- Yamakawa Kenjiro
nihongo|Baron Yamakawa Kenjiro|山川健次郎|Yamakawa Kenjirō;(1854-1931) was a Japanese
samurai of the lateEdo period who went on to become a noted physicist, university president, and author of several histories of theBoshin War . Though his name is commonly written "Yamakawa," he himself wrote it as "Yamagawa" in English.Yamakawa was born as the third son to Yamakawa Naoe, a senior samurai of the
Aizu Domain (present dayFukushima Prefecture ). He became a member of the "Byakkotai ," a unit of the newly reorganized Aizu domain army composed mostly of boys aged 15 to 17 years, who fought in defense of Aizu during the Boshin War.After the
Meiji Restoration , through the mediation of theZen monkKawai Zenjun , Yamakawa was placed in the care of Chōshū retainerOkudaira Kensuke . Yamakawa was sent by the newMeiji government to studyphysics atYale University , where he was the first student from Japan to attend. On his return to Japan, he was posted toTokyo Imperial University , and became Japan’s first Japanese professor ofphysics in 1879. (There had already been several foreign professors, such asWilliam Edward Ayrton .)During the Meiji and
Taishō period he served as president of Tokyo Imperial University (1901-1905 and 1913-1920),Kyoto Imperial University (1914-1915), and he helped found theKyushu Institute of Technology in 1907. He was later ennobled with the title of "danshaku" (baron ) under the "kazoku " peerage system. Later in his life he was also a Privy Councilor (appointed in February 1923) and a member of theHouse of Peers .He and his brother
Yamakawa Hiroshi are known amongst historians of the late Edo period as authors of two monumental texts-- Kenjiro's being "Aizu Boshin Senshi," which catalogues the actions of his home domain during the war. He also authored several other history texts, including "Hoshū Aizu Byakkotai Jūkyūshi-den," which he wrote with fellow Aizu native Munekawa Toraji.References and further reading
* Hoshi Ryōichi, "Yamakawa Kenjiro Den", Heibonsha, 2003 ISBN 4-582-83181-8
* Marshall, Byron K. "The Tradition of Conflict in the Governance of Japan's Imperial Universities." History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Winter, 1977), pp. 385-406
* Yamakawa Kenjiro, "Aizu Boshin Senshi". Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1931.External links
* [http://www.vcci.or.jp/vcci_e/member/katsudo/publish/kiso/kiso_071.html Kenjiro Yamakawa and Meisenkai]
* [http://www.yale.edu/opa/v34.n14/story2.html History of Japan-Yale relations]
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