William George Aston
(1841-1911), Japanese scholarSitter in 1 portrait
William George Aston was a British consular official in Japan and Korea. He made a major contribution to the fledgling study of Japan's language and history (Japanology) in the nineteenth century. Along with Ernest Mason Satow and Basil Hall Chamberlain, Aston was one of the three major British Japanologists active in Japan at the time. He was the first translator of the Nihongi into English. In 1912 Cambridge University Library 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.
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