Aime Humbert (1819-1900), arrived in Japan in 1863 as Swiss envoy plenipotentiary to conclude a treaty with the shogunate. Though he was to spend less than a year in Japan, Humber's impressions are of great historical value, for he did so just before the fall of the shogunate-during the twilight years of the Bakufu, or bakumatsu in Japanese.