author
Aimé Humbert
1819–1900
A Swiss traveler, educator, and statesman, he is best remembered for opening a window onto 19th-century Japan for Western readers. His writing grew out of firsthand diplomatic work and close observation, giving it both curiosity and authority.
1 Audiobook
Japan De Aarde en haar Volken, 1867
by Aimé Humbert
About the author
Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1819, Aimé Humbert-Droz was a Swiss politician, educator, and traveler. He served in public life in Switzerland and was elected President of the Swiss Council of States in 1856.
Humbert became especially notable for leading the first Swiss diplomatic mission to Japan in 1863–64, when he worked to conclude a treaty of amity and trade. During that stay, he closely observed Japanese society and gathered material that would later shape his best-known book, Le Japon illustré.
First published in Paris in 1870 and later translated into English as Japan and the Japanese Illustrated, the book helped introduce many Western readers to everyday life, customs, and landscapes in Japan at the end of the Tokugawa era. He died in Neuchâtel in 1900.