Jiro Kitao

Japanese: 北尾次郎 - きたお・じろう

Year of death: September 7, 1907 (Meiji 40)
Year of birth: July 4, 1853 (August 8, 1853)
A scientist of the Meiji period. The eldest son of Matsumura Kansuke, a doctor of the Matsue domain, he later became the adopted heir of the Kitao family. From 1870 (Meiji 3), he studied at the University of Göttingen in Berlin, Germany, where he majored in physics. Returning to Japan in 1883, he published the first part of his German meteorological paper "Beitra¨ge zur Theorie der Bewegung der Erdatmosha¨re und der Wirbelstu¨rme" ("Theory of Atmospheric Motion and Typhoons") in the Bulletin of the Faculty of Science of the Imperial University in 1887, followed by the second part in 1889 and the third part in 1903, completing the work. This was an unusually complicated mathematical theory for the time, and it received an unusual level of international acclaim for a Japanese achievement in the early Meiji period. However, because it was a lofty theory, he had few Japanese people around him to talk to after returning home. Therefore, there was no influence, but Kitao, who was plump and had a beautiful beard, had a timeless air and was not particular about trends, so he did not try to follow in his footsteps. Much later, in the Showa era, research into the mathematical and fluid dynamics of typhoons by Okada Takematsu, Fujiwara Saihei and others became popular, and his achievements were recognized as pioneering. After returning to Japan, he became a professor at the University of Tokyo, the Tokyo Forestry School, the Tokyo Agricultural and Forestry School, and then the Imperial University College of Agriculture, where he carried out applied research into adapting physics to the agricultural environment, and research into the movement of water in soil. He also had a talent for invention, creating light detectors, grain stiffness testers, measuring containers and the like.

(Shigeru Nakayama)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明治40.9.7(1907)
生年：嘉永6.7.4(1853.8.8)
明治時代の科学者。松江藩医松村寛祐の長男で,のち北尾家の養嗣子となる。明治3(1870)年からドイツのベルリン,ゲッチンゲン大学に留学し,物理学を専攻。16年に帰国し,気象学の独文論文《Beitra¨ge zur Theorie der Bewegung der Erdatmosha¨re und der Wirbelstu¨rme》(「大気運動および台風の理論」)の第1部を20年に『帝国大学理科大学紀要』に発表し,次いで第2部は22年,第3部は28年に発表されて完結した。これは当時としては珍しく面倒な数理論で,明治初年の日本人の業績としては異例なほど国際的にも評価されたものであった。しかし,高尚な理論であったため,帰国後は周囲の日本人のあいだに話し相手に恵まれなかった。したがって影響するということもなかったが,でっぷり太って美髯の持ち主であった北尾は時代に超越する風があってこだわらず,自身もあとを続けることをしていない。ずっとのち,昭和になって,岡田武松,藤原咲兵などの数学的,流体力学的台風の研究がさかんになって,先駆的業績として評価されることになった。帰国後東大,東京山林学校,東京農林学校,続いて帝大農科大学の教授となり,物理を農科という環境に適応させた応用研究,土壌中の水の運動に関する研究を行っている。また発明の才があって,検光器,穀物剛性試験器,測容器などをつくっている。

(中山茂)

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