Suematsu Kencho (末松 謙澄 Suematsu Kenchō, September 30, 1855 - October 5, 1920) graduated with a law degree from Cambridge University (St. John's College, Cambridge) in the 1870s. He was active as a translator, historian, journalist, politician and statesman in the Meiji Era, 1868-1912. His reputation has suffered somewhat at the hands of the anti-elitist Ryotaro Shiba, and hence he is little-known in Japan.

Suematsu wrote the first English translation of Genji Monogatari. In 1904-5 he came to Europe to counteract anti-Japanese propaganda of the Yellow Peril variety and argue Japan's case, much as Harvard-educated Kaneko Kentaro was doing at the same time in the USA. He married the second daughter of Ito Hirobumi.

Suematsu was born in the hamlet of Maeda, now part of Yukuhashi city, Fukuoka prefecture.

See also

• Kikuchi Dairoku
• Inagaki Manjiro
• Cambridge University
• Anglo-Japanese relations

External Links

• Japanese Students at Cambridge University in the Meiji Era, 1868-1912: Pioneers for the Modernization of Japan, by Noboru Koyama, translated by Ian Ruxton, (Lulu Press, September 2004, ISBN 1411612566)

• "Suematsu Kencho, 1855-1920: Statesman, Bureaucrat, Diplomat, Journalist, Poet and Scholar," by Ian Ruxton, Chapter 6, Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume 5, edited by Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental, 2005, ISBN 1901903486

• Suematsu's memorial stone is at Yukuhashi city, Fukuoka prefecture. He was born there.