ArtistTagawa, Ken

Artist Years1906-1967

Artist NationalityJapanese

TitleGarden of Glovers

Year1957

MediumPrint > Woodblock Print

DimensionsComposition: 8.5 X 21 inches

Accession NumberRC1776

NotesKen Tagawa was born in Nagasaki. In 1924 he graduated at the Nagasaki Business school. He moved to Tokyo, where he learned woodblock printing from Onchi Kōshirō. He made his first woodblocks in 1932. Then, in 1934, he returned to Nagasaki, where he founded a Nagasaki print association. He was instrumental in the publication of Hanga Nagasaki.
In 1941 he became a member of the Nihon Hanga Kyōkai. During the war he once more founded a print society, this time in Shanghai. In 1945 he returned to Japan, and in 1949 to Nagasaki. In 1956 he received the Nagasaki culture award. Influenced by the work of Sumio Kawakami, he also produced a number of scenes of Nagasaki.
(source: Saru Gallery)

Thomas Blake Glover (1838-1858) was a Scottish merchant. In 1859, aged 21, Glover crossed from Shanghai to Nagasaki and worked initially buying Japanese green tea. Two years later, he founded his own firm, Glover and Co. (Guraba-Shokai).

His business was based in Nagasaki. It was here that he had his home constructed; the building remains today as the oldest Western-style building in Japan.

Anti-western sentiment was rife in Japan in the Bakumatsu period due to the unbalanced treaty agreements imposed upon the Tokugawa shogunate by the United States and other western powers, which included extraterritorial rights. Nationalistic militants in Satsuma and Chōshū spearheaded anti-government efforts aimed at toppling the Shogunate and restoring the Emperor as sovereign. It was these factions, later to become leaders in the Meiji Restoration government, that Glover supplied with arms and warships.

Some of the arms sales to rebellious factions in the Western regions of Japan (i.e., Satsuma and Choshu) were conducted in violation of treaty agreements between Great Britain and Japan as well as Japanese law.

The Bakufu had made "a pointed request to the British Queen not to allow the illicit trade. The Shogun himself sent her a personal letter," Glover explained, and to sell arms to a rebel force would be a treaty violation. "Glover feels sorry for us," Kido explained to the Seijido [Political Council] in Yamaguchi, "but there is nothing he can do". The Scot did have a suggestion to circumvent the Bakufu. If Choshu would send a vessel directly to Shanghai to buy rifles, "Glover will do everything in his power to buy and load as many guns as we want; he seems to be deeply committed to us on this matter."

In the end Glover provided the needed rifles directly from Nagasaki, and accompanied Ito Hirobumi back to Shimonoseki, on 15 October 1865, for his first personal meeting with Kido, who noted: "Trading with our han is strictly prohibited for a foreigner; therefore, Glover is very reluctant about dealing with us," explained Kido; and he had not told his own crew about the sale of guns, which, in any case, were not aboard that ship. If discovered, Glover could be prohibited from engaging in foreign trade for three years, and even fined or imprisoned.

In 1863, Glover helped the Chōshū Five travel to London on Jardine Matheson ships. He also helped send fifteen trainees from Satsuma under Godai Tomoatsu in 1865. The same year, he was also responsible for bringing a small-scale steam locomotive and cars to Japan, which he demonstrated on a short track in the Ōura district of Nagasaki, causing a sensation and alerting Japan to the benefits of railway transportation.

As Glover had assisted in toppling the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Boshin War, he had cordial relations with the new Meiji government. These links led to his being responsible for commissioning one of the first warships in the Imperial Japanese Navy (the Jo Sho Maru, later called Ryūjō Maru), which was built by Alexander Hall and Company in Aberdeen and launched on 27 March 1869. Glover also commissioned the smaller Hosho Maru for the navy and the Kagoshima for the Satsuma clan from the same Aberdeen shipyard.

In 1868, Glover made a contract with the Nabeshima clan of Saga Domain in Hizen Province and began to develop Japan's first coal mine at Hashima Island, Takashima. He also brought the first dry dock to Japan.

Thomas Glover went bankrupt in 1870, but he stayed in Japan to manage the Takashima coal mine after the Restoration for the mine's Dutch owners until it was taken over by the Meiji government. In 1881, the mine was acquired by Iwasaki Yatarō.

Glover was a key figure in the industrialisation of Japan, helping to found the shipbuilding company which was later to become the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan. Negotiating the sale of William Copeland's Spring Valley Brewery in Yokohama, Glover also helped establish the Japan Brewery Company, which later became the major Kirin Brewery Company, Ltd. An urban myth has it that the moustache of the mythical creature featured on Kirin beer labels is in fact a tribute to Glover (who sported a similar moustache).

In recognition of these achievements, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (second class).

Thomas Blake Glover died of kidney disease at his home in Tokyo in 1911, and was buried at the Sakamoto International Cemetery in Nagasaki.
(source: wikipedia.org)