William George Aston

A History of Japanese Literature (1899) by William George Aston

William George Aston (9 April 1841 - 22 November 1911) was a British diplomat, author and scholar-expert in the language and history of Japan and Korea. Aston was born near Derry, Ireland. He distinguished himself at Queen's College, Belfast (now Queen's University Belfast), which he attended 1859-1863. There he received a very thorough philological training in Latin, Greek, French, German and modern history. One of his professors was James McCosh. Aston was appointed in 1864 student interpreter to the British Legation in Japan. He mastered the theory of the Japanese verb, and in Edo began, with Ernest Mason Satow, those profound researches into the Japanese language which laid the foundations of the critical study of the Japanese language by western scholars.] Aston passed the examination for entry to the Consular Service in 1884, and served in the British consular service in Tokyo, Kobe and Nagasaki. From 1884-1885, Aston served as the United Kingdom's consul-general in Korea. He returned to consular duties in Tokyo as Secretary of British Legation in 1885. Aston retired from the foreign service on a pension in 1889 because of ill-health and settled in England. He was appointed CMG in the 1889 Birthday Honours.