I stumbled upon a fascinating programme on television last night about the life of Thomas Blake Glover, known as the Scottish Samurai. It was presented by Neil Oliver (of "Coast" fame).
I've had a Google today and found these articles:
The Scot who shaped Japan | The Japan Times Online
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Blake_Glover
and have ordered Michael Gardiner's "At the Edge of Empire: The Life of Thomas B. Glover from the local library.
The programme is on BBC iplayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b018c57k/The_Last_Explorers_Thomas_Blake_Glover/
Thanks Lis, I love Coasts and Neil Oliver. Isn't he gorgeous with his long hair!!! I remembered a talk on my silk tour about Scottish and silk trade in early Japan - hugs Nat
ReplyDeleteMaybe coming home from Fujino you will write 'The Canadian who shaped Japan'...
ReplyDeleteMmmm - Neil Oliver, my very favourite Scot. Before he found fame as a presenter of "Coast", he was co presenter of "Two men in a Trench".
ReplyDeleteHe has also written two books, one about the history of Scotland, and a new one about early England from the ice ages.
So you can see I'm one of his greatest fans! Must be that Scots blood in my veins.
This looks interesting! I'll mark it 'unread' so I can come back to it when I've got time to go through the links properly.
ReplyDeleteTeresa x