Basil Hall Chamberlain (18 October 1850 – 15 February 1935) was a British

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and

Japanologist , sometimes known as Japanology in Europe, is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanese language, History of Japan, history, ...

. He was a professor of the

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists active in Japan during the late 19th century. (Others included

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 ...

and W. G. Aston.) He also wrote some of the earliest translations of

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

into English. He is perhaps best remembered for his informal and popular one-volume encyclopedia ''Things Japanese'', which first appeared in 1890 and which he revised several times thereafter. His interests were diverse, and his works include an anthology of poetry in French.

Early life

Chamberlain was born in

Southsea Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea began as a f ...

(a part of

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

) on the south coast of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, the son of an Admiral William Charles Chamberlain and his wife Eliza Hall, the daughter of the travel writer Basil Hall. His younger brother was Houston Stewart Chamberlain. He was brought up speaking French as well as English, even before moving to

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

to live with his maternal grandmother in 1856 upon his mother's death. Once in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, he acquired German as well. Chamberlain had hoped to study at

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, but instead started work at Barings Bank in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He was unsuited to the work and soon had a

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

. It was in the hope of a full recovery that he sailed out of Britain, with no clear destination in mind.

Japan

Chamberlain landed in Japan on 29 May 1873, employed by the Japanese government as an '' o-yatoi gaikokujin''. He taught at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

from 1874 to 1882. His most important position, however, was as professor of Japanese at Tokyo Imperial University beginning in 1886. It was here that he gained his reputation as a student of Japanese language and literature. (He was also a pioneering scholar of the Ainu and

Ryukyuan languages The , also Lewchewan or Luchuan (), are the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago. Along with the Japanese language and the Hachijō language, they make up the Japonic language family. Ju ...

.) His many works include the first translation of the '' Kojiki'' into English (1882), ''A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese'' (1888), ''Things Japanese'' (1890), and ''A Practical Guide to the Study of Japanese Writing'' (1905). A keen traveller despite chronic weak health, he cowrote (with W. B. Mason) the 1891 edition of ''A Handbook for Travellers in Japan'', of which revised editions followed. Chamberlain was a friend of the writer Lafcadio Hearn, once a colleague at the university, but the two became estranged over the years. (quoted from Chamberlain's letters). Chamberlain wrote to Hearn's biographer to explain that Hearn never lost his esteem, and he wrote a few times to Hearn, who had moved away to Matsue, Shimane, but the letters went unanswered. Percival Lowell dedicated his travelogue ''Noto: An Unexplored Corner of Japan'' (1891) to Chamberlain. From the dedication. Chamberlain sent many Japanese artefacts to the Pitt Rivers Museum at

. He left Japan in March 1911 and moved to

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, where he lived until his death in 1935.

Selected works by Chamberlain

* ''The Classical Poetry of the Japanese'', 1880 * "A Translation of the 'Ko-ji-ki', or Records of Ancient Matters" in ''Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan'', Vol. 10, Supplement, 1882 ** Rechaptered with notes by Charles Francis Horne in Horne, ed., ''The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East: With an Historical Survey and Descriptions'', Vol. 1, 1917, pages 8–61. ** Wikisource: * ''The Language, Mythology, and Geographical Nomenclature of Japan Viewed in the Light of Aino Studies'', 1887 * ''A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese'', 1887 * ''Aino Folk-Tales'', 1888 * ''Things Japanese'', six editions 1890–1936 ** A paperback version of the fifth edition, from 1905, with the short bibliographies appended to many of its articles replaced by lists of other books put out by the new publisher, was issued by the Charles E. Tuttle Company as ''Japanese Things'' in 1971 and has since been reprinted several times. * ''A Handbook for Travellers in Japan'', co-written with W. B. Mason, seven editions 1891–1913 (numbered as third to ninth editions, the first and second editions being of its predecessor, ''A Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan'' by

and A G S Hawes). * ''Essay in Aid of a Grammar and Dictionary of the Luchuan Language'', 1895 (a pioneering study of the

) * "Bashō and the Japanese Poetical Epigram" in ''Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan'', Vol. 2, no. 30, 1902 (some of Chamberlain's translations from this article are included in Faubion Bowers' ''The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology'', Dover Publications, 1996 .) * ''Japanese Poetry'', 1910 * ''The Invention of a New Religion'', 191
At Project Gutenberg
(incorporated into ''Things Japanese'' in 1927) * ''Huit Siècles de poésie française'', 1927 * ''. . . encore est vive la Souris'', 1933

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamberlain, Basil Hall British expatriates in Japan British Japanologists Japanese–English translators English orientalists 1850 births 1935 deaths People from Southsea Foreign educators in Japan Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-era Japan Academic staff of the University of Tokyo 20th-century British translators Linguists of Japanese

Early life

Japan

Selected works by Chamberlain

See also

References

Further reading

External links