Glover Garden-Nagasaki Hstory

 THOMAS BLAKE GLOVER

THE HISTORY OF NAGASAKI

Nagasaki is one of the more interesting cities in Japan and steeped in history. Apart from the cultural diversity and the influences from the Chinese, Dutch and British (for over 230 years it was the only port of entry by foreigners into Japan) there is the dropping of the second Atmic Bomb on August 9, August 1945, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima..

A must see in Nagasaki is GLOVER GARDENS where  Thomas Blake Glover built his home on the hill overlooking the harbour and today it is the oldest  western building in Japan.

Map courtesy of Nagasaki City Tourism

Sadly when visited Glover House was under renovation but there is much to see in the garden and surrounding areas.

THOMAS BLAKE GLOVER

Glover was Scottish and at age 21 crossed from Shanghai to Nagasaki and commenced work selling Japanese Green Tea.Two years later he formed his company, Glover & Co. He went on to assist the toppling of the Tokugawa Shogunate and established good relationships with the Meiji government and was involved in ship builing and some of the first ships for the Imperial Japanese Navy. He was responsible for bringing the first Dry Dock to Japane and opening up coal mining. His involvement with ship builing led to the formation of MITSUBISHI CORPORATION. He also helped founder beer making that later became KIRIN BREWERY COMPANY

Cortesy Nagasaki Travel-Glover House