Abel Gower

Abel Anthony James Gower (1836 in Livorno, Italy – 1899?) was a British consul at two posts in Japan during the Bakumatsu period: Nagasaki and Hakodate. He was also an amateur photographer.

After experience in China, Gower worked in the British legation at Tōzen-ji, Edo (later Tokyo), as part of the staff of Rutherford Alcock. In 1863 he was involved in the bombardment of Kagoshima. In 1866 he became consul in Hakodate (in Ezo, later Hokkaidō); he had previously been consul in Nagasaki (in Kyūshū).[1]

For many years it was believed that either Gower or Walter B. Woodbury was commissioned by the London firm Negretti and Zambra to photograph China and Japan between 1857 and 1860. It is now known that Pierre Rossier was the photographer in question. The Leiden University photograph collection includes a portrait of Gower, signed "P. Rossier", and in 1859 Rossier and Gower shared passage on HMS Sampson from Nagasaki to Edo.[2]

Notes

1. Nagasaki post from NFSRC web page; other information from Bakumatsu-ishin jinmei-jiten.
2. Bennett.

References

• Bennett, Terry. Bennett, Terry. 'The Search for Rossier: Early Photographer of China and Japan'. Accessed 12 September 2006; cited above as "Bennett". Originally appeared in The PhotoHistorian-Journal of the Historical Group of the Royal Photographic Society, December 2004.
• Bakumatsu-ishin jinmei-jiten (幕末維新人名事典, A biographical dictionary of the Bakumatsu and Meiji revitalization). Tokyo: Shinjinbutsujūraisha, 1994. ISBN 4-404-02063-5
• Nagasaki Foreign Settlement Research Group. "British Consulate." People, places and scenes from the Nagasaki foreign settlement, 1859–1941.

See also

• British Japan Consular Service
• Genealogy of Abel Gower by Matteo Giunti