‘I regret to say that we spurned this kindness and continued to brandish the Japanese “real swords”’
Bower started collecting Japanese goods long after it was popular to do so. He turned his own home into a museum, charging entry to view his lacquerworks, swords and armour in Chiddingstone Castle, near Edenbridge in Kent. In 1957, he was imprisoned for attempted murder of his girlfriend, allegedly shooting her accidentally with an antique pistol.
Included in the Museum of Imagined Kent are labels from Bower’s original collection, as well as photos of him and his artefacts. There is also a diary entry, and newspaper clippings.
In the diary entry, we learn how as children, Bower and his brother would carry around real Japanese swords, and how a village policeman tried to stop them, even making them wooden toy swords to use instead. The labels appear to be limited to description of the items only, rather than any additional information.
Bower died alone in Chiddingstone Castle with dwindling funds, following his release from prison. His violent actions make us consider his role as a collector of cultural artefacts. Although it’s not well-documented how he came to have a lot of the Japanese items in his collection, connected with ideas of colonialism we imagine that Bower’s collecting, and that of other Kentish collectors such as Henry Marsham (1845-1908), has something of an aggressive undertone to it.
The items that Bower displayed do not represent Japan, but his idea of Japan – a form of imagination. Having been aware of these items since childhood, even playing with them as if they were toys, his idea of the artefacts does not exist without a Kentish perspective. The indication given by Bower’s collection, displayed in a castle that he could barely afford, is that he was exhibiting less to educate, and more to impress.
Images courtesy of Denys Eyre Bower Bequest, Chiddingstone Castle
Read more about Bower and Chiddingstone Castle here