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Passport to Japan

23rd June 2006

McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock

 

 

Indeed, this event is building on existing foundations of friendship between Scotland and Japan. You may not be aware but Japan is indebted to many Scots who helped push forward the modernisation of my country. In the latter part of the 19th century, the new Japanese Government was determined to learn new technologies developed by other countries. They employed some three to four thousand foreigners for their expertise, and of this amount, half were British and most of them were Scottish.

Even before this time, many Scottish entrepreneurs were working within Japan. One obvious example is Fraserburgh-born Thomas Blake Glover, who was instrumental in the modernisation of Japan. Another interesting historical figure is Sir Thomas Sutherland, head of the “P and O” shipping concern. He was to have an important impact in Asia, where he opened the first Asian bank, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and also commenced the first regular steam service with Nagasaki and Yokohama.

Sutherland was greatly impressed by the Japanese people and the beauty of their natural environment, and in fact called Japan the “land of enchantment”. When he returned to Scotland he actually sat as an MP for Greenock from 1884 until 1900.

With Japan’s efforts to increase its understanding of foreign economies and societies, a fact-finding mission, called the Iwakura Mission, was despatched in 1871. The group, consisting of Tomomi Iwakura, 50 delegates and 60 students, travelled to 12 countries including Britain. Visits were made to London, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Greenock and Newcastle.

Here, the mission was welcomed by the provost and shown some technically advanced factories of the day such as the Walker Sugar Refinery and shipyard, before enjoying lunch at Gourock House.

The delegates were to reach the conclusion that more energy had to be put into modernisation and that there was much to learn from Scotland. They also appreciated the importance of Christianity and in the same year the Mission returned to Japan in 1873, the Japanese law prohibiting Christian worship was withdrawn.

The ties between Greenock and Japan go beyond Thomas Sutherland and the Iwakura Mission however. The Japanese collection here at the MacLean Museum and Art Gallery was gifted from a local businessman called George Rogers MacDougall, who made his fortune in a sugar firm.

I find it quite remarkable and also deeply pleasing that these many different connections exist and continue to develop.