This exhibition introduces a collection of documents by Kōi Furuichi, the First President of the Imperial College of Engineering, archived in the Civil Engineering Library.
He was dispatched to France to acquire Western technologies as one of the first students sent abroad by the Japanese Ministry of Education. After returning from his extensive studies at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, as well as the University of Paris, he served as an engineer for the Ministry of Home Affairs, engaging in river and harbor works throughout Japan. In 1886 (at 32 years of age), he was appointed as the First President of the Imperial College of Engineering, which would become the School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. He would go on to hold prominent posts being one of the greatest contributors to the modern technological development of Japan.
His statue can be seen just north of the Main Gates of Hongo Campus, and his name continues to be honored in the Department of Civil Engineering through the “Furuichi Award” an award to acknowledge Masters’ students  with outstanding research quality. His notebooks and drawings from his days in France reflect the enthusiasm of a young student carrying the future of a country on his shoulders at the dawn of modern Japan.

A collection of documents by Kōi Furuichi during his studies in France
2019 (Panel)
Size: 1250×1250
Collection: Civil Engineering Library, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Class notes and drawings produced while studying at École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, 1876-1879