Shigeru Nakayama (中山茂) (1928–2014) was a Japanese
historian of science
The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal.
Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...
.
Life
Nakayama was born in 1928, in
Amagasaki
file:Amagasaki Castle Tenshu 20181125.jpg, 270px, Amagasaki Castle
file:Amagasaki city center area Aerial photograph.1985.jpg, 270px, Aerial view of Amagasaki city center
file:Amagasaki st03s3000.jpg, 270px, Amagasaki Station
is an industrial Citi ...
, and brought up there.
He survived the
Hiroshima atom bomb
"Little Boy" was the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II, making it the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. The bomb was dropped by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ''Enola Gay'' p ...
of 1945.
He left Hiroshima Higher School in 1948, and graduated from
Tokyo University
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
with a degree in
mathematical astronomy
Theoretical astronomy is the use of analytical and computational models based on principles from physics and chemistry to describe and explain astronomical objects and astronomical phenomena. Theorists in astronomy endeavor to create theoretica ...
in 1951.
As a graduate student, Nakayama was a
Fulbright scholar
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
.
He worked with
Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Samuel Kuhn (; July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American philosopher of science whose 1962 book ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' was influential in both academic and popular circles, introducing the term '' paradigm ...
and then
Joseph Needham
Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, in ...
.
Besides those two scholars, he regarded
Kiyosi Yabuuti (1906–2000) as one of his teachers.
At Harvard in the late 1950s, he met fellow graduate student
Nathan Sivin
Nathan Sivin (11 May 1931 – 24 June 2022), also known as Xiwen (), was an American sinologist, historian, essayist, educator, and writer. He taught first at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then at the University of Pennsylvania until his r ...
, with whom he worked for many decades.
Nakayama was on the staff of Tokyo University from 1960 to 1989.
As Professor Emeritus, he was at
Kanagawa University
, abbreviated to is a private university in Japan. The main campus is located in Rokkakubashi, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture.
History
The university was founded in 1928 by as . It was an evening school for the working youth. In 1 ...
.
Nakayama died in Tokyo on Saturday 10 May 2014.
Works
*''Japanese Studies in the History of Astronomy'' (1962)
*''A History of Japanese Astronomy: Chinese Background and Western Impact'' (1969)
*''Characteristics of scientific development in Japan'' (1977)
*''Academic and scientific traditions in China, Japan, and the West'' (1984)
*''Science, Technology, and Society in Postwar Japan'' (1991)
*''A Social History of Science and Technology in Contemporary Japan: The Occupation Period, 1945-1952'' (2001), with Kunio Goto and Hitoshi Yoshioka
*''A Social History of Science and Technology in Contemporary Japan: Road to Self-Reliance, 1952-1959'' (2005), with Kunio Goto and Hitoshi Yoshioka
*''A Social History of Science and Technology in Contemporary Japan: Transformation period, 1970-1979'' (2006)
*''The Orientation of Science and Technology: A Japanese View'' (2009)
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakayama, Shigeru
1928 births
2014 deaths
20th-century Japanese historians
Historians of astronomy
Hibakusha
21st-century Japanese historians