[ Sept.2014 ] There are many western style houses left in Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan.
Among them, we went in to Old British Consulate.
The current building was built in 1913 after others were burned down a couple of times.
But the British Consulate in Hakodate itself was founded in 1859.
It seems that the people in Hakodate felt close to the second consul, Richard Eusden and his statue was in the room as you can see in the photo.
This statue is a life size, which means he was a very small person even smaller than the average Japanese people.
So people called him “Mame Konsure”.
Literally it means “pea consul”.
This consul loved Hakodate and named his house in the UK “Hokkaido House” after going back home finishing his term.
I looked up, but found not much about him.
To be precise, he seemed a consul by proxy and not known apart from in Hakodate.
In this old consulate, there were some exhibits showing the era of opening port in Hakodate in the 19th century.
