Torahiko Terada

Physicist and essayist. He achieved great success in experimental physics, meteorology, and geophysics, and was also an active writer, leaving behind many essays and haiku poems. Born in Tokyo and raised in Kochi, he studied physics under Takuro Tamaru and English and haiku under Soseki Natsume at the Fifth High School in Kumamoto. He graduated from the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science, Tokyo Imperial University in 1903 (Meiji 36), and was involved in experimental research in physics at graduate school. He received his doctorate in science with a thesis on experimental research into the acoustics of the shakuhachi. In 1909, he became an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, and traveled abroad to Germany and other parts of Europe and the United States, returning to Japan in 1911. He began experiments on the transmission of X-rays through crystals at the end of the following year, 1912, and published reports in British and Japanese academic journals in 1913 (Taisho 2) in which he discussed the conditions for X-ray reflection by mesh planes in a crystal lattice. This achievement was closely related to the so-called Bragg condition, and together with his collaborator, Masaharu Nishikawa, he was awarded the Imperial Prize of the Academy in 1917. However, he soon moved away from research in this field, feeling that he had fallen behind Bragg.

Since then, he has worked at the University of Tokyo's Aeronautical Research Institute, the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, and the Earthquake Research Institute, where he has conducted a wide range of experiments and studies on fluids, colloids, powders, electrical discharges, destruction, combustion, vision, etc., and has also discussed the damage and disaster prevention of earthquakes and fires. His consistent interest has been the construction of new physics, including unstable phenomena, statistical phenomena, and morphologies that cannot be contained within the conventional deterministic framework.

With his distinctive scientific views as an undercurrent, he often wrote essays under the pen names of Yoshimura Fuyuhiko and Yabukoji, and in addition to his early works "Fuyuhiko Collection" (1923) and "Yabukoji Collection" (1923), he has many other essays. After his death, "Terahiko Torahiko Complete Works" (literature, 16 volumes, 1936-1938, science, 6 volumes, 1938-1939) was published.

[Seiji Takada]

"The Complete Works of Torahiko Terada, edited by Yoshinari Abe, Toyotaka Komiya, and others, 17 volumes (1960-1962/republished in 1985, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "The Complete Works of Torahiko Terada, edited by Toyotaka Komiya, 5 volumes (Iwanami Bunko)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

物理学者、随筆家。実験物理学、気象学、地球物理学に業績をあげ、また活発な文筆活動を展開し多数の随筆や俳諧(はいかい)作品を残した。東京で生まれ、高知で育ち、熊本の第五高等学校で田丸卓郎(たくろう)に物理を、また夏目漱石(そうせき)に英語、俳句を学んだ。東京帝国大学理科大学物理学科を1903年（明治36）に卒業、大学院で物理の実験研究に携わった。尺八の音響学的実験研究の論文で理学博士となる。1909年、東大助教授になり、外遊してドイツほかヨーロッパ各地とアメリカを訪ね、1911年帰国した。翌1912年末ごろからX線の結晶透過の実験に着手し、1913年（大正2）イギリスおよび日本の学術誌に報告文を発表して、結晶格子中の網平面によるX線反射の条件を論じた。これは、いわゆるブラッグ条件と密接に関係する業績であって、協力者であった西川正治(しょうじ)とともに1917年の学士院恩賜賞の対象となったが、ブラッグに後れたとしてまもなくこの方面の研究から遠ざかった。

　それ以後、東大航空研究所、理化学研究所、東大地震研究所に在籍、流体、コロイド、粉体、放電、破壊、燃焼、視覚などにかかわる実験や考察を多角的に展開し、また地震・火災の害や防災について論じた。一貫する関心事は、従来の決定論的な枠組みに入りきれない不安定現象、統計的現象、形態など新しい物理学の建設であったといえる。

　その特徴ある科学観を底流として、吉村冬彦、藪柑子(やぶこうじ)などの筆名で随筆をよくし、初期の『冬彦集』（1923）、『藪柑子集』（1923）のほか、多くの随筆書がある。死後『寺田寅彦全集』（文学編16巻・1936～1938、科学編6巻・1938～1939）が刊行された。

［高田誠二］

『安倍能成・小宮豊隆他編『寺田寅彦全集』全17巻（1960～1962／再刊・1985・岩波書店）』▽『小宮豊隆編『寺田寅彦随筆集』全5冊（岩波文庫）』

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