Brief History

The Tokyo University of Science and the “Sustaining” Teachers

The Tokyo Butsurigaku Koshujo (Tokyo Academy of Physics), the forerunner of the Tokyo University of Science, was founded in 1881, and two years later the academy was renamed the Tokyo Butsuri Gakko (Tokyo College of Science). The University of Tokyo (then the Imperial University) was founded in 1877. Because physics in the Faculty of Science was taught by a French instructor in French, the University of Tokyo established the Department of Physics in French, which continued for around three years. A group of 19 first- to third-year young scientists who graduated from this department and two others founded the Tokyo Academy of Physics and formed a pact to sustain the academy, with the aim of "Building a Better Future with Science." (The group later came to be known as the "sustaining" teachers.) Back then, a popular movement for democratic rights was at its prime. At a time when departments of politics, economics and law flourished, the "sustaining" teachers believed that "science and technology were the foundations of national prosperity." The movement to promote a broad understanding of science advocated by the Tokyo College of Science resonated with professors at the University of Tokyo at the time. Eminent professors such as Dairoku Kikuchi (Mathematics), Kenjiro Yamakawa (Physics), Aikitsu Tanakadate (Physics), Hantaro Nagaoka (Physics), and Joji Sakurai (Chemistry), who went on to become president of the University of Tokyo and leaders of RIKEN lent their support to the movement. Until the Kyoto Imperial University was consequently founded in 1897 and the College of Science and Technology (Faculty of Science and Technology) was established within the university, natural sciences were taught only at the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo College of Science during the interim years of the Meiji Period.

Hitoshi Terao, a member of the "sustaining" teachers, became the first president of the Tokyo University of Science, but he also served concurrently as the first director of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Tokyo (Faculty of Science). Kiyoo Nakamura, the second president of the Tokyo University of Science, long served concurrently as the director of the Central Meteorological Observatory. These were interesting times in which one could be employed by a national government institution while presiding over a private university. Kyohei Nakamura, the third president of the University, was a good friend of author Soseki Natsume, and is said to have been a model for the main character in Natsume's novel I Am a Cat ("Wagahai Wa Neko De Aru"). Their friendship is also cited as a reason why the protagonist in the novel Botchan is a Tokyo College of Science graduate. Another member of the "sustaining" teachers, Shin Samejima, had friendly ties with the author Toson Shimazaki at the Komoro Gijuku school, and was depicted in Toson's Chikumagawa Sketches ("Chikumagawa no sketch") and The Impoverished Scientist ("Mazushii rigakushi"). Each and every one of the "sustaining" teachers left an indelible mark on history. Each member was determined to pursue science in the Meiji Period and devoted all their youthful enthusiasm to this calling. At their college, nobody was permitted to be late for class, professors lectured without pay and the cancellation of class by an instructor was punishable by a fine. The strictness of the sustaining pact built the foundations of the University's prosperity today.