Japanese Studies in Britain A Survey and History

Hugh Cortazzi studied Japanese at SOAS during the Second World War and later joined the Diplomatic Service. He served as British Ambassador to Japan from 1980 to 1984 and was subsequently a long-serving Chairman of the Japan Society amongst other roles. He has published many works on Japan, including Isles of Gold: Antique Maps of Japan (1983), Victorians in Japan: In and Around the Treaty Ports (1987), The Japanese Achievement (1990) and his memoir Japan and Back and Places Elsewhere (1998). More recently, he has edited volumes IV to X of Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits (2002-2016), and The Growing Power of Japan, 1967-1972: Analysis and Assessments from John Pilcher and the British Embassy, Tokyo (2015). Peter Kornicki is Emeritus Professor of Japanese at the University of Cambridge. He taught at the University of Tasmania and Kyoto University from 1978 to 1984. He is a fellow of the British Academy, where he is chair of the East and Southeast Asia Panel. His publications include The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century (1998) and The Female as Subject: Women and the Book in Japan (co-edited, 2010) as well as a catalogue of collections of Japanese books in libraries in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. Sir Hugh Cortazzi, GCMG, was British Ambassador to Japan 1980-1984 and Chairman of The Japan Society, London, 1985-1995. He has written extensively on Japan. His many books include Isles of Gold: Antique Maps of Japan (1983), The Japanese Achievement (1990) and his memoir Japan and Back and Places Elsewhere (1998). He compiled and edited seven volumes of Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, most recently volume X (2016). Peter Kornicki is Emeritus Professor of Japanese, Robinson College, University of Cambridge. He earlier taught at the University of Tasmania and Kyoto University. His monographs include The Book in Japan (1998) and Languages, Scripts and Chinese Texts in East Asia (2018). He is a Fellow of the British Academy.