Stained Glass

2000/09/20

Published in "Juku" 2000, No. 226

The Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology, established in 1939 as the "Fujiwara Institute of Technology," celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.
With the completion of a new building, we would like to re-examine the path this faculty, which is developing new education and research, has taken.

The establishment of the Fujiwara Institute of Technology, the predecessor of the Faculty of Science and Technology, began with the meeting of two men: Shinzo Koizumi, who became President of Keio in 1933, and Ginjiro Fujiwara (a Keio University alumni), who was the president of Oji Paper.

After both men had inspected the state of engineering education in the United States between 1935 and 1936, they held their first meeting in 1938. By this time, Fujiwara had already decided to use his personal fortune to establish a new type of institute of technology. Meanwhile, Koizumi, who had been entrusted by the former president with the long-cherished wish to establish a faculty of science and technology, with the words, "You must do it during your time," was also conducting research and planning for the establishment of a faculty of engineering and was looking for a financial backer.

On the day of the meeting, Fujiwara revealed his own vision, entrusting the educational aspects to Koizumi and conveying his intention to donate the institute to Keio University upon its completion. After more than a dozen subsequent meetings, the two negotiated a wide range of issues, including the university's name, academic system, faculty and staff matters, and construction site. As a result, details were decided, such as the name being "Fujiwara Institute of Technology," the construction site being near Hiyoshi in consideration of a future merger, and uniforms and faculty personnel matters being equivalent to or common with Keio University.

The newly established Fujiwara Institute of Technology adopted the following three points as its educational policy:

・ Engineering education with an emphasis on fundamentals

・ Liberal arts education aimed at establishing humanity

・ Language education useful for international exchange

These were based on Fujiwara's plan, which was critical of the engineering education of the time, with the addition of opinions from Toyotaro Tanimura, who would later become the first dean. It is surprising to see how forward-thinking these points were, as they are all still relevant today.

In 1939, the "Fujiwara Institute of Technology" was born, consisting of three departments: the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Electrical Engineering, and the Department of Applied Chemistry. Following preparatory education centered in school buildings near the current Hiyoshi Student Union Building, undergraduate education started in 1942, the year after the Pacific War began. The curriculum reflected Fujiwara's strong advocacy from the beginning for "practical engineering education," and groundbreaking practical education for the time was developed, such as having corporate design section chiefs teach design drafting and conducting factory internships during summer vacation.

In 1943, as the war situation became tense and momentum for university consolidation grew, the donation of the Fujiwara Institute of Technology to Keio University was agreed upon, and the following year it officially became the "Keio University Faculty of Engineering." However, from the autumn of 1944, when the first class graduated, the Faculty of Engineering was increasingly tossed about by the worsening war situation. In February 1945, full-scale evacuation preparations began, but shortly thereafter, from the night of April 15 to the early morning of the same year, Hiyoshidai was exposed to an air raid by the US military. As a result, the preparatory school building was completely burned down, and about 80% of the faculty building (near the current Hiyoshi Library and Buildings 4, 5, and 6) was reduced to ashes.

The "post-war processing" for the Faculty of Engineering was extremely difficult. While moving between temporary school buildings in Noborito, Meguro, and Mizonokuchi, they managed to keep the flame of Keio's engineering education alive, albeit on a small scale.

In 1948, the faculty acquired or leased the Yokogawa Electric Works factory and its adjacent land in Koganei-cho, Kitatama-gun, Tokyo, and in March of the following year, 1949, moved from the temporary school building in Mizonokuchi. From April, it made a fresh start in a new location with the launch of the new university system. That year also marked the tenth anniversary of the Faculty of Engineering's founding, and commemorative events and ceremonies were held. Shigemitsu Niwa, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the time (and former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Tokyo Imperial University), said at the ceremony, "If the Keio Faculty of Engineering remains in Koganei in this state for another 10 years, it would be better to shut it down." These words instilled a will for further development in the minds of the faculty and staff, who had been relieved to settle in Koganei.

Construction of the new campus on Yagami-dai, which the venerable Fujiwara had acquired as land for the faculty, began in 1970. From fiscal year 1972, all departments began holding classes at the Yagami Campus, ending the Faculty of Engineering's long period of wandering... However, the will to develop did not end there. Parallel to the move to Yagami, momentum grew for the establishment of a Faculty of Science and Technology. After meticulous preparations within the faculty and within Keio, the Faculty of Engineering was finally reborn as the Faculty of Science and Technology in 1981.

In fiscal year 1996, the Faculty of Science and Technology underwent a major organizational reform. Then, in fiscal year 2000, the Graduate School of Science and Technology (Master's and Doctoral Programs) was also reorganized into three interdisciplinary majors. At the same time, a long-awaited new building was completed on the Yagami Campus. With only a few months left until the 21st century, a new era for the Faculty of Science and Technology is now being built, inheriting the passion and will of the many people who laid its foundation, including Koizumi and Fujiwara.