was a Japanese meteorologist who became the namesake for the

Fujiwhara effect The Fujiwhara effect, sometimes referred to as the Fujiwara effect, Fujiw(h)ara interaction or binary interaction, is a phenomenon that occurs when two nearby cyclonic vortices move around each other and close the distance between the circulatio ...

. Novelist Jirō Nitta is his nephew and mathematician

Masahiko Fujiwara Masahiko Fujiwara (Japanese: 藤原正彦 ''Fujiwara Masahiko''; born July 9, 1943, in Shinkyo, Manchukuo) is a Japanese mathematician and writer who is known for his book '' The Dignity of the Nation''. He is a professor emeritus at Ochanomi ...

is his grandnephew.

Biography

Early life

Born in the city of Suwa,

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the n ...

, Fujiwhara received his primary education at Takashima Common Elementary School and Suwa Higher Elementary School, where he was in the same class as future army general, Tetsuzan Nagata. He was also close friends with

Shigeo Iwanami was a publisher in the early Shōwa period Japan, and founder of Iwanami Shoten. Biography Iwanami was born in what is now part of Suwa, Nagano, into a farming family. His father was a village headman, but he died when Iwanami was age 15, and I ...

, who would go on to found the

Iwanami Shoten Publishing is a Japanese publishing company based in Tokyo.Louis Frédéric, ''Japan Encyclopedia'', Harvard University Press, 2005, p. 409. Iwanami Shoten was founded in 1913 by Iwanami Shigeo. Its first major publication was Natsume Sōseki's novel '' K ...

company. He joined the Central Meteorological Observatory (current

Japan Meteorological Agency The , abbreviated JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation an ...

) in 1909 after completing undergraduate studies in

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimen ...

Tokyo Imperial 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 b ...

(now the

University of Tokyo , 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 ...

Academic career

Fujiwhara earned his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

in 1915 through his research work on the abnormal propagation of sound waves, and earned the Japan Academy Prize in 1920 in recognition of his research. He traveled to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and th ...

in the same year to study

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

under

Vilhelm Bjerknes Vilhelm Friman Koren Bjerknes ( , ; 14 March 1862 – 9 April 1951) was a Norwegian physicist and meteorologist who did much to found the modern practice of weather forecasting. He formulated the primitive equations that are still in use in nu ...

. He joined the Central Institution for the Training of Meteorologists (current Meteorological College of Japan) as general director after returning to Japan in 1922. He started his tenure as a professor at Tokyo Imperial University in 1924, and succeeded Takematsu Okada as the fifth director of the

in 1941.

Later life

Fujiwhara participated in the development of the fire balloon during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the Theater (warfare), theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, ...

, and was purged from his position after the conclusion of the war. He retreated to the countryside afterwards to concentrate on his writing, and devoted his efforts to educating the future generation of meteorologists and researching meteorological phenomena such as vortices, clouds and atmospheric optics. He also spearheaded the study of gliders in Japan, and became a member of the

Japan Academy The Japan Academy (Japanese: 日本学士院, ''Nihon Gakushiin'') is an honorary organisation and science academy founded in 1879 to bring together leading Japanese scholars with distinguished records of scientific achievements. The Academy is c ...

in 1937.

Texts

* ,

, 1926 * , Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1929 * , 1932 * , 1932 * , 1933 * , Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1935 * , Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1935 * , 1939 * , Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1942 * , 1947 * , Sanseido, 1948 * , 1948 * , Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1949 * , 1950 * , Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1951 * , Sanseido, 1955 * , Iwanami Shoten Publishing * , Iwanami Shoten Publishing * , Iwanami Shoten Publishing

Notes

References

External links

Biography from Ninohe city civic center website
1884 births 1950 deaths People from Nagano Prefecture Japanese meteorologists {{Japan-scientist-stub