Gonzalo Jiménez de la Espada (1874 - 1938)

Gonzalo Jiménez de la Espada was a professor of Spanish in Japan. After studying Philosophy and Letters in Spain, in 1906 he travelled to Japan, where he spent ten years teaching Spanish and translating works on Japanese culture. He was the first foreign Spanish professor hired by the Japanese government as part of its plans to reform higher education. His classes trained the first group of Japanese Hispanists. He translated, among others, Nitobe's Bushido and Basil Chamberlain's Things of Japan. He also translated two collections of traditional Japanese tales, Tales of Old Japan and Japanese Legends and Narrations.