A Modernising Force

A Scots businessman laid the foundations of contemporary Japan

IWAS recently invited to dine with the Japanese Consul General at his grand but rather secluded house in Ravelston, Edinburgh, a far more impressive domain than any other diplomatic representative in the capital.

This is perhaps reflective of Japan’s economic importance to Scotland – but also of the discreet and largely unknown links between the two nations.

The Consul was eager to question me on the Scottish political situation, though I was much more interested to hear of the historic interaction of our two lands, and he was not to disappoint me. For Thomas Blake Glover was soon mentioned once the more formal aspects of the evening had been dispensed with.

I had heard of him, as with many Scots, but I must confess that the extent of his influence and importance in Japan had escaped me.

Though I knew of his involvement in what became the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan, I was blissfully unaware of another corporate giant with his imprimatur on it – and indeed his importance in the industrialisation of the Land of the Rising Sun.

Ironic, that much of what he imported into his adopted land in the 19th century has now been re-exported back, with Japanese investment and technology hugely important to 21st century Scotland.

I knew Glover was born in Fraserburgh but wasn’t aware of his family home in Aberdeen, along with other displays about him there. The Consul had visited both and advised me that the only commemoration in the Buchan town is a plaque, as the house where he was born had been bombed during the Second World War.

Glover, or Guraba as it was pronounced in Japanese, was born in the fishing town on June 6, 1838, the fifth of eight children to the local coastguard.

When his father was promoted, the family moved to Bridge of Don in Aberdeen when Thomas was six. On leaving school he joined the trading house Jardine Matheson, moving to Shanghai, and it was from that he first visited Japan in 1857.

Two years later, in 1859, he moved to Nagasaki, initially buying green tea for his employers. I enjoyed a refined version, though not of that brand, in the Consul’s company. digress, as two years later the “Broch boy” ventured out on his own, establishing Glover Co, or Guraba-shokai.

The business went from strength to strength. Glover built a magnificent western style dwelling, grander even than the merchant’s house the Consul now occupies in Edinburgh, and now oldest such building in Japan.

It was a difficult period for Japan and doubtless for a young Scot seeking to make his mark. Anti-western sentiment was prevalent – with justification given political pressure and trade forced on the land by the USA and European

Glover seems to have managed to steer a through the troubles and helped provide assistance, including the acquisition and supply of firearms, seeking to overthrow the Shogunate military and facilitate the Meiji Restoration.

This not only re-established rule by the Emperor opened up Japan to becoming a modern industrial nation. Important friendships were made, as support had been vital, even if Glover’s precise rather murky and obscure.

The political revolution saw the country seeking modernise rapidly. Glover played a key role, Japanese students to visit and be educated in more importantly, importing technology that revolutionise the land.

A steam locomotive and rail tracks were brought

“Glover seems to have steered a deft course sentiment” during the time of anti-western