Former Glover House
This house was built in 1863 by master carpenter Koyama Hidenoshin (1828–1898) for the successful Scottish businessman Thomas Blake Glover (1838–1911). Glover first found success exporting tea, timber, and other goods to the West while importing guns, machinery, and steamships into Japan. After the drastic changes brought on by the Meiji Restoration in 1868, he helped construct the first steam-powered slip dock in Japan and assisted in opening the Takashima Coal Mine. He also worked closely with the second-generation president of Mitsubishi, Iwasaki Yanosuke (1851–1908), and in 1876 he moved his family to Tokyo, where he worked as a consultant for the company. After Glover left, the house was inhabited by a number of prominent foreign residents in Nagasaki until 1909, when Glover’s son, Kuraba Tomisaburō (1871–1945), moved in with his wife. In 1939, Tomisaburō sold the house to the Mitsubishi Company, which donated it to Nagasaki City in 1957. The house was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1961 and was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.
Although the house’s design incorporates many Western features, the basic construction is Japanese, as seen in the walls, roof, and frame. Inside, the house has English coal-burning fireplaces, French windows, and hardwood floors instead of tatami mats.