The Kanrin Maru was the first Japanese ship to visit the United States of America in an official capacity as the Treaty of Edo that Japan signed with the US Government in 1858 stipulated that Japan should subsequently dispatch an envoy to the US to ratify the Treaty. By March 1859 it had been agreed that a Japanese ambassador and officials would travel to Washington on the Powhatan, the US’s flagship of the East India Squadron, a voyage that was then scheduled to start a year later in February 1860. Preparations to dispatch an ambassador then began. Sometime thereafter, the Japanese government decided they would also send a ship of their own to America. Behind this decision lay three reasons. First this was a matter of pride showing that they too were capable of crossing the mighty Pacific Ocean in their own vessel; second, on a practical note, the Kanrin Maru (the vessel that made the journey) would return with news of Powhatan’s safe arrival in the US but third, she would also carry a second Ambassador in case the Powhatan failed to reach the US. This is the story of that voyage.