On 25 May 1854, the ambassador for shogun Hayashi Daigaku and Commodore Perry signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce in Ryosen-ji, which led to the opening up of Shimoda's port. Run by the energetic abbot Daiei Matsui, the adjoining Treasury holds over 3 000 original documents relating to this period. It is great fun discovering how Japanese artists depicted these "foreign devils". Nowadays the temple bears the new epithet of "Hall of Opening the Nation".