Baron was a Japanese

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 i ...

, who was president of '' Kōka Daigaku'', the present college of engineering of the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

, and founding president of the Tokyo Underground Railway, "the first underground railway in the Orient".

Biography

Groundbreaking ceremony of Tokyo Underground Railway 2

In 1854 he was born as a son of Furuichi Takashi a retainer of

Sakai clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Nitta clan, Nitta branch of the Minamoto clan, who were in turn descendants of Emperor Seiwa. Serata (Nitta) Arichika, a samurai of the 14th century, was the common a ...

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

. In 1869, he entered ''Kaisei gakkō'', in 1870, he was elected student on scholarship in

Himeji Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Harima Province in what is now the southern portion of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Himeji Castle, which is located in what ...

, and entered ''Daigaku Nankō'', then studied abroad to Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris as the Ministry of Education first student studying abroad. In 1879, he graduated and got the degree of BE. In the same year he entered the Faculty of Science of

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

, in 1889 graduated, got Bachelor of Science, and went home and took up a post as '' Naimushō Doboku-kyoku Yatoi''. In 1881, he became the University of Tokyo lecturer and after that, he concurrently held the posts of the university teacher with the bureaucrat technical expert. In 1886, when he was 32 years old, he was installed in ''Kōka Daigaku'' which was the forerunner of Tokyo Daigaku Kōgakubu (the University of Tokyo engineering department) first president, in 1888 was received the degree of the first ''Kōgaku Hakushi'' (Doctor of Engineering) and in 1894 was installed in the first engineering works Doboku Gikan (Vice-Minister for Engineering Affairs) in Naimushō. He attempted to improve an engineering works public administration and established Doboku Hōki (an engineering works law). His typical services include the construction of Yokohama-ko. He helped to improve the reputation of engineering in Japan in the world as the first chairman of Nihon Kōgakkai (Japan Federation of Engineering Societies). He would join

Noritsugu Hayakawa was a Japanese businessman. He is renowned for funding the construction of Japan's first subway system, now known as the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, which opened in 1927. Biography Early life Hayakawa was born into a family of politicians in Miyosak ...

as president of the Tokyo Underground Railway in 1920, founding the first subway system in Asia.

Legacy

The famous Japanese author Kamitake Hiraoka better known as Yukio Mishima was named after Furuichi Koi and his first name 'Kamitake' was pronounced as 'Koi' by family members. This was a gesture of honour as Koi was a benefactor of Mishima grandfather's clan - Sadataro.

References

External links

Japan Society of Civil Engineers Bio ''(in Japanese)''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Furuichi, Koi Japanese civil engineers 1854 births 1934 deaths University of Paris alumni Academic staff of the University of Tokyo Kazoku Japanese expatriates in France Presidents of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers