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William George Aston

 

 
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William George Aston (April 9 1841-1911) was a British
Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
 consular official in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 and Korea
Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
. He made a major contribution to the fledgling study of Japan's language and history (Japanology) in the 19th century. The National Portrait Gallery in London has by Minnie Agnes Cohen, apparently the only known likeness of him.

n was also one of the three major British Japanologist
Japanology

Japanese Studies is a term generally used in Europe to describe the historical and cultural study of Japan; in North America, the academic field is usually referred to as Japanese studies, which includes contemporary social sciences as well as classical humanistic fields....
s active in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 during the 19th century, along with Ernest Mason Satow
Ernest Mason Satow

Sir Ernest Mason Satow Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Order of St. Michael and St. George, , known in Japan as "" , known in China as "???" or "???", was an outstanding Great Britain scholar, diplomat and Japanologist born to an ethnically German father and an English mother in Upper Clapton, North London....
 and Basil Hall Chamberlain
Basil Hall Chamberlain

Basil Hall Chamberlain , was a professor of Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost Great Britain Japanology active in Japan during the late 19th century....
.






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William George Aston (April 9 1841-1911) was a British
Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
 consular official in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 and Korea
Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
. He made a major contribution to the fledgling study of Japan's language and history (Japanology) in the 19th century. The National Portrait Gallery in London has by Minnie Agnes Cohen, apparently the only known likeness of him.

Japanology

Aston was also one of the three major British Japanologist
Japanology

Japanese Studies is a term generally used in Europe to describe the historical and cultural study of Japan; in North America, the academic field is usually referred to as Japanese studies, which includes contemporary social sciences as well as classical humanistic fields....
s active in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 during the 19th century, along with Ernest Mason Satow
Ernest Mason Satow

Sir Ernest Mason Satow Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Order of St. Michael and St. George, , known in Japan as "" , known in China as "???" or "???", was an outstanding Great Britain scholar, diplomat and Japanologist born to an ethnically German father and an English mother in Upper Clapton, North London....
 and Basil Hall Chamberlain
Basil Hall Chamberlain

Basil Hall Chamberlain , was a professor of Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost Great Britain Japanology active in Japan during the late 19th century....
. He was the first translator of the Nihongi into English. He lectured to the Asiatic Society of Japan
Asiatic Society of Japan

Asiatic Society of Japan The Asiatic Society of Japan was founded in 1872, five years after the Meiji restoration, at Yokohama by British and American residents - in particular missionaries, diplomats, businessmen etc....
 several times.

In 1912 Cambridge University Library
Cambridge University Library

The Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of the University of Cambridge in England. It comprises five separate libraries:...
 acquired 10,000 rare Japanese volumes from the collections of Aston and Ernest Satow which formed the starting point of the Library's vast collection.

Works

  • W. G. Aston 1879, ‘H.M.S. Phaeton at Nagasaki’, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan
    Asiatic Society of Japan

    Asiatic Society of Japan The Asiatic Society of Japan was founded in 1872, five years after the Meiji restoration, at Yokohama by British and American residents - in particular missionaries, diplomats, businessmen etc....
     volume 7: pp. 323-336
  • W.G. Aston (trans.), Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, London: Kegan Paul 1924. (First published much earlier)
  • W. G. Aston Shinto
    Shinto

    is the former state religion of Japan and remains the most common name for the nation's non-Buddhist ethnic religion practices. It was formed from disparate local mythologies, beginning with the Kojiki of 712, into an imperial cult called State Shinto that solidified in the Meiji period....
    , the Way of the Gods,     London: Longmans Green and Co. 1905.


Letters to Aston


  • Sir Ernest Satow's Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V. Dickins edited by Ian Ruxton with an introduction by Peter Kornicki
    Peter Kornicki

    Peter Francis Kornicki is Professor of East Asian Studies at Cambridge University. He was previously Professor of History of Japan and Bibliography....
    , Lulu Press Inc, December 2007


See also


  • The entry about Aston by Joseph Henry Longford
    Joseph Henry Longford

    Joseph Henry Longford was a British consular official in the British Japan Consular Service from February 24, 1869 until August 15, 1902. He was Consul in Taiwan after the First Sino-Japanese War and at Nagasaki, Nagasaki ....
     in the 1901-11 supplement to the Dictionary of National Biography
    Dictionary of National Biography

    The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the United Kingdom, published from 1885....
    .
  • Anglo-Japanese relations
    Anglo-Japanese relations

    This page describes the history of the relationship between the United Kingdom and Japan. This began in 1600 with the arrival of William Adams on the shores of Kyushu at Usuki, Oita in Oita Prefecture....
  • British Japan Consular Service
    British Japan Consular Service

    Britain had a functioning consular service in Japan from 1859 after the signing of the 1858 Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce between James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and the Tokugawa Shogunate until 1941 when war was declared by Britain on Japan as the ally of the United States after the Attack on Pearl Harbor....


External links

  • by Peter Kornicki
    Peter Kornicki

    Peter Francis Kornicki is Professor of East Asian Studies at Cambridge University. He was previously Professor of History of Japan and Bibliography....
    , on the website of the East Asia Institute at Cambridge University
  • by W.G. Aston (Yokohama: Kelly and Walsh, 1899)