Fenollosa, Ernest Francisco

Fenollosa, Ernest Francisco

(1853–1908) orientalist, art historian; born in Salem, Mass. He lived for 14 years in Tokyo (1876–90), teaching political economy and philosophy and studying Japanese culture (taking the Buddhist name Tei-Shin and the Japanese name Kano Yeitan Masanobu). On his return he became America's leading orientalist as oriental art curator at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (1890–97). After another stay in Tokyo as professor of English (1897–1900), he spent his last years writing and lecturing. His major work was Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art (2 vols. 1911). His literary executor, Ezra Pound, edited a number of his works posthumously.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.