（President, Asiatic Society of Japan）Erich Berendt

Among the outstanding pioneers in promoting the study of the Japanese language and society, culture and literature is B. H. Chamberlain. Having lived much of his productive life in Japan, his knowledge of Japan was legendary. His name is a giant among scholars of Japanese things. There were few foreigners at his time who had mastered the Japanese language with as deep an empathy for the Japanese friends and colleagues around him as he did.
He arrived in Japan at the age of 23 (1873), quickly devoted himself to Japanese studies and by the time he was 36 (1886) he had been appointed an advisor to the Japanese Ministry of Education and was Professor of Japanese at the Tokyo Imperial University. In addition to his monumental translation of the KOJIKI, he participated actively in the Asiatic Society of Japan with his research, reading 27 papers over the years. His deep devotion to and knowledge of Japan can still be enjoyed today in this THINGS JAPANESE.
（日本アジア協会会長）

（日本大学法学部教授・日本仏学史学会会長）富田仁

　近代日本の紹介者、研究者としてイギリス人バジル・ホール・チェンバレンは有名である。アーネスト・メイスン・サトウ、ウイリアム・ジョージ・アストンも卓越した日本学者であり、いずれも甲乙つけがたいが、そのようなチェンバレンの業績が、杏林大学教授楠家重敏氏の、永年の研究を踏まえた詳細な解説書とともに復刻、上梓されたことは、ジャポニズムの研究がとみに盛んになってきている昨今、まことに時宜を得た試みとしてよろこばしい。
　チェンバレンの場合、日本の古代詩歌、古事記に着目するところから始まり、オーソドックス、かつ着実な方法で『日本事物史』『日本旅行案内』などを続々と世に送った。いずれも欧米人の立場で日本研究を深めたジャポニストであるが、決して掻い撫での日本学者ではない。その意味でも、広く日本近代史のみならず、比較文化研究に携わる人びとにすすめたい書である。

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