Basil Hall Chamberlain (October 18, 1850 – February 15, 1935) was a professor of Japanese at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists active in Japan during the late 19th century. The most famous works of Basil Hall Chamberlain are translation of the “Kojiki” (1882), “A Handbook of Colloquial Japanese” (1888), “Things Japanese” (1890), and “A Practical Guide to the Study of Japanese Writing” (1905).
“The Invention of a New Religion” is a non-fiction work by Basil Hall Chamberlain written and published in 1912. It was incorporated into “Things Japanese” from 1927. “Things Japanese” was a popular one volume informal discussion of Japanese written in 1890. Let's read and find out the Chamberlain's reflections about the new religion in Japan.