Ernest Mason Satow

author

Ernest Mason Satow

1843–1929

A sharp-eyed British diplomat who watched Japan transform at close range and turned those experiences into vivid historical writing. His work still draws readers interested in diplomacy, East Asia, and the dramatic years around Japan’s opening to the West.

1 Audiobook

A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period

A Diplomat in Japan The inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored, recorded by a diplomatist who took an active part in the events of the time, with an account of his personal experiences during that period

by Ernest Mason Satow

About the author

Born in London in 1843, Ernest Mason Satow became a British diplomat, scholar, and noted Japan specialist. He entered the diplomatic service in the early 1860s and built a reputation for deep knowledge of Japanese language and politics at a time of major change in East Asia.

He is especially remembered for his years in Japan during the turbulent final days of the shogunate and the early Meiji era. That firsthand experience later shaped A Diplomat in Japan, one of his best-known books, valued for its lively account of the political upheavals he witnessed.

Satow went on to serve in several major diplomatic posts, including in Japan and China, and also wrote A Guide to Diplomatic Practice, a work that remained influential in diplomatic circles. He died in 1929, leaving behind a reputation as both a careful observer of history and a practical man of international affairs.