W. K. Burton

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William Kinnimond Burton (11 May 1856 – 5 August 1899) was a British engineer, photographer and photography writer, born in Edinburgh, Scotland and based in Japan.

Burton began his career as a water system engineer in London. In 1887 he was invited by the Meiji government to assume the post of first professor of sanitary engineering at the Imperial University, Tokyo, at a time when the country was dealing with several serious epidemics. Burton helped train a number of prominent water system engineers for 9 years, and became the sole consultant engineer for the Sanitary Department of the Home Ministry, planning and managing the water and drainage systems of several cities, including Tokyo. His achievements are considered the starting point of Japan's environmental and sanitary engineering.

Burton was a noted photographer in Europe and made a substantial contribution to Japan's photographic history. Burton also designed Japan's first skyscraper, Ryounkaku in Asakusa, Tokyo. He was closely associated with japanese photographer Ogawa Kazumasa. With Ogawa, Burton was a founding member of the Japan Photographic Society [Nihon Shashinkai], Japan's first organization for amateur photographers. In 1896 Burton went to Taiwan, where he made an ouststanding contribution to the environmental improvement of Taiwan. He then returned to Japan in 1899. He had married a Japanese woman, with whom he had a daughter, and intended to return with them to Scotland to meet his mother, but suddenly fell ill and died on 5 August 1899 at the age of 43. A monument to him was erected at the Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo.