Basil Hall Chamberlain left Britain after suffering a nervous breakdown. His destination: a Japan no less than 5 years into the Meiji period. There he studied the Japanese language and worked as a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. Things Japanese, written like a glossary detailing everything from the abacus to zoology, is his attempt to document the distinctive elements of Japanese culture under the impact of Western-style modernization.
Basil Hall Chamberlin (1850-1935) was a professor at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologist of the late 19th century. A translator of haiku and classical Japanese, he was a brilliant linguist who studied Ainu and wrote books on Japanese language, learning, and travel. He lived in Japan from 1873 to 1911.