Frederick Victor Dickins (24 May 1838 – 16 August 1915) was a British

naval surgeon A naval surgeon, or less commonly ship's doctor, is the person responsible for the health of the ship's company aboard a warship. The term appears often in reference to Royal Navy's medical personnel during the Age of Sail. Ancient uses Specialis ...

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

, orientalist and university administrator. He is now remembered as a translator of

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japa ...

Life

Dickins was born at 44 Connaught Terrace in

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

, London''1911 England Census'' to Thomas Dickins and Jane Dickins.''London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813–1917'' He first visited

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

as a medical officer on HMS ''Coromandel'' in 1863. For three years he was stationed at

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

in charge of medical facilities there. During this time he was in contact with Japanese doctors and culture, and also

Ernest Satow Sir Ernest Mason Satow (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British diplomat, scholar and Japanologist. He is better known in Japan, where he was known as , than in Britain or the other countries in which he served as a diplomat. He was ...

who became a lifelong correspondent and friend. He began publishing English translations of Japanese classical works at this time. He left his naval position, returned to England and tried various career choices, but came back to Japan in 1871, having in the meantime married and been

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

. He built up a legal practice in Japan. In the Maria Luz jurisdiction case he represented the Peruvian captain of the ship.Sir Ernest Satow's Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V. Dickins: The Correspondence of a Pioneer Japanologist from 1870 to 1918
Ernest Mason Satow, Ian C. Ruxton, Lulu.com, 2008 He was also widely involved with botany, and journalism in the Yokohama community. Dickins was especially interested in ferns which he collected at Yokohama and Atami, 1863–65. He sent both living plants and drawings back to

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For 20 years he served as director of the Ro ...

at the Royal Botanic Gardens at

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...

. He returned to England in 1879. After practising law in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

for a time, he mostly devoted himself to Japanese studies and administration in the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. He was appointed CB in the 1901 New Year Honours.

Works

*''The Collected Works of Frederick Victor Dickins'' (Bristol: Ganesha, Tokyo: Edition Synapse 1999) reprinted in seven volumes with an introduction by

Peter Kornicki Peter Francis Kornicki (born 1 May 1950) Fellow of the British Academy, FBA is an English Japanologist. He is Emeritus Professor of Japanese at Cambridge University and Emeritus Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. He is particularly known for h ...

. . * Dickins co-authored a Life of Sir Harry Parkes with

Stanley Lane-Poole Stanley Edward Lane-Poole (18 December 1854 – 29 December 1931) was a British orientalist and archaeologist. Biography Lane Poole was Born in London, England, the eldest of three children (two sons and a daughter) of Edward Stanley Poole (1830 ...

. Lane-Poole wrote the first volume on Parkes in China, Dickins the second volume on Parkes in Japan. * Dickins translated and edited '' Chiushingura, or the Loyal League. A Japanese Romance'' (1875).

Letters to Dickins

*''Sir

's Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V. Dickins'' edited by Ian Ruxton with an introduction by

, Lulu Press Inc, February 2008. .

Honours

In 1885, French botanist

Adrien René Franchet Adrien René Franchet (21 April 1834 in Pezou – 15 February 1900 in Paris) was a French botanist, based at the Paris Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. He is noted for his extensive work describing the flora of China and Japan, base ...

in Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., séries 2, Vol.8 on page 244 published and described a plant from China. He named the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

, '' Dickinsia'' in honour of Frederick Dickins.

References

External links

*
Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickins, Frederick Victor 1838 births 1915 deaths British orientalists British Japanologists British barristers British surgeons Companions of the Order of the Bath Royal Navy Medical Service officers 19th-century British translators People from Paddington