Ernest Mason Satow

Sir Ernest Mason Satow GCMG, PC (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British diplomat, scholar and Japanologist. He is better known in Japan, where he was known as Satō Ainosuke (Japanese: 佐藤 愛之助/薩道 愛之助), than in Britain or the other countries in which he served as a diplomat. He was a key figure in late 19th-century Anglo-Japanese relations. Satow was influential in East Asia and Japan, particularly in the Bakumatsu (1853–1867) and Meiji (1868–1912) eras. He also served in China after the Boxer Rebellion (1900–1906), in Siam, Uruguay, and Morocco, and represented Britain at the Second Hague Peace Conference in 1907. In his retirement, he wrote A Guide to Diplomatic Practice. Now known as 'Satow's Guide to Diplomatic Practice', this manual is still widely used today, and has been updated several times by distinguished diplomats, notably Lord Gore-Booth. The sixth edition, edited by Sir Ivor Roberts, was published by Oxford University Press in 2009, and is over 700 pages long.