William Kinnimond Burton (11 May 1856 – 5 August 1899) was a
Scottish engineer, photographer and photography writer, born in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
, who lived most of his career in
Meiji period
The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912.
The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...
Japan.
Biography
Early life
Burton was born in Edinburgh to
John Hill Burton
John Hill Burton FRSE (22 August 1809 – 10 August 1881) was a Scottish advocate, historian and economist. The author of ''Life and Correspondence of David Hume'', he was secretary of the Scottish Prison Board (1854–77), and Historiograph ...
, a lawyer and amateur historian, who had written two books on economics, which had received attention in Japan. His mother was Katherine, daughter of Dr
Cosmo Innes
Cosmo Nelson Innes FRSE (9 September 1798 – 31 July 1874) was a Scottish advocate, judge, historian and antiquary. He served as Advocate-Depute, Sheriff of Elginshire, and Principal Clerk of Session.
He was a skilled decipherer of ancien ...
, one of Scotland's foremost amateur photographers. He was also a childhood friend of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, who turned to him for background information for ''The Engineer's Thumb''; Doyle's book, ''
The Firm of Girdlestone
''The Firm of Girdlestone'' is a novel by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was first published in 1890 by Chatto and Windus in London, England. In 1915 a silent film adaptation '' The Firm of Girdlestone'' was made. A 1958 BBC televisio ...
'', is dedicated to Burton.
Conan Doyle lodged with Burton's aunt
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
while a student in Edinburgh.
Burton studied at
Edinburgh Collegiate School
Edinburgh Collegiate School was located at 27/28 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. The school was established in 1868.
Notable former pupils
* Thomas Hastie Bryce (1862–1946), anatomist, medical author and archaeologist
* W. K. Burton (1856–189 ...
, but instead of going on to university, from 1873 he signed up for a five-year
apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
with the innovative hydraulic and mechanical engineers
Brown Brothers & Co. Ltd at the Rosebank Ironworks in Edinburgh. Rising to become chief draftsman, he left the firm in 1879 to enter partnership with his uncle Cosmo Innes in London designing water systems. In 1881 he became Resident Engineer to the London Sanitary Protection Association.
Career in Japan
In May 1887 he was invited by the
Meiji government
The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan.
Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...
to assume the post of first unofficial professor of sanitary engineering at
Tokyo Imperial University
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
(he lectured as an engineer), at a time when the country was dealing with several serious epidemics, notably
cholera. His appointment was unusual in that Burton was largely self-educated, and did not come with the impressive educational or professional credentials that many of his contemporaries had. It is not known who recommended Burton to the Japanese government, or what inspired him to leave a promising career in London for what he believed to be a temporary assignment in Japan. He met Nagai Kyuichiro, an officer of the Sanitary Department of the Japan Home Ministry and of the Tokyo Imperial University, while Nagai was staying in London. Nagai invited him to Japan.
Burton helped train a number of prominent water system engineers for nine years, and became the sole consultant engineer for the Sanitary Department of the
Home Ministry
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministr ...
, planning and managing the water and drainage systems of numerous cities, including Tokyo. His achievements are considered the starting point of Japan's environmental and
sanitary engineering. The
sand filtration system he built in
Shimonoseki city,
Yamaguchi prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 km2 (2,359 sq mi). Yamaguchi Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture t ...
is still functional today, and the water bottled there for disaster preparation has Burton's picture on the label.
Burton also designed Japan's first skyscrapers,
Ryōunkaku
The was Japan's first Western-style skyscraper. It stood in the Asakusa district of City of Tokyo (now Taitō, Tokyo) from 1890 until its demolition following the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. The , as it was affectionately called by Tokyoi ...
in Osaka and in
Asakusa
is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is known as the location of the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals, such as the .
History
The ...
, Tokyo. The 12-story, tall structure was the tallest building in Tokyo at the time it opened in 1890. This octagonal building gained iconic status as a symbol of modern Japan, and boasted Japan's first
electric lift. It was damaged beyond repair in the
1923 Great Kantō earthquake and had to be
demolished
Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...
.
Burton was a noted photographer and made a substantial contribution to Japan's photographic history. He published several technical works on photography, and made a contribution in the introduction of
Japanese culture to the West by sending his own photographs to various London magazines. He also did much to publicise the works of fledgling Japanese photographers in Britain. Burton worked with seismologist
John Milne
John Milne (30 December 1850 – 31 July 1913) was a British geologist and mining engineer who worked on a horizontal seismograph.
Biography
Milne was born in Liverpool, England, the only child of John Milne of Milnrow, and at first raised ...
in co writing and co photographing a book that recorded the disastrous great earthquake of 1891. The book illustrated the plight of the Japanese people and the impact of an earthquake on their environment, in dramatic images that were printed by
Ogawa Kazumasa
In addition to photographing the
1891 Mino–Owari earthquake, Burton also photographed Japanese costumes and customs,
Hakone
is a List of towns in Japan, town in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the town had a population of 11,293 and a population density of 122 persons per km². The total area of the town is . The town is a popular tourist destination due to its many o ...
,
Mount Fuji, and scenes from daily life. He was closely associated with Japanese photographer and
collotype
Collotype is a gelatin-based photographic printing process invented by Alphonse Poitevin in 1855 to print images in a wide variety of tones without the need for halftone screens. The majority of collotypes were produced between the 1870s and 1 ...
printer
Ogawa Kazumasa. With Ogawa, Burton was a founding member of the ''
Japan Photographic Society,'' Japan's first organisation for amateur photographers.
In 1896, after his term at Tokyo Imperial University expired, Burton went to
Japanese Formosa as an engineer, where he made outstanding contributions to improving the sanitation systems in Taiwanese cities under the authority of the Japanese
Governor-General of Taiwan
The governor-general of Taiwan ( ja, 臺灣總督, Taiwan Sōtoku) was the head of the Government-General of Taiwan in the Japanese era (including Formosa and the Pescadores) when they were part of the Empire of Japan, from 1895 to 1945.
The ...
. He then returned to Japan proper in 1899.
Burton began cohabitation with a Japanese woman, Orakawa Matsu from 1892. On 19 May 1894, he married her at a ceremony at the British Consulate in Tokyo. Burton had a daughter (Tamako) with another woman.
Burton had intended to return with his family to Scotland to meet his mother, but suddenly fell ill from a
liver infection
The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it i ...
and died on 5 August 1899 at the age of 43.
Honours and awards
His grave at
Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo is marked by an impressive monument erected by his friends and former pupils.
In 2006, a memorial was also erected in his home town of Edinburgh, in honour of the 150th anniversary of his birth. The memorial was dedicated at the Burton family home,
Craig House, now part of the Craighouse Campus of
Edinburgh Napier University
, mottoeng = Without knowledge, everything is in vain
, established = 1992 – granted University status 1964 – Napier Technical College
, type = Public
, academic_staff = 802
, administrative_staff = 562
, chancellor = Will Whitehorn
, ...
.
In 2018 he was inducted into the
Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame
The Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame honours "those engineers from, or closely associated with, Scotland who have achieved, or deserve to achieve, greatness", as selected by an independent panel representing Scottish engineering institutions, aca ...
.
Selected works
* ''The ABC of Modern Photography'' (1884)
* ''Modern Photography'' (1887)
* ''The Process of Pure Photography'' (1889)
* ''The Great Earthquake of Japan'' (1891) (text by
John Milne
John Milne (30 December 1850 – 31 July 1913) was a British geologist and mining engineer who worked on a horizontal seismograph.
Biography
Milne was born in Liverpool, England, the only child of John Milne of Milnrow, and at first raised ...
)
* ''The Volcanos of Japan'', 1892 (text by John Milne)
* ''Practical Guide to Photography'' (1892)
* ''Outdoor Life in Japan'' (1893) (text by J Murdoch)
* Wrestlers and Wrestling in Japan (1895) (text by J Inoue)
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
The Life and Legacy of WK BurtonBaxley, George C. Baxley Stamps, ''The Volcanoes of Japan, Part 1, Fujisan, by John Milne & W.K. Burton, Collotype Plates by K. Ogawa, ca 1892'' Accessed 11 January 2007.
Accessed 11 January 2007.
*
ttp://www.britsattheirbest.com/ingenious/ii_19th_century_1855.htm Brits at Their Bestbr>
London Telegraph, 8 May 2006Edinburgh News, 12 September 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, W. K.
1856 births
1899 deaths
Scottish civil engineers
19th-century Scottish photographers
British expatriates in Japan
Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-period Japan
Photography in Japan
Deaths from liver disease
Infectious disease deaths in Japan
People educated at Edinburgh Collegiate School
Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees