Discover

';'(1854-1931) was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period who went on to become a noted physicist, university president, and author of several histories of the Boshin 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 day Fukushima 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, he was fortunate to enjoy the patronage of Chōshū retainer Okudaira Kensuke. Kenjirō was sent by the new Meiji government to study physics at Yale University, where he was the first student from Japan to attend. On his return to Japan, he was posted to Tokyo Imperial University, and became Japan’s first professor of physics in 1879.
During the Meiji and Taisho period he served as president of Tokyo Imperial University (1901-1905 and 1913-1920), Kyoto Imperial University (1914-1915), and he helped found the Kyushu Institute of Technology in 1907. He was later ennobled with the title of ''danshaku'' (baron) under the ''kazoku'' peerage system.
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 another history text, "Hoshu Aizu Byakkotai Jukyuushi-den," with fellow Aizu native Munekawa Toraji.

Contents

References and further reading

External links

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

★ Kenjiro Yamakawa and Meisenkai

★ History of Japan-Yale relations