The many "fathers" of madama butterfly
Madama Butterfly is a three act opera by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924; 66 years), set in pre-WWI Nagasaki, Japan. A nakodo arranges a marriage between Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton (U. S. Navy) and Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly). Pinkerton is a pleasure-seeking adventurer and in due course a dishonorable philanderer while lovely and charming Cio-Cio-San is a naive, love-struck teenage orphan. Pinkerton returns to sea duty, leaving his pregnant “wife” behind without adequate finances. During his absence, Butterfly remains faithful to her husband, gives birth and cares for Dolore, their son. Pinkerton finally returns, not to rejoin Butterfly, but with Kate, his American wife of four months, and for the purpose of taking "his" son, back to America. In the final scene, Cio-Cio-San commits suicide, a rather “moth-like” than butterfly ending.
The story of the opera has a metamorphosed and disputed history and “Butterfly’s ancestry” continues to be scrutinized by opera buffs. A French sailor, a Pennsylvania lawyer, a one-time California actor, an Italian composer, and an English merchant are implicated in the affair with Cio-Cio-San and the “fathering” of baby Dolore, nicknamed “Trouble.”
John Luther Long (1861-1927; 66 years) was a Philadelphia lawyer, writer, and also a “father” of Madame Butterfly; he was born 1 January 1861 in Hanover PA. Long published a number of works, including stories, books, plays, and operatic librettos. His short story Madame Butterfly first appeared in the January 1898 issue of Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (pp 374-393). Long claimed that the deception of “Butterfly” by Pinkerton was a tale told by his sister, Jennie, who between 1891-1897 lived in Nagasaki, Japan with Irwin Correll, her Methodist missionary husband. Long selected David Belasco, a well-regarded producer and writer, to transform the story into a play. How much Long knew of Viaud’s story is uncertain. The Corrells were in Japan, visiting their son in June of 1922, and attended a performance of Madama Butterfly, featuring the famous Japanese soprano, Miura Tamaki (1884-1946; 62 years), portraying Cio-Cio San.
Marie Julien Viaud (1850-1923; 73 years), pseudonym for Pierre Loti, was a French sailor and writer, and a “father” of and a “husband” of a “Madame Butterfly”, whom he called Chrysanthème. Viaud was born in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France and at seventeen entered the naval school at Le Borda. He served in the French Navy for thirty some years, rising to the rank of captain in 1906; in 1910 he was placed on the inactive reserve list. In 1876, Viaud started writing articles on his travels and stories based on his adventures. His first person narrative of Japanese manners, Madame Chrysanthème appeared in 1888. “A callous young naval officer, Pierre enters into a temporary marriage with a geisha while stationed in Nagasaki Japan.” The tale is embroidery of Viaud’s own experiences and reflects a French view of “Une Liaison d’Amour.”
David Belasco (1854-1931; 77 years) a director, actor, and playwright is a “third father” of Butterfly. Belasco partially rewrote Madame Butterfly (with Long’s consent), which premiered 5 March 1900 at the Herald Square Theater, New York, featuring Blanche Bates (1873-1941; 68 years) as Cio-Cio-San, the first “Butterfly.” The one act play was a great success in NYC, and was later performed in London at the Duke of York’s Theatre. Puccini, who attended one of the London performances, was so moved that he wanted to turn the play into an opera, and immediately after the curtain call, rushed backstage to get Belasco’s consent.
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924; 66 years) is a “fourth father” of Madama Butterfly, and his name has practically become a synonym for butterfly. Ristorante Puccine, Lucca Tuscony, Italy serves butterflies of pasta (Farfalline al tonno, Farfalline al salmone, etc). Descended from a family of musicians, Puccini was the most important Italian opera composer in the generation following Verdi. He was born and educated in Lucca, Italy and studied under Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886; 52 years) at the Milan Conservatory. He began his career as a composer of operas with Le Villi, but his first success was Manon Lescaut in 1893. In all, he wrote twelve operas; Madame Butterfly was first preformed at La Scala, Milan 17 February 1904, but it was a disaster. After revisions, it was acclaimed at La Teatro Grande, Brescia, Italy; 28 May 1904.
Thomas Blake Glover (1838-1911; 73 years), a British entrepreneur, is an alleged prototype for Pinkerton, according to some opera buffs. Apparently, Nagasaki city officials tacitly accept this allegation. Glover did marry a young Japanese girl and he did father a Eurasian son; however, Glover’s story is far more complex. Thomas Glover was born on 6 June 1838 in Fraserburgh, Scotland, of an English father and a very Scottish mother. His father was an officer in the Royal Navy and later a coastguard officer. Thomas Grover had six brothers and one sister. After his schooling and in his late teens, Glover, began working for international trading companies and traveled the world.
With a brother, Thomas Glover visited Shanghai, China; and in 1857 worked for a Hong Kong based British company, trading seaweed to China and exporting teas and silk to England. Two-years later, he was transferred to Nagasaki, Japan, which was just opening-up to western commerce. Glover was involved in Japanese political affairs, and played a part in toppling the 15th and last shogunate, Tokugowa Yoshinobu (1837-1913; r 1867-1868), and in restoring Mutsuhito, the Meiji Emperor (1852-1912; r 1867-1912) to his throne.
Thomas Glover later was responsible for commissioning three warships, which were constructed for the Japanese Navy in an Aberdeen, Scotland naval yards. A few years later, Glover was one of the founders of a Japanese shipbuilding company that eventually became the industrial giant, Mitsubishi. He also helped to establish the first railroad, the first mint, the first mechanized coalmine, and the first brewery in Japan. He also made arrangements (somewhat illegally) for Japanese students to study abroad, mostly in England. For contributions in modernizing their country, Glover was presented with the Order of the Rising Sun, the first non-Japanese to be so recognized.
Glover settled in Nagasaki; his house was built in 1863 by Japanese carpenters and remains the oldest western style building in Japan. It is ironical that German bombs destroyed Glover’s birth-home in Scotland during WWII, but his home and gardens (Glover House) survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, his adopted city. Many European men, who resided in Japan and who opened the country to modernization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, had love affairs with Japanese “brides.” Sailors and other visiting foreign males to Japan utilized brothels and geisha houses and fathered “Troubles.” American soldiers stationed in Japan during allied occupation following WWII brought home 45,000 war brides and left behind thousands of unwed “Butterflies.” The plight of Cio-Cio San and the conflict between two unlike cultures is longstanding.
During WWII, performances of the opera Madama Butterfly ceased in the United States and Japan, but after the War, the story of Thomas Glover and his wife Tsura, the butterfly lady, became a re-incarnation mythology for the city of Nagasaki. Glover House and Gardens were restored and are widely visited by local school children and tourists. The city officials of Nagasaki again display their harbor and their hospitality to Westerners.
Glover Gardens is an open-air museum, exhibiting the mansions of former European residents of Nagasaki (area assigned to Westerners in the late 19th century), and today is a major tourist attraction with over 1.3 million visitors each year. The gardens provide a spectacular view of Nagasaki harbor and feature colorful floral displays, and are butterfly friendly. After 1939, the Grover House and grounds were owned by Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyards and then were donated to the City of Nagasaki in 1957.
Glover married Tsuru Awajiya, the daughter of a samurai, in 1867; she was known as Ochô-san to family and friends, because she loved butterflies and always wore an emblem of a butterfly on her clothing. Glover wasn’t quite the “operatic Pinkerton” who abandoned his Japanese wife for one from his own country. However, he was the acknowledged father an “out of wedlock” son born 8 December 1870 by Kaga Maki, presumably a courtesan. It is believed that the natural mother reared the child until about six years. The boy then came to live with the Glover household and his half-sister Hana (born in 1876). Tommy, to his father, was adopted by Glover’s wife Tsuru “Ochô-san”. Because of her love of butterflies, Ochô-san is considered by some to have been the inspiration for Puccini's opera, Madama Butterfly; to add credence to this conception, a statue honoring Madame Butterfly is in the Glover Gardens.
Glover is reported to have collected butterflies and plants in Japan. His name has been linked to the butterfly bush, Buddleja davidii; however, there is uncertainty if this species is really native to Japan or is an escaped introduction. Father Jean Armand David discovered this species in China; B. japonica is the native Japanese butterfly bush. At the time of Glover, the Japanese were very touchy about the export of books, maps, religious objects, and scientific specimens from their country. Also travel was restricted for Westerners, which limited opportunities for collecting plant and animal specimens. Philipp Von Siebold (1796-1866), a Dutch physician, who lived in Nagasaki previous to Glover’s arrival, collected seeds, books, etc. and illegally smuggled these materials back to the Netherlands. He was imprisoned and expelled from Japan, because of his scientific activity and for other reasons. Siebold also had a Japanese wife. If Glover did send scientific specimens of butterflies and plants back to Scotland, it was done surreptitiously. Thomas Glover died in 1911 in Tokyo, and Glover House passed to his son.
Grover’s son, Tomisaburo or “Shinzaburo,” eventually adopted his stepmother's maiden name Awajiya, for his family name. He was called: "Tomi-san" by the Japanese friends and "Tommy" by Europeans. His early schooling was at the Cobleigh Seminary, founded in 1881 by Carroll S. (1850-1890) and Flora Smith Long, American Methodist missionaries. Thereafter for four years Tomisaburo attended Gakushuin, an exclusive Japanese school in Tokyo, graduating in 1888. As an Asian/European, he suffered many slurs and abuses from Japanese schoolmates.
In 1890, Tomisaburo entered the pre-med program at the University of Pennsylvania, and developed a strong interest in biology, a proficiency in English, and learned western manners and culture. After two years at Penn, he returned home to Japan. In June 1899, Tomisaburo married Nakano Waka, the second daughter of a British merchant, James Walter and a Japanese woman named Nakano Ei. Tomisaburo and Waka had no children. For thirty some years, Tomisaburo productively lived in European and Japanese cultures, and was respected by both until about 1937.
Part of Tomisaburo’s career involved the Japanese fishing industry (Nagasaki Steamship Fishery Co.). In 1908, he imported the first steam trawler to Japan, which was built in an Aberdeen, Scotland shipping-yards. His most important contribution in natural history is Fishes of Southern & Western Japan, consisting of a text and about 800 color plates, which were painted by five Japanese artists (between 1912 to 1936). Tomisaburo collected all the specimens for the illustrations and provided descriptions and nomenclature for 558 species of fish, 123 mollusks, and of the whales in Japanese waters. The original 32 volume set is now preserved at the Library of Nagasaki University.
Tomisaburo and Nakano attempted to remain neutral and aloft from politics. However, with the Japanese invasion of China and developing hostility to the West, it became increasingly difficult for biracial families to preserve relationships with native Japanese associates. Because Glover House looked down on the Nagasaki’s naval yards, Tomisaburo and his family were forced to move to housing that did not have a view of the harbor. After 7 December 1941, life became a nightmare for the Glovers and others of Euro/Japanese ancestry. They were hated and shunned by their neighbors, lived under strict surveillance, were suspect in public, suffered from shortages of food and fuel, and were unable to have productive lives.
As war raged in the Pacific, Tomisaburo and Waka retreated into a life of solitude. The military police became relentless in their surveillance, resorting to tactics like posing as electricians or plumbers in order to gain entrance into the Kuraba home. Tomisaburo's many old friends now avoided contact with him because of the harassments they would have to endure if they acknowledged even a simple greeting. Their gardener and other people with whom he had daily contact were also subjected to persistent investigations (The Man Who Could Not Take Sides: A Sketch of The Life of Kuraba Tomisaburo by Brian Burke-Gaffney; Crossroads No. 3, 1995).
On 4 May 1943, Waka died. Thereafter, Tomisaburo rarely left his house, puttered in his garden, and lived alone except for his housekeeper and dog. On 9 August 1946, shortly after 11:00 am, there was a brilliant flash of light, followed a powerful explosion from the atomic bomb, dropped over Nagasaki. His wartime house and his former residence, Glover House, were damaged, but not destroyed by the blast. However, his loneliness, the destruction of his “hometown”, an impending occupation of his estranged, but never-the-less only homeland, and the prospects of accusations about disloyalty by the British and Americans occupiers, Tomisaburo could no longer face life. On 26 August 1945, Shinzaburo Awajiya (Tommy Glover) killed his dog and hung himself, an ending as sad as that of Puccini's Cio-Cio San.
The story of the opera has a metamorphosed and disputed history and “Butterfly’s ancestry” continues to be scrutinized by opera buffs. A French sailor, a Pennsylvania lawyer, a one-time California actor, an Italian composer, and an English merchant are implicated in the affair with Cio-Cio-San and the “fathering” of baby Dolore, nicknamed “Trouble.”
John Luther Long (1861-1927; 66 years) was a Philadelphia lawyer, writer, and also a “father” of Madame Butterfly; he was born 1 January 1861 in Hanover PA. Long published a number of works, including stories, books, plays, and operatic librettos. His short story Madame Butterfly first appeared in the January 1898 issue of Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (pp 374-393). Long claimed that the deception of “Butterfly” by Pinkerton was a tale told by his sister, Jennie, who between 1891-1897 lived in Nagasaki, Japan with Irwin Correll, her Methodist missionary husband. Long selected David Belasco, a well-regarded producer and writer, to transform the story into a play. How much Long knew of Viaud’s story is uncertain. The Corrells were in Japan, visiting their son in June of 1922, and attended a performance of Madama Butterfly, featuring the famous Japanese soprano, Miura Tamaki (1884-1946; 62 years), portraying Cio-Cio San.
Marie Julien Viaud (1850-1923; 73 years), pseudonym for Pierre Loti, was a French sailor and writer, and a “father” of and a “husband” of a “Madame Butterfly”, whom he called Chrysanthème. Viaud was born in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France and at seventeen entered the naval school at Le Borda. He served in the French Navy for thirty some years, rising to the rank of captain in 1906; in 1910 he was placed on the inactive reserve list. In 1876, Viaud started writing articles on his travels and stories based on his adventures. His first person narrative of Japanese manners, Madame Chrysanthème appeared in 1888. “A callous young naval officer, Pierre enters into a temporary marriage with a geisha while stationed in Nagasaki Japan.” The tale is embroidery of Viaud’s own experiences and reflects a French view of “Une Liaison d’Amour.”
David Belasco (1854-1931; 77 years) a director, actor, and playwright is a “third father” of Butterfly. Belasco partially rewrote Madame Butterfly (with Long’s consent), which premiered 5 March 1900 at the Herald Square Theater, New York, featuring Blanche Bates (1873-1941; 68 years) as Cio-Cio-San, the first “Butterfly.” The one act play was a great success in NYC, and was later performed in London at the Duke of York’s Theatre. Puccini, who attended one of the London performances, was so moved that he wanted to turn the play into an opera, and immediately after the curtain call, rushed backstage to get Belasco’s consent.
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924; 66 years) is a “fourth father” of Madama Butterfly, and his name has practically become a synonym for butterfly. Ristorante Puccine, Lucca Tuscony, Italy serves butterflies of pasta (Farfalline al tonno, Farfalline al salmone, etc). Descended from a family of musicians, Puccini was the most important Italian opera composer in the generation following Verdi. He was born and educated in Lucca, Italy and studied under Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886; 52 years) at the Milan Conservatory. He began his career as a composer of operas with Le Villi, but his first success was Manon Lescaut in 1893. In all, he wrote twelve operas; Madame Butterfly was first preformed at La Scala, Milan 17 February 1904, but it was a disaster. After revisions, it was acclaimed at La Teatro Grande, Brescia, Italy; 28 May 1904.
Thomas Blake Glover (1838-1911; 73 years), a British entrepreneur, is an alleged prototype for Pinkerton, according to some opera buffs. Apparently, Nagasaki city officials tacitly accept this allegation. Glover did marry a young Japanese girl and he did father a Eurasian son; however, Glover’s story is far more complex. Thomas Glover was born on 6 June 1838 in Fraserburgh, Scotland, of an English father and a very Scottish mother. His father was an officer in the Royal Navy and later a coastguard officer. Thomas Grover had six brothers and one sister. After his schooling and in his late teens, Glover, began working for international trading companies and traveled the world.
With a brother, Thomas Glover visited Shanghai, China; and in 1857 worked for a Hong Kong based British company, trading seaweed to China and exporting teas and silk to England. Two-years later, he was transferred to Nagasaki, Japan, which was just opening-up to western commerce. Glover was involved in Japanese political affairs, and played a part in toppling the 15th and last shogunate, Tokugowa Yoshinobu (1837-1913; r 1867-1868), and in restoring Mutsuhito, the Meiji Emperor (1852-1912; r 1867-1912) to his throne.
Thomas Glover later was responsible for commissioning three warships, which were constructed for the Japanese Navy in an Aberdeen, Scotland naval yards. A few years later, Glover was one of the founders of a Japanese shipbuilding company that eventually became the industrial giant, Mitsubishi. He also helped to establish the first railroad, the first mint, the first mechanized coalmine, and the first brewery in Japan. He also made arrangements (somewhat illegally) for Japanese students to study abroad, mostly in England. For contributions in modernizing their country, Glover was presented with the Order of the Rising Sun, the first non-Japanese to be so recognized.
Glover settled in Nagasaki; his house was built in 1863 by Japanese carpenters and remains the oldest western style building in Japan. It is ironical that German bombs destroyed Glover’s birth-home in Scotland during WWII, but his home and gardens (Glover House) survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, his adopted city. Many European men, who resided in Japan and who opened the country to modernization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, had love affairs with Japanese “brides.” Sailors and other visiting foreign males to Japan utilized brothels and geisha houses and fathered “Troubles.” American soldiers stationed in Japan during allied occupation following WWII brought home 45,000 war brides and left behind thousands of unwed “Butterflies.” The plight of Cio-Cio San and the conflict between two unlike cultures is longstanding.
During WWII, performances of the opera Madama Butterfly ceased in the United States and Japan, but after the War, the story of Thomas Glover and his wife Tsura, the butterfly lady, became a re-incarnation mythology for the city of Nagasaki. Glover House and Gardens were restored and are widely visited by local school children and tourists. The city officials of Nagasaki again display their harbor and their hospitality to Westerners.
Glover Gardens is an open-air museum, exhibiting the mansions of former European residents of Nagasaki (area assigned to Westerners in the late 19th century), and today is a major tourist attraction with over 1.3 million visitors each year. The gardens provide a spectacular view of Nagasaki harbor and feature colorful floral displays, and are butterfly friendly. After 1939, the Grover House and grounds were owned by Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyards and then were donated to the City of Nagasaki in 1957.
Glover married Tsuru Awajiya, the daughter of a samurai, in 1867; she was known as Ochô-san to family and friends, because she loved butterflies and always wore an emblem of a butterfly on her clothing. Glover wasn’t quite the “operatic Pinkerton” who abandoned his Japanese wife for one from his own country. However, he was the acknowledged father an “out of wedlock” son born 8 December 1870 by Kaga Maki, presumably a courtesan. It is believed that the natural mother reared the child until about six years. The boy then came to live with the Glover household and his half-sister Hana (born in 1876). Tommy, to his father, was adopted by Glover’s wife Tsuru “Ochô-san”. Because of her love of butterflies, Ochô-san is considered by some to have been the inspiration for Puccini's opera, Madama Butterfly; to add credence to this conception, a statue honoring Madame Butterfly is in the Glover Gardens.
Glover is reported to have collected butterflies and plants in Japan. His name has been linked to the butterfly bush, Buddleja davidii; however, there is uncertainty if this species is really native to Japan or is an escaped introduction. Father Jean Armand David discovered this species in China; B. japonica is the native Japanese butterfly bush. At the time of Glover, the Japanese were very touchy about the export of books, maps, religious objects, and scientific specimens from their country. Also travel was restricted for Westerners, which limited opportunities for collecting plant and animal specimens. Philipp Von Siebold (1796-1866), a Dutch physician, who lived in Nagasaki previous to Glover’s arrival, collected seeds, books, etc. and illegally smuggled these materials back to the Netherlands. He was imprisoned and expelled from Japan, because of his scientific activity and for other reasons. Siebold also had a Japanese wife. If Glover did send scientific specimens of butterflies and plants back to Scotland, it was done surreptitiously. Thomas Glover died in 1911 in Tokyo, and Glover House passed to his son.
Grover’s son, Tomisaburo or “Shinzaburo,” eventually adopted his stepmother's maiden name Awajiya, for his family name. He was called: "Tomi-san" by the Japanese friends and "Tommy" by Europeans. His early schooling was at the Cobleigh Seminary, founded in 1881 by Carroll S. (1850-1890) and Flora Smith Long, American Methodist missionaries. Thereafter for four years Tomisaburo attended Gakushuin, an exclusive Japanese school in Tokyo, graduating in 1888. As an Asian/European, he suffered many slurs and abuses from Japanese schoolmates.
In 1890, Tomisaburo entered the pre-med program at the University of Pennsylvania, and developed a strong interest in biology, a proficiency in English, and learned western manners and culture. After two years at Penn, he returned home to Japan. In June 1899, Tomisaburo married Nakano Waka, the second daughter of a British merchant, James Walter and a Japanese woman named Nakano Ei. Tomisaburo and Waka had no children. For thirty some years, Tomisaburo productively lived in European and Japanese cultures, and was respected by both until about 1937.
Part of Tomisaburo’s career involved the Japanese fishing industry (Nagasaki Steamship Fishery Co.). In 1908, he imported the first steam trawler to Japan, which was built in an Aberdeen, Scotland shipping-yards. His most important contribution in natural history is Fishes of Southern & Western Japan, consisting of a text and about 800 color plates, which were painted by five Japanese artists (between 1912 to 1936). Tomisaburo collected all the specimens for the illustrations and provided descriptions and nomenclature for 558 species of fish, 123 mollusks, and of the whales in Japanese waters. The original 32 volume set is now preserved at the Library of Nagasaki University.
Tomisaburo and Nakano attempted to remain neutral and aloft from politics. However, with the Japanese invasion of China and developing hostility to the West, it became increasingly difficult for biracial families to preserve relationships with native Japanese associates. Because Glover House looked down on the Nagasaki’s naval yards, Tomisaburo and his family were forced to move to housing that did not have a view of the harbor. After 7 December 1941, life became a nightmare for the Glovers and others of Euro/Japanese ancestry. They were hated and shunned by their neighbors, lived under strict surveillance, were suspect in public, suffered from shortages of food and fuel, and were unable to have productive lives.
As war raged in the Pacific, Tomisaburo and Waka retreated into a life of solitude. The military police became relentless in their surveillance, resorting to tactics like posing as electricians or plumbers in order to gain entrance into the Kuraba home. Tomisaburo's many old friends now avoided contact with him because of the harassments they would have to endure if they acknowledged even a simple greeting. Their gardener and other people with whom he had daily contact were also subjected to persistent investigations (The Man Who Could Not Take Sides: A Sketch of The Life of Kuraba Tomisaburo by Brian Burke-Gaffney; Crossroads No. 3, 1995).
On 4 May 1943, Waka died. Thereafter, Tomisaburo rarely left his house, puttered in his garden, and lived alone except for his housekeeper and dog. On 9 August 1946, shortly after 11:00 am, there was a brilliant flash of light, followed a powerful explosion from the atomic bomb, dropped over Nagasaki. His wartime house and his former residence, Glover House, were damaged, but not destroyed by the blast. However, his loneliness, the destruction of his “hometown”, an impending occupation of his estranged, but never-the-less only homeland, and the prospects of accusations about disloyalty by the British and Americans occupiers, Tomisaburo could no longer face life. On 26 August 1945, Shinzaburo Awajiya (Tommy Glover) killed his dog and hung himself, an ending as sad as that of Puccini's Cio-Cio San.