art.

### Japonisme and Mary Cassatt's The Coiffure (Unit 4)

Cassatt's flattened space, soft pastel color blocks, and intimate domestic subject come straight from Japanese ukiyo-e prints she studied in Paris. The Perry expedition is the contextual event that put those prints in front of her. This is a classic Unit 8 to [Unit 4](/ap-art-history/unit-4 "fv-autolink") link the exam loves.

### Silk Route and maritime trade networks (Unit 8)

The CED frames Asian art as connected to Europe and West Asia through trade for centuries (INT-1.A.25). Perry didn't start East-West exchange; he reopened Japan's place in a network that already moved silk, ceramics, and [cobalt blue underglaze](/ap-art-history/key-terms/cobalt-blue-underglaze "fv-autolink") porcelain across continents.

### [Folding screen (Unit 8)](/ap-art-history/key-terms/folding-screen)

Folding screens were among the Japanese art forms Western collectors snapped up after the ports opened. They're a good example of a functional Asian format being re-read in the West as fine art, exactly the kind of cross-cultural recontextualization Topic 8.3 covers.

## On the AP Exam

No released FRQ has used "Commodore Perry expedition" by name, and the exam won't ask you to recite treaty details. Instead, it shows up as contextual evidence. Multiple-choice stems and contextualization FRQs about Unit 8 works (especially Japanese prints) often ask why a work circulated globally or how cross-cultural contact shaped style. Dropping "after the 1853-54 Perry expedition opened Japanese ports, ukiyo-e prints flooded Western markets" is exactly the kind of specific, accurate context that earns points. It's equally useful on comparison questions pairing an Asian work with a European or American one influenced by Japonisme.

## Commodore Perry expedition vs Japonisme

The Perry expedition is the historical event (1853-1854); Japonisme is the artistic result. Perry's mission opened Japan's ports, which made Japanese prints and objects widely available in the West. Japonisme is the name for the Western craze for, and imitation of, Japanese aesthetics that followed. On the exam, use Perry as context and Japonisme as the stylistic effect.

## Key Takeaways

- The Commodore Perry expedition (1853-1854) was a U.S. naval mission that pressured Japan to open its ports after more than two centuries of restricted trade with the West.
- After the ports opened, Japanese woodblock prints, ceramics, and folding screens flowed into Europe and America, sparking the Western craze called Japonisme.
- In AP Art History, this term supports LO 8.3.A by showing how cross-cultural contact directly changes what art gets made and who sees it.
- Perry is the 19th-century continuation of a much older story, since the CED stresses that Asian art was already global through the Silk Route and maritime trade networks (INT-1.A.25).
- The strongest exam move is connecting Unit 8 to Unit 4, using the expedition to explain why artists like Mary Cassatt borrowed flat color and cropped compositions from Japanese prints.

## FAQs

### What was the Commodore Perry expedition in AP Art History?

It was the 1853-1854 American naval mission led by Matthew Perry that forced Japan to open its ports to Western trade. In AP Art History it serves as the contextual event that sent Japanese art, especially ukiyo-e prints, into Western markets and shaped late-19th-century European and American art.

### Did Commodore Perry start the exchange of art between Asia and the West?

No. The CED is clear that Asian art was global long before 1853, moving along the Silk Route and maritime monsoon trade networks for centuries. Perry reopened Japan specifically, after a long period of restricted trade, and dramatically increased the volume of Japanese art reaching the West.

### How is the Perry expedition different from Japonisme?

The Perry expedition is the political and economic event; Japonisme is the artistic movement it triggered. Once Japanese ports opened in 1854, prints and decorative objects reached Europe, and Western artists imitating their flat color, bold lines, and cropping created what's called Japonisme.

### Did the Perry expedition influence The Great Wave by Hokusai?

No, Hokusai made Under the Wave off Kanagawa around 1830-1833, before Perry arrived. The expedition matters because it's the reason that print and others like it reached Western audiences afterward, making the Great Wave globally famous.

### Is the Commodore Perry expedition on the AP Art History exam?

Not as a standalone required work, since the 250 only includes artworks. It appears as context for Unit 8, Topic 8.3 questions about cross-cultural interaction (LO 8.3.A) and as evidence in contextualization or comparison answers linking Japanese prints to Western art.

## Related Study Guides

- [8.3 Interactions Within and Across Cultures in South, East, and Southeast Asian Art](/ap-art-history/unit-8/interactions-within-across-cultures-south-east-southeast-asian-art/study-guide/VVL39edTFq3MKYverITe)

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