25 Facts About James Summers

James Summers was a British scholar of English literature, hired by the Meiji government of the Empire of Japan to establish an English language curriculum at the Kaisei Gakuin.

James Summers's father was a plasterer of limited means, and seems to have left his family some time before James became 10 years old.

James Summers moved again to Stoke-on-Trent with his mother and started his teaching career at a National School there.

In 1848, James Summers was hired by Reverend Vincent John Stanton to be a tutor at St Paul's College in Hong Kong, where he taught General subject including History and religious studies.

James Summers used Nicholls's Help To Reading The Bible in his religious class when teaching young Hong Kong children.

James Summers lived with Stanton's family until they left for England because of health issues on 24 April 1850.

James Summers eventually became the first and last schoolmaster of that school.

James Summers found himself at the centre of a tense diplomatic stand-off in 1849 when, on a brief excursion to Macao, he was arrested for failing to doff his hat in respect for a Catholic Corpus Christi festival procession.

James Summers was likely to resign from the college during their first summer vacation, when Smith dismissed 12 pupils with poor academic performance and reduced the number of students to 10.

James Summers left Hong Kong with Smith on 23 September 1850, on HMS Reynard.

Soon in the same month, James Summers was hired by William Jones Boone, the Bishop of Shanghai of the Protestant Episcopal Church Mission, as a temporary superintendent at his mission school.

James Summers, then, was hired by Hobson, colonial chaplain at Shanghai, to teach at his private boarding school opened in his house.

James Summers stopped teaching at Hobson's school for health reasons by the end of January 1852, and he left Shanghai for England in the spring, at almost the same time his ex-colleague Moncrieff was expelled from the Church Missionary Society and the position of acting colonial chaplain in Hong Kong on the grounds of an immoral relationship with the then-widow of Charles Gutzlaff.

In 1854, aged then only 25, James Summers became professor of Chinese language of King's College at the University of London despite his lack of a formal education and his being generally considered poorly qualified for the post.

In 1863, James Summers published a first book on the Chinese language, and the following year translated the Bible into Shanghai dialect.

From 1864, James Summers began publishing essays on the Japanese language and Japanese grammar, as well as translations of Japanese poetry and an excerpt from the Tale of the Heike in British literary magazines.

In 1873, James Summers published the first overseas Japanese-language newspaper, The Taisei Shinbun in London.

James Summers intended it for Japanese students in London, but it did not sell well and soon ceased publication.

In 1872, when the Iwakura Mission visited England, James Summers assisted with the visit, and was offered a position as an English teacher at the new Kaisei Gakuin in Tokyo.

James Summers departed Southampton in mid-summer with his family, arriving in Japan in October 1873.

James Summers used works by Shakespeare and John Milton in his teaching.

James Summers's students included future Prime Minister Kato Takaaki, diplomat Amano Tameyuki, and artist Okakura Kakuzo, In August 1876, after his three-year contract as an O-yatoi gaikokujin expired, Summers went to the Niigata English School as an English teacher but six months later the school was closed, and he transferred to the Osaka English School.

In June 1880, James Summers was invited to the Sapporo Agricultural College as a professor of English literature, where one of his students was Inazo Nitobe.

In 1882, James Summers returned to Tokyo, where he tutored foreign children and opened a private school in 1884.

In 1891, James Summers died of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Tsukiji Tokyo.