was a Japanese anatomist and anthropologist of the

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 ...

Biography

A child of an ''Echigo Nagaoka'' clansman, he graduated from East School,, which was the school existed in ''Meiji'' era in Japan. the precursor of the

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 by ...

medical school, in 1880. He then went to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

where he learned

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

and

histology Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures vi ...

. He returned to Japan in 1885, and in the following year he was appointed a professor at Tokyo Imperial University Medical School, becoming the first Japanese lecturer on anatomy in the school. After studying Ainu skeletons in 1888, he began working in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

. Citing the results of his Ainu research, he argued that prehistoric man was included among Ainu. From 1893 to 1896, he served as the Imperial University medical college president, and in 1893 he established Japanese Association of Anatomists. In 1921, he retired from academia but continued his research. His wife was Koganei Kimiko, an essayist, poet and younger sister of writer

Mori Ōgai Lieutenant-General , known by his pen name , was a Japanese Army Surgeon general officer, translator, novelist, poet and father of famed author Mari Mori. He obtained his medical license at a very young age and introduced translated German la ...

. A statue of Koganei Yoshikiyo is owned by the University of Tokyo. Hoshi Hajime, the founder of pharmaceutical company Hoshi Seiyaku, was his son-in-law, and Hoshi Shin'ichi, the science fiction novelist, was his grandchild.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koganei, Yoshikiyo Japanese anatomists Japanese anthropologists People from Nagaoka, Niigata 1859 births 1944 deaths