George Arnold Escher (10 May 1843 – 14 June 1939) 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 a foreign advisor to the Japanese government during 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 ...

.Louman, Johannes. (2007). He was the father of the

graphic artist A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for most of his life neglected in t ...

and the geologist

Berend George Escher Berend George Escher (4 April 1885 – 11 October 1967) was a Dutch geologist. Escher had a broad interest, but his research was mainly on crystallography, mineralogy and volcanology. He was a pioneer in experimental geology. He was a half- ...

Career

Escher was hired by the

Japanese government The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, ...

as a foreign advisor from September 1873 to July 1878, along with fellow Dutch civil engineers

Johannis de Rijke Johannis de Rijke (December 5, 1842 – January 20, 1913) was a Dutch civil engineer and a foreign advisor to the Japanese government in Meiji period Japan. Early life De Rijke was born in Colijnsplaat on the island Noord-Beveland. Rijsbergen, ...

and Cornelis Johannes van Doorn. During his stay in Japan, he designed and supervised the restoration of the

Yodo river The , also called the Seta River (瀬田川 ''Seta-gawa'') and the Uji River (宇治川 ''Uji-gawa'') at portions of its route, is the principal river in Osaka Prefecture on Honshu, Japan. The source of the river is Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefectur ...

(

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

), and built a harbour in Mikuni in

Fukui prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 778,943 (1 June 2017) and has a geographic area of 4,190 km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the north, ...

. After returning to the Netherlands, he worked in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

. During this time, he recorded in his diary his difficulty as a Protestant in finding a suitable marriage partner in

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

Maastricht who would also be able to satisfy his equation v = 1/2m + 10, where ''v'' was the age of the woman, and ''m'' the age of the husband. In 1882, Escher married Charlotte Marie Hartitzsch, with whom he had two sons. He became a widower in 1885, and in 1892 married Sara Gleichman, with whom he had three more sons. Escher worked as a hydraulic engineer in

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of th ...

. In 1903 the family moved to

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both ban ...

Notes

References

* Kamibayashi, Yoshiyuki.
"Two Dutch Engineers and Improvements of Public Works in Japan,"
Proceedings of the Third International Congress on Construction History, Cottbus, May 2009. * Louman, Johannes Petrus Antonius. (2007)
''Fries waterstaatsbestuur: : een geschiedenis van de waterbeheersing in Friesland vanaf het midden van de achttiende eeuw tot omstreeks 1970.''
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press
OCLC 150391614

External links

*
御雇オランダ人工師エッセルの「阪井港修築建議」の現代文訳

Career

Notes

References

External links

Further reading