Japan – The World’s First Theme Park

Hello Historians!  Your faithful servant here, digging up the stories from the past and bringing them to life like a zombie priest.  Today comes facts from the Orient – the country is Japan.  The time is 1852, long before Edo was known as its modern day moniker of Tokyo!  Commodore Matthew Perry (not the Studio 60 star!) has been commissioned to sail from Norfolk, Virginia to Japan.   Upon  his arrival Perry meets with representatives of Tokugawa Shogunate.  Perry is fascinated by Japan’s many amusements and writes back to then President Millard Filmore:

Dearest Commander,

Oh what a wondrous land I have come upon it is a place of dazzling wonders that seems well suited to serving as a place of amusement and
thrills.  “Roller coasters” and “bumper cars” are native to this fantastic place, they seemingly rise from the ground, farmed by the local population.  Cotton candy is plentiful and is a component of the natives’ diet.  This country, with its many attractions, could easily compete with New York’s smelly “Coney Island” as a fun family getaway.  I urge you to send more supplies so I may further explore and develop this land.  I hear rumors amongst local bureaucrats that caricature artists are at a surfeit.

Faithfully,

M. Perry 

Japan would become the great destination Perry prophesied for nearly thirty years.  Eventually the natural amusement resources had been over harvested, and Japan was left barren and pretty boring for nearly a century.  Today Japan once again provides entertainment of different kind, but sorry this is a family blog, you naughty historians!

Japan – The World’s First Theme Park

Strange? Maybe.  Fun?  Oh Yeah! History? Definitely!