Gyokusenji Temple

The Gyokusen-ji temple is known as the temple used for the first American Consulate General in Japan during the late Tokugawa period.
In 1856, US diplomat Townsend Harris took office as Consul General and helped to conclude nine articles of the Shimoda Agreement, which were the preliminary foundation of the “Treaty of Amity and Commerce Between the United States and the Empire of Japan”.
The “Treaty of Amity and Commerce Between the United States and the Empire of Japan” is known as the “Inequality Treaty” because it did not stipulate autonomy for tariffs in Japan and it granted the US extraterritorial rights.
For more than two years, the temple became the center stage of modern Japan and helped open the country for trading until it was closed in 1859.
Being an important building to the history of the Edo period, it was designated as a national historic site in 1951.