College of Engineering - Kobu Daigakko

Japan's first engineering educational institution. The predecessor of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. It was renamed the Engineering Bureau of the Ministry of Public Works in 1877 (Meiji 10), and Otori Keisuke, the Director of the Works Bureau, became its president. The Engineering Bureau was established in 1871 based on a proposal by Ito Hirobumi and Yamao Yozo, and opened in 1873 with mechanical engineer Dyell and eight other British teachers invited to teach, with Yamao as the head of engineering and Dyell as vice principal. It was a six-year government-funded technical school with seven departments: civil engineering, mechanical engineering, architecture, telegraphy, chemistry, metallurgy, and mining, and was one of the most progressive engineering educational institutions in the world at the time, combining theory and practice. The College of Engineering produced its first 19 graduates in 1879, added a shipbuilding department in 1882, and was transferred to the Ministry of Education when the Ministry of Public Works was abolished in 1885. The following year it merged with the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo to become the College of Engineering at the Imperial University. It produced many leaders and engineers in the engineering and industrial world of the Meiji period, including Tatsuno Kingo, Takamine Jokichi, Fujioka Ichisuke, and Inokuchi Ariya.

[Toshihiko Kikuchi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

日本最初の工学教育機関。東京大学工学部の前身。工部省工学寮が1877年（明治10）改称したもので、工作局長大鳥圭介(けいすけ)が総理となった。工学寮は1871年、伊藤博文(ひろぶみ)・山尾庸三(ようぞう)の建議に基づいて設置され、1873年、機械工学者ダイエルほか8人のイギリス人教師を招いて開校、工学頭(こうがくのかみ)は山尾、教頭はダイエルであった。土木、機械、造家、電信、化学、冶金(やきん)、鉱山の7学科をもつ6年制の官費の専門学校で、学理面と実地面とを融合した、当時世界でも進歩的な工学教育機関であった。工部大学校は1879年に最初の卒業生19人を出し、1882年に造船科を増設、1885年工部省廃止に伴い文部省に移管され、翌年東京大学工芸学部と合併し、帝国大学工科大学となった。辰野(たつの)金吾、高峰譲吉、藤岡市助、井口在屋(いのくちありや)ら明治の工学界・産業界の指導者・技術者を輩出した。

［菊池俊彦］

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