Sir Ernest Satow's Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V. Dickins

Book excerpt: The distinguished British scholar-diplomat Ernest Mason Satow (1843-1929) was one of the most prominent and pre-eminent Japanologists in the Victorian era when the subject was newly created as Japan began to open its doors to foreigners from the mid-1850s. He shared this honour with Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935) and the two addressees of the letters reproduced here by permission of the U.K. National Archives: co-worker William George Aston (1841-1911) and Frederick Victor Dickins (1838-1915). This book is part of a series in which Ian Ruxton is making some of the extensive Satow Papers publicly available for the first time. It includes an introduction by Professor Peter Kornicki of the East Asia Institute at the University of Cambridge, eight black & white illustrations, 166 annotations, two appendices, a select bibliography and a full index for ease of reference. (xvi + 330 pp.) Reasonably priced for students and researchers. Library of Congress Control Number: 2008901176