Rikitarō Fujisawa (Japanese: 藤沢利喜太郎, ''Fujisawa Rikitarō''; 12 October 1861 – 23 December 1933) was a Japanese mathematician. During the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, 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 feu ...

he was instrumental in reforming mathematics education in Japan and establishing the ideas of European mathematics in Japan.

Biography

Born in

Sado Province was a province of Japan until 1871; since then, it has been a part of Niigata Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Sado''" in . It was sometimes called or . It lies on the eponymous Sado Island, off the coast of Niigata Prefectur ...

as the eldest son of Oyano Fujisawa, vassal of the shōgun, Rikitarō Fujisawa graduated in 1882 from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Tokyo. From 1883 to 1887 he studied mathematics in Europe. After study at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

and the

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

, he studied at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

(then a part of Germany) and in 1886 attained his doctorate with a dissertation on partial differential equations under the direction of

Elwin Christoffel Elwin Bruno Christoffel (; 10 November 1829 – 15 March 1900) was a German mathematician and physicist. He introduced fundamental concepts of differential geometry, opening the way for the development of tensor calculus, which would later provid ...

. In 1887 Fujisawa was appointed the second titular professor of mathematics at the University of Tokyo. Fujisawa, who himself attended the seminary of

Theodor Reye Karl Theodor Reye (born 20 June 1838 in Ritzebüttel, Germany and died 2 July 1919 in Würzburg, Germany) was a German mathematician. He contributed to geometry, particularly projective geometry and synthetic geometry. He is best known for his ...

in Strasbourg, introduced the institution of the research seminary based on the German model early on. He was a teacher and mentor of several Japanese mathematicians who gained international reputations. His most famous student was

Teiji Takagi Teiji Takagi (高木貞治 ''Takagi Teiji'', April 21, 1875 – February 28, 1960) was a Japanese mathematician, best known for proving the Takagi existence theorem in class field theory. The Blancmange curve, the graph of a nowhere-differenti ...

. In 1921, Fujisawa retired from the University of Tokyo and, beginning in 1925, was twice appointed to the

Japanese House of Peers The was the upper house of the National Diet#History, Imperial Diet as mandated under the Meiji Constitution, Constitution of the Empire of Japan (in effect from 11 February 1889 to 3 May 1947). Background In 1869, under the new Meiji gover ...

but died in the early part of his second term. Two of his sons achieved prominence in Japanese society. One of his brothers, Iwao Fujisawa, was a

rear admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...

in the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Selected publications

* * (theory of life insurance) * * * * * * * (general election reader, or reading guide) This publication deals with issues related to the elections for the

Japanese House of Representatives The is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors is the upper house. The composition of the House is established by and of the Constitution of Japan. The House of Representatives has 465 members, elected for a fo ...

in the late 1920s. * * (Dr. Fujisawa memorial collection)

References

External links

*
Dr. Rikitaro Fujisawa, photo from Bain News Service, U.S. Library of Congress
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fujisawa, Rikitaro 19th-century Japanese mathematicians 20th-century Japanese mathematicians Members of the House of Peers (Japan) People of the Meiji era University of Tokyo alumni University of Strasbourg alumni Academic staff of the University of Tokyo 1861 births 1933 deaths Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Scientists from Niigata Prefecture