A student from the University of Aberdeen will be travelling to Japan on a study tour later this year as part of this year’s Thomas Blake Glover Scholarship.
Catriona Watt, a second year student of History and Anthropology, will spend three weeks in Nagasaki in August through to September where she will act as an ambassador for the University, the City, and the Shire as part of an international exchange trip to learn more about the Japanese culture.
Catriona, (20), from Banff, was selected as the 2006-07 Thomas Blake Glover Scholar by the Rotary Club of Balgownie and the University of Aberdeen’s International Office, who have joined forces to offer the research trip to Nagasaki – a small port city in the south of Japan.
Catriona said she was delighted to be chosen for the scholarship. She said: “I was very surprised to be chosen and I’m really looking forward to experiencing Japanese culture first-hand.”
Before jetting off to Japan, Catriona has met with members of the Rotary Club of Balgownie and the Lord Provost of Aberdeen John Reynolds, for whom she will carry a letter to the Mayor of Nagasaki. During her time in Japan, where she will stay with a host family from Nagasaki Rotary, Catriona will meet with members of the Rotary Clubs of Nagasaki and other Japanese dignitaries. She will also tour the area and local businesses to view at first-hand the city’s thriving industries. Other duties she will be undertaking include delivering a series of presentations on the University, the North-east, and on Scottish culture.
Catriona said her experience of growing up on a traditional working croft in Aberdeenshire would work to her advantage when travelling and meeting new people. She said: “I have had many experiences of North-east culture having spent my whole life in farming so I’m looking forward to sharing my knowledge with the Japanese people - I very much enjoy portraying the picturesque countryside of the North-east.
”Nagasaki and North-east Scotland have some similarities as both have thriving industries and a growing city yet there are vast differences in agriculture, religion and culture. I will be exploring these issues during my time in Japan which will allow me to build on my knowledge of Nagasaki and hopefully enhance the knowledge of Scotland and the North-east to the people of Nagasaki.”
Born in Fraserburgh in 1838, Thomas Blake Glover is seen as one of the founding fathers of the Japanese economic success. He went to Japan at the age of 21, a year after the country had been opened for trade. His first ventures there were concerned with exporting refined Japanese tea. He went on to introduce Japan’s first railway locomotive, the first mint, the first dry dock, the first mechanised coal mine and modern warships. He also founded the Japan Brewing Company, makers of Kirin Beer and was instrumental in the establishment of the Meiji government. Although he died in 1911, Glover is still known today in Japan as the “Scottish Samurai.”
“The scholarship is an ideal way of developing the Rotary objective of fostering international friendship”, said Graham Low, President of Balgownie Rotary Club. “It also commemorates Glover himself.
“He brought students to visit Britain to develop their understanding of the West at a time when this was still illegal in Japan – and one of them subsequently became the Japanese Prime Minister.”
A commemorative plaque was unveiled last month by the Lord Provost John Reynolds at Glover family home. The plaque was erected on the front wall at 79, Balgownie Road, home of Blake Glover House, which is now a museum owned by the Grampian-Japan Trust. Aberdeen City Council’s Education and Leisure Committee recently agreed that their Museums and Galleries service would take over the running of Glover House on behalf of the Trust, for the next three years. It is anticipated that the House will be open to the public this summer until October, and will be open from Easter to October in future years.