After last year’s cancellation, the Black Ships Festival is back for the 38th year celebrating the special friendship between Rhode Island and Japan. “We’re hoping for good weather next weekend,” said Spencer Viner, who has served as the President of the Japan America Society for the past 15 years. (The forecast at press time suggests he may get his wish!)

“It’s much more than a sister city relationship,” said Mr. Viner about the connection between Shimoda, Japan and Newport, where the festival was held for much of its history until most of the activities shifted to Bristol a handful of years ago.

The term “Black Ships” is a translation of the word Kurofone, given to the impressive and intimidating ships that carried the delegation of Newport’s native son, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, USN, to Japan nearly 170 years ago. There, he negotiated the Treaty of Kanagawa between the United States and the Edo Period Shogunate in 1854, an event which opened Japan to trade with the West and was the beginning of Japanese-American relations.

The event is scaled down this year from the usual 4-day festival, but will still feature an afternoon of Japanese cultural demonstrations at Independence Park in Bristol, beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 12. Come see demonstrations of arts & crafts and martial arts, with a free 50-minute Taiko Drum Concert with Odaiko New England at 6:30 p.m.

Around 5:30 p.m. there will be a break in the entertainment for a welcome ceremony that will include a handful of speakers, including Perry descendant Dr. Matt Perry and Bristol resident Dr. Patrick Conley, a longtime member of the Japan America Society board, who has written a 14 page booklet on the history of the Festival that he will have available to distribute.

Mr. Viner is grateful that they were able to put together an event, albeit a modified one, on short notice. “The Black Ships festival has been a wonderful thing for Rhode Island for many years,” he said. “We missed a year, and this year will be small, but it will still be a great day.”