Japan by Yacht

Annie Brassey (1839-87) was perhaps the first Western woman to arrive in Japan on her own family yacht the Sunbeam. Having departed from Chatham with her family friends and crew she and her husband the English Member of Parliament Thomas Brassey had already circumnavigated half the globe when they arrived in Japanese waters towards the end of January 1877.Over the next weeks she and her family went on to explore Japan in a way no foreigners visitors had done before them: by yacht. Starting out from Yokohama they first anchor off Kobe from where they traverse the Inland Sea to visit Shimonoseki before their final departure through the Bungo Straits.Not wanting to miss out on Japans cultural sites she lands at all of there ports to make long overland excursions: to the opulent Mausoleums for the Tokugawa shōguns in Tokyo to the Iwaya Caves on Enoshima to the great Daibutsu and the Tsurugaoka Hachiman shrine in Kamakura to the ancient temples of Kyoto to the Imperial Mint at Osaka and to the famed hot springs of Arima.Published back home under the title A Voyage in the Sunbeam Brasseys unique account of her journey went on to run through several English editions and was translated into many languages. Today it still stands out among the other early travel accounts for its uniquely maritime perspective on the Japanese isles.