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Yozo Yamao (1837-1917)
Yozo Yamao (1837-1917)
Yozo Yamao was one of five young Japanese samurai from the Choshu clan smuggled out of Nagasaki with the aid of Thomas Blake Glover in 1863 (five years before the restoration of the Emperor) on a ship belonging to the Jardine-Matheson company. Yozo Yamao had been born in Akiu a village in the Suo Domain, and had received the traditional training of a samurai at a private school in Tokyo (then Edo). All five samurai came to Britain where they travelled and studied for several years. Yozo Yamao lived in Glasgow between 1866 and 1868. During this period he lived in the home of Colin Brown, and worked at Napier's shipyard on the Clyde. At the same time he attended classes at Anderson's college alongside Henry Dyer.
After returning to Japan, Yamao entered the Meiji government and was for a while in charge of the Yokohama Shipbuilding Yard. By the time Henry Dyer went to Japan, Yozo Yamao was Acting Vice Minister of Public Works and as such was responsible for setting up the Imperial College of Engineering as well as the Imperial College of Art. Yamao assumed the office of rector of the ICE and was a strong advocate of the need for technical education to support the industrialisation of the Japanese economy. Henry Dyer and Yozo Yamao had an extremely good relationship during this period, strengthened no doubt by their common background.Yozo Yamao was made an Earl (hakushaku) by the Japanese Emperor, and it has been claimed that he introduced the well known Scottish song 'Auld Lang Syne ' to Japan.
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot......."
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