author

Jukichi Inouye

1862–1929

A Japanese writer and teacher who brought everyday Tokyo to life for English-language readers at the start of the 20th century. His books mix close observation with a clear wish to explain Japan from a local point of view.

1 Audiobook

Home Life in Tokyo

Home Life in Tokyo

by Jukichi Inouye

About the author

Born in 1862 and active as a Japanese teacher, Jukichi Inouye wrote in English about Japanese life, language, and history. Records of his published work show a wide range: Sketches of Tokyo Life and Home Life in Tokyo on daily life, war-related books from the 1890s, and several Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries.

What makes him especially interesting is the perspective he set out in the preface to Home Life in Tokyo (1910). He explained that many books on Japan available to foreign readers had been written by Europeans or Americans, and he wanted to offer an account by "a native of the country," focused on the ordinary details of life in Tokyo.

Inouye died in 1929. Today he is remembered less as a novelist than as a careful interpreter of Japan for readers abroad—someone who documented the city, customs, and language of his time in a direct and useful way.