Kaichi Watanabe

Kaichi Watanabe was a Japanese engineer who studied and worked in Scotland, United Kingdom during the 1880s. He was one of the first Japanese engineers who came to study in the UK. He is best known for his work with Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker in cantilever bridge construction, notably on the Forth Rail Bridge.

Watanabe studied under Henry Dyer, the Scottish engineer associated with technical education in Japan. After obtaining a degree from the Faculty of Technology of the University of Tokyo, he studied at the University of Glasgow from 1885 and graduated with a Civil Engineering and Bachelor of Science degree,cite web
url= http://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_46640_en.html
title= University of Glasgow engineer to appear on new £20 note
accessdate= 2008-02-19
date=2007-10-02
publisher= University of Glasgow] and worked as a construction foreman on the Forth Rail Bridge, which crossed the Firth of Forth in eastern Scotland in 1890.cite web
url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7033463.stm
title= Rail bridge builder on £20 notes
accessdate= 2008-02-19
date=2007-10-08
publisher= BBC News]

Watanabe's image became well-known in the 1887 photograph illustrating the cantilever principle, in which he poses with Fowler and Baker, suspended between the engineers who form a cantilever structure with their arms.cite web
url= http://www.forthbridges.org.uk/railbridgemain.htm
title= Forth Railway Bridge
date=2004
accessdate= 2008-02-19
publisher= Forth Bridges Visitor Centre Trust]

In 2007, this photograph was incorporated into the design of the £20 banknotes issued by Bank of Scotland to commemorate Watanabe, Fowler and Baker's contributions to Scottish bridge engineering and their work on the Forth Rail Bridge.

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