author
F. (Frank) Brinkley
1841–1912
An Irish-born writer, editor, and scholar who spent most of his life in Meiji Japan, he helped introduce English-language readers to Japanese history, art, and culture. His books reflect decades of close observation and involvement in a country going through rapid change.
1 Audiobook
A history of the Japanese people : from the earliest times to the end of the Meiji era
by F. (Frank) Brinkley, Dairoku Kikuchi
About the author
Born in Ireland in 1841, Frank Brinkley was educated at Trinity College Dublin and first went to Japan as a British artillery officer in the late 1860s. He stayed for more than forty years, building a career that reached far beyond the military.
In Japan, he worked as an educator, became a newspaper editor and owner, and wrote extensively in English about Japanese culture and public life. He is especially remembered for books on Japanese history, art, architecture, and literature, as well as for helping explain Meiji-era Japan to Western readers.
Because he lived in Japan for so long and took such a strong interest in its institutions and traditions, Brinkley became an important bridge between cultures. For readers today, his work offers both a historical record and a glimpse of how Japan was being presented to the English-speaking world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.