Glover Garden

Glover Garden - Nagasaki’s top tourist attraction features Japan’s oldest Western style house. Glover Garden (グラバー園, Glover-en) is a park in Nagasaki, Japan. In it stands the Glover Residence, the oldest Western style house surviving in Japan and Nagasaki’s foremost tourist attraction. It is located on the Minamiyamate hillside overlooking Nagasaki harbor. It was built by Hidenoshin Koyama of Amakusa island and completed in 1863. It has been designated as an Important Cultural Asset. As the house and its surroundings are reminiscent of Puccini’s opera, it is also known as the “Madame Butterfly House.” Statues of Puccini and diva Miura Tamaki, famed for her role as Cio-Cio-san, stand in the park near the house. Thomas Blake Glover, born near Aberdeen, Scotland, came to Nagasaki in 1859 at the age of 21. He spent the rest of his life in Japan. He contributed to the modernization of Japan in shipbuilding, coal mining and many other fields. He was directly involved in the Meiji Restoration, and this house was the venue of various secret meetings. British Ministers and admirals would stay here as well as rebel samurai particularly from the Chōshū and Satsuma domains. The park also includes Ringer House (built 1865 for Frederick Ringer) and Alt House (built for William Alt). The park is open to the public and attracts nearly 2 million visitors a year. (Article based on Wikipedia article and used under the GNU Free Documentation License) |