Samuel Cocking

Cocking is buried in the Miyata family plot in a Buddhist cemetery in Yokohama, which was unusual for foreigners living in Japan at that time.

His company, “Cocking & Co” specialized in trading Japanese curios, art and antiques as well as importing chemicals, drugs, scientific and laboratory apparatus.

[citation needed] In 1880, he purchased (in his wife’s name) the highlands, including derelict Buddhist shrines, on the island of Enoshima and began building the botanical gardens and a villa.

It was during the years of anti-Buddhist sentiment in Japan that Cocking was heavily involved in the Japanese curios trade.

He refused to buy the Daibutsu – no doubt[citation needed] feeling it had too much cultural importance to Japan and should remain in the country.