Sir Ernest Mason Satow (1843–1929) was a legendary British diplomat, a key figure in East Asia and Anglo-Japanese and -Chinese relations, particularly in Bakumatsu and Meiji Era Japan, and in China after the Boxer Rebellion. He also served in Siam (present-day Thailand), Uruguay, and Morocco, and represented Britain at the Second Hague Peace Conference in 1907. This transcribed and annotated collection, to be published in ten volumes, is based on Satow’s original diaries and journals held in the UK National Archives, consisting of Satow’s diaries and travel journals that cover a period of over sixtyfive years (1861 to 1926). Volume 1 covers the period of 1861–1872, including the time he spent in China (January–August 1862) and Japan (September 1862–December 1872).