William George Aston

William George Aston (* April 9, 1841 in Derry, † November 22, 1911 in Beer in the southern English county of Devon ) was a British consular officer in Japan and Korea.

After working in the consular service in Japan and Korea, he was from 1884 to 1886 the British consul-general in Korea.

Japanese Studies

Aston was also one of the three most important British Japanese studies who were active in Japan in the 19th century. The other two were Ernest Mason Satow and Basil Hall Chamberlain.

He was the first translator of the Nihongi in the English language. He gave multiple lectures before the Asiatic Society of Japan.

1912 acquired the Cambridge University Library 10,000 rare Japanese books from the collections of Aston and Ernest Satow, which formed the starting point of today's vast collections.

Works

• A Grammar of the Japanese Spoken Language. 4th edition. Lane, Crawford & Co., London, Kelly & Walsh, London, Hakubunsha, Tokyo, Trübner & Co., London 1888 ( digitized in the Internet Archive )
• A History of Japanese Literature. In: Edmund Gosse (ed.): Short Histories of the Literatures of the World: VI. William Heinemann, London 1899 ( digitized in the Internet Archive )
• Nihongi, Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD 697 Volume I and II, In: Transactions and Proceedings of The Japan Society London, Supplement I. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Limited, London 1896 ( digitized in the Internet Archive )
• A Grammar of the Japanese Written Language. 3rd revised edition. Luzac & Co., London, Lane, Crawford & Co., Yokohama 1904 ( digitized in the Internet Archive )
• Shinto ( The Way of the Gods ). Longmans, Green and Co., New York / Bombay in 1905 ( digitized in the Internet Archive )
• Shinto. The Ancient Religion of Japan. Constable & Company, Ltd., London 1921 ( first published no later than 1907; digitized in the Internet Archive ).