Background
Satow was born to an ethnically German father (Hans David Christoph Satow, born in Wismar, then under Swedish rule, naturalised British in 1846) and an English mother (Margaret, née Mason) in Clapton, North London.
The grave of Sir Ernest Mason Satow in the churchyard of Ottery St Mary
Satow was born to an ethnically German father (Hans David Christoph Satow, born in Wismar, then under Swedish rule, naturalised British in 1846) and an English mother (Margaret, née Mason) in Clapton, North London.
He was educated at Mill Hill School and University College London (UCL).
He entered the diplomatic service and was sent to China as a probationer (1861). After mastering the Chinese language was transferred to Japan and landed in Yokohama (1882). He was interpreter and then secretary (1868).
He returned home (1883) and the following year was appointed Consul-General in Siam, then Minister in Uruguay (1888), Minister in Morocco (1893) and finally returned to Japan as resident minister (1895). During his two sojourns in Japan he took deep interest in Japanese affairs and traveled extensively to make a firsthand study of foreigners' living conditions in Japan.
He was also a keen student of Shintoism. After leaving Japan, he was Minister in Peking (1900-06), then Privy Councilor (1906) and was the British delegate to the Second Peace Conference (1907) after which he retired to settle down in Devon shire.
Satow was an exceptional linguist, an energetic traveller, a writer of travel guidebooks, a dictionary compiler, a mountaineer, a keen botanist and a major collector of Japanese books and manuscripts on all kinds of subjects.
He also loved classical music and the works of Dante on which his brother-in-law Henry Fanshawe Tozer was an authority. Satow kept a diary for most of his adult life which amounts to 47 mostly handwritten volumes.
Satow was never able, as a diplomat serving in Japan, to marry his Japanese common-law wife, Takeda Kane 武田兼 (1853-1932) whom he met at an unknown date. They had an unnamed daughter who was born and died in infancy in 1872, and later two sons in 1880 and 1883, Eitaro and Hisayoshi.