Alistair Seton graduated from Oxford University and Aberdeen College of Education, and spent five years in Arab and West African countries before coming to Japan in 1972. Since then, he has taught at various universities and was a guest lecurer for eight years at Kobe University. He is a professor at Tezukayama Gakuin University. In 1993, he founded and still edits Daruma, a quarterly magazine on Japanese antiques and art. He lives in Kobe with his university professor wife and their two children.