Photo: Tomio344456 / CC BY-SAThomas Blake Glover arrived from Aberdeen in 1859, aged 21, and within a decade was selling warships and rifles to the domains that would overthrow the shogunate — including Satsuma, whose nineteen students he smuggled to Britain in 1865. He also built the Kosuge slip dock, later part of Mitsubishi's Nagasaki shipyard, opened Japan's first modern coal mine at Takashima with the Saga domain, and helped found the brewery that became Kirin.
His 1863 bungalow is the oldest surviving Western-style house in Japan, and the garden around it has gathered a dozen more Meiji-era foreign residences on a hillside of hydrangeas above the harbour. Puccini never came here, but Madame Butterfly is set on this slope, and the garden leans into it cheerfully.
Five things the plaques won't tell you
- Take the moving walkways up and walk down — the exit path passes the shops rather than the climb.
- The heart-shaped paving stones are a modern addition; finding them is a local game, not a tradition.
- The old Mitsubishi No. 2 Dock House at the top has the best harbour view and the fewest people.
- Combine tickets with Oura Cathedral if you plan to enter both — they share a hillside.
- On a hot day, go early: the hill is shaded but humid, and there is little breeze until the top.
Puccini never came here, but Madame Butterfly is set on this slope, and the garden leans into it cheerfully.
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Questions people ask here
Who was Thomas Glover?
A Scottish merchant who arrived in Nagasaki in 1859 aged 21 and became the most consequential foreigner in Bakumatsu Japan — selling ships and arms to the domains that overthrew the shogunate, smuggling the Satsuma Nineteen to Britain in 1865, and building the slip dock that later became part of Mitsubishi's Nagasaki shipyard.
Is Glover Garden hard to walk?
No — it is built on a steep hillside but a series of moving walkways carries you up, and the exit path runs downhill through the shops. It is the least strenuous major sight in any Japanese cruise port.