was a Dutch

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and foreign advisor to

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

Japan.

Biography

Cornelis Johannes van Doorn was born on 5 January 1837 in Hall (Gelderland), Netherlands, the son of the Reverend PW van Doorn. Van Doorn studied at the Technical School of Dr. Grothe in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

and then at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

. He received his degree in 1860 as a civil engineer. In his early career, he went to

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

, returning home in 1863 to work for the

Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen The Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen () or SS (''Company for the Exploitation of the State Railways'') was a private railroad founded to use the government funded railways. The company existed until 1938, when it formally merged ...

railway company in

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

. From March 1865 he worked as an engineer in designing the locks, pumping station and dam on the

IJ (Amsterdam) The IJ (; sometimes shown on old maps as ''Y'' or ''Ye'') is a body of water, formerly a bay, in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is known for being Amsterdam's waterfront. Etymology The name IJ is derived from the West Frisian word ...

. In 1871 Van Doorn was invited by the Japanese government to act as an expert in

hydraulic engineering Hydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive use of gravity as the motive force to cause the mov ...

, arriving in Japan on 24 March 1872, and staying to 22 July 1880. During his time in Japan, he was involved in port development and river improvement projects on the

Edo River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It splits from the Tone River at the northernmost tip of Noda City in the Sekiyado district, crosses through Nagareyama and Matsudo, and empties into Tokyo Bay at Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. The Edo ...

, Osaka, Yokohama, and Nobiru in

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

Bay. He designed Japan's first western-style waterway, the

Asaka Canal Asaka may refer to: Cities * Asaka, Saitama, Japan * Asaka, Uzbekistan People * Asaka-no-miya (朝香) ''ōke'' (princely house), a branch of the Japanese Imperial Family * Asaka (musician) (born 1999), Japanese singer * Asaka Kubo (born 1979), J ...

, which

reclaimed land Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lak ...

for 52 kilometers around

Lake Inawashiro is the fourth-largest lake in Japan, located in central Fukushima Prefecture, south of Mount Bandai. It is also known as the . The lake is located within the borders of Bandai-Asahi National Park. It is a surface area of , circumference of , dept ...

Fukushima Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miya ...

and made the development of the city of

Kōriyama is a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 322,996 people in 141760 households, and a population density of 430 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Kōriyama is designated as a core city an ...

possible. A memorial bronze statue was erected to him beside the

sluice gate Sluice ( ) is a word for a channel controlled at its head by a movable gate which is called a sluice gate. A sluice gate is traditionally a wood or metal barrier sliding in grooves that are set in the sides of the waterway and can be considered ...

on the

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the Kantō ...

in 1931. He also designed Japan's first western-style

lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

, the

Ishii lock The , begun in 1878 and completed in 1880, is a lock on the canal beside the Kitakami River in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Designed by Dutch engineer Cornelis Johannes van Doorn, who was a foreign advisor to the Meiji government, it i ...

Ishinomaki is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 138,538, and a population density of 250 persons per km2 in 61,919 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Ishinomaki is in northeastern Miya ...

, designated an Important Cultural Property in 2002. Returning to the Netherlands after eight years, Van Doorn died in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

in 1906. In the Netherlands, not much is known about his efforts in Japan. In Japan, on the other hand his name is found in schoolbooks, there are museums dedicated to him and streets and squares named after them. Even Van Doorn's grave in Amsterdam is maintained at the expense of the Japanese city of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doorn, Cornelis Johannes van 1837 births 1906 deaths Dutch civil engineers Dutch expatriates in Japan Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-period Japan People from Brummen Delft University of Technology alumni

Biography

See also

References