University of Tokyo

University of Tokyo
東京大学 (Tōkyō Daigaku)

Established	1877
Type	Public
Location	Bunkyo, Tokyo Japan
Website	www.u-tokyo.ac.jp

The University of Tokyo (東京大学; Tōkyō Daigaku, abbreviated as 東大 Tōdai) is one of the leading research universities in Japan. According to the Institute of Higher Education, the university is the best in the Asian Pacific Region. The University has five campuses in Hongo, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano and 10 departments with a total of around 30,000 students, some 2,100 of them foreign (a large fraction by Japanese standards). While nearly all academic disciplines are taught at the University, it is perhaps best known for its faculties of law and literature. This university has produced many Japanese politicians, though the power of the school has been gradually decreasing. For example; the ratio of its alumni in prime ministers is 2/3, 1/2, 1/4, 1/5 and 1/6 in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s respectively. The University of Tokyo is widely thought of as being one of the most prestigious schools over many areas while its rival schools are the other six of the Seven Universities, which were Imperial Universities before World War II, especially Kyoto University. In science, Kyoto University has produced more top scientists and Nobel prize winners. One of the presidents of Tokyo Imperial University was Kikuchi Dairoku.

It is one of the Tokyo 6 Universities in baseball.

File:Tokyo University Akamon 2004-11-16.jpg

The Akamon (Red Gate)

The main Hongo campus occupies the former estate of the Maeda family, Edo period feudal lords of Kaga Province. The university's best known landmark, the Akamon (Red Gate) is a relic of this era. The symbol of the university is the ginkgo leaf, from the abundant trees throughout the area.

History

The university was founded by the Meiji government in 1877 under its current name by amalgamating older government schools for medicine and Western learning. It was renamed to Imperial University (帝國大學 Teikoku Daigaku) in 1886 and then "Tokyo Imperial University" (東京帝國大學 Tōkyō Teikoku Daigaku) in 1887, when the imperial university system was created. In 1947, after Japan's defeat in World War II, it assumed the original name again. With the start of the new university system in 1949, Tōdai swallowed up the old First Higher School (today's Komaba campus) and the old Tokyo Higher School, which henceforth assumed the duty of teaching first and second-year undergraduates, while the faculties on Hongo main campus took care of third and fourth-year students.

The University of Tokyo has since 2004 been incorporated as a national university corporation under a new law which applies to all national universities.

Despite the incorporation, which has led to increased financial independence and autonomy, The University of Tokyo is still partly controlled by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT, Monbukagakusho, or Monbusho).

Departments and Graduate Schools

Departments

The Yasuda Auditorium on the University of Tokyo's Hongo Campus.

• Law
• Medicine
• Engineering
• Letters
• Science
• Agriculture
• Economics
• Arts and Sciences
• Education
• Pharmaceutical Sciences

Graduate Schools

• Law and Politics
• Medicine
• Engineering
• Humanities and Sociology
• Science
• Agricultural and Life Sciences
• Economics
• Arts and Sciences
• Education
• Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Mathematical Sciences
• Frontier Sciences
• Information Science and Technology
• Interdisciplinary Information Studies
• Public Policy

Research Institutes

• Institute of Medical Science
• Earthquake Research Institute
• Institute of Oriental Culture
• Institute of Social Science
• Institute of Socio-Information and Communication Studies
• Institute of Industrial Science
• Historiographical Institute
• Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences
• Institure for Cosmic Ray Research
• Institute for Solid State Physics
• Ocean Research Institute

Facilities

University of Tokyo Library

The University of Tokyo Library consists of the General Library, which provides service for all students and researchers affiliated with the university, Komaba Library, which supports the studies of the first two years of undergraduate education, Kashiwa Library, which functions as the back number center for natural science materials, as well as more than 60 faculty/institution libraries in various academic fields. The library has the largest collection in Japan, holding a total of over 8,000,000 books.

Branches

General Library

The General Library plays a central role in providing service to all the researchers and students of the university, as well as to give administrative support other branch libraries. The library houses approximately 1,090,000 books, and these valuable collections attract many researchers in and outside of the university. The library has a history of nearly 130 years since its opening in 1878.
http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/sogoto/ (Japanese only)
http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/koho/guide/guide/soto-e.html

Eligibility for use of library
- Persons affiliated with the University of Tokyo:
Faculty members, graduate students, undergraduate students, auditors, personnel, and others who have been approved by the director
- Persons from outside University of Tokyo (reference-only):
Former faculty members, personnel, alumni, and others

ILL service provides access to the holding of the General Library through interlibrary loan of original material. Loan service is available to university libraries in Japan. Please contact ILL section regarding other libraries.

Komaba Library

Komaba Library mainly supports the studies of the first two years of undergraduate education.
http://lib.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ (Japanese only)
http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/koho/guide/guide/komaba-e.html

Eligibility for use of library
Faculty members, graduate students, undergraduate students, auditors, others who have requested use from outside the university, and others who have been approved by the director

Kashiwa Library

Opened in 2004, Kashiwa Library is a library devoted to the natural sciences. All the books in Kashiwa Library can be searched on OPAC.
http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/kashiwa/ (Japanese, partly English)
http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/koho/guide/guide/kashiwa-e.html

Eligibility for use of library
Faculty members, graduate students, undergraduate students, auditors, others who have requested use from outside the university, and others who have been approved by the director

Major Collections

The University of Tokyo Library houses many collections. Some collections are searchable through OPAC, though most are available only through card catalogue. Below are some examples of the major collections.

• Akiba Collection:

Collector: Akiba, Yoshimi (1896-1952). Content: Shibai Banzuke (list of the title and the casts of the Kabuki presented on the stage) during the Empo-Meiji eras. 16,831 volumes.

• Katei Collection:

Collector: Watanabe, Katei(1864-1926) Content: Japanese fictions in the Edo period. 1,851 volumes.

• Nanki Collection:

Collector: Tokugawa, Yorimichi (1872-1925) Content: Collection of Tokugawa, the feudal lord of Kii Province (including Yoshunro-bon, Sakata-bon, Gakkai-bon. 96,000 volumes.

• Ogai Collection:

Collector: Mori, Ogai (1862-1922). Content: Biographical or historical books, Bukan(directory of Daimyo and Hatamoto), old maps in the Edo period, European literature. 18,700 volumes.

• Seishu Collection:

Collector: Watanabe, Makoto (1840-1911). Content: Chinese classics and Japanese literature. 25,000 volumes.

• Material of the Society of National Policy:

Collector: Minobe, Yoji (1900-1953). Content: Literature on politics and economic policy during the World War II. 6,624 volumes.

ILL Service for Non-University Members

Inter-library loan & delivery service between libraries in the campuses is available for researchers as teachers and graduates (some libraries are excluded).

Online Resources

Online Catalogs

• OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) / Multilingual OPAC
  

You can search the resources using the OPAC system for journals held in entire University libraries, and books acquired in/after 1985. They are currently in the process of incorporating the materials acquired before 1985 into their electronic system.
http://opac.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cgi-bin/opac/basic-query-e?mode=1&key=

• Book Contents Database
  

The Book Contents Database allows you to search for books held in the libraries of the University of Tokyo by looking at their tables of contents or information taken from their summaries and dust jackets. This gives you access to the actual content of the books, which was previously unavailable through the conventional OPAC system. Approximately 229,820 volumes (Japanese:164,319 English:65,501, as of 2004.11) of books/materials held by the University of Tokyo can be searched.
http://contents.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/contents/top.html

• Doctorial Dissertation Database
  

The database of bibliographies and abstracts of dissertations/theses, which were granted by the University of Tokyo. The database includes bibliographies from 1957, and abstracts after 1994. Guide to the locations of dissertations is also displayed.
http://gakui.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cgi/BookMainE.cgi?CHK_FILE=BOOK_DTL_SEARCH.htm

• Database of newspapers available at the University of Tokyo
  

Search for newspapers held in the University of Tokyo libraries.
http://center30.isics.u-tokyo.ac.jp/zengaku/zengaku.html (Japanese only)

Faculty/Institution Library's Online Catalogs

• General library
  

- List of Microforms held at the General Library
http://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/koho/sogoto/micro_list/index.html (Japanese only and some english)

- Database of the Tibetan Tripitaka Card Catalog
http://tibet.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/tibet/ (Japanese only)

- Catalog of Classical Chinese Books (approx. 10,000 records)
http://kanseki.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/kanseki/ (Japanese only)

• Institute of Oriental Culture
  

- Catalogue of Classical Chinese Books in the IOC (before 2001)
http://www3.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/kandb.html (Chinese only)

- The Digital library of Classical Chinese Books
http://shanben.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index.html

• Historiographical Institute
  

- Historiographical Institute Historical Documents Catalog (historical documents other than books)
http://www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cgi-bin/ships/std_m_anc.pl (Japanese only)

Sanshiro Pond

Sanshiro Pond detail, Tokyo University's Hongo campus.

Sanshiro Pond, in the heart of the university's Hongo campus, dates to 1615. After the fall of the Osaka Castle, the Shogun gave this pond and its surrounding garden to Maeda Toshitsune. As Maeda Tsunanori further developed the garden, it became known as one of the most beautiful gardens in Edo (now Tokyo), with the traditional eight landscapes and eight borders, but also known for its originality in its artificial pond, hills, and pavilions. It was at that time known as Ikutoku-en (Garden of Teaching Virtue). The pond's contours are in the shape of the character kokoro or shin (heart), and thus its official name is Ikutoku-en Shinjiike. However it has been commonly called Sanshiro Pond since the publication of Natsume Soseki's novel Sanshiro.

Notable alumni

Prime Ministers

• Shigeru Yoshida (1946-1947,1948-1954)
• Nobusuke Kishi (1957-1960)
• Eisaku Sato (1964-1972)
• Takeo Fukuda (1976-1978)
• Yasuhiro Nakasone (1982-1987)
• Kiichi Miyazawa (1991-1993)

Mathematicians

• Tadatoshi Akiba
• Kiyoshi Itō
• Kenkichi Iwasawa
• Yasumasa Kanada
• Kunihiko Kodaira
• Mikio Sato
• Goro Shimura
• Yutaka Taniyama
• Teiji Takagi

Architects

• Kenzo Tange
• Fumihiko Maki
• Arata Isozaki
• Toyo Ito

Authors

• Kobo Abe
• Akutagawa Ryunosuke
• Yasunari Kawabata, Nobel laureate
• Yukio Mishima, Author
• Wafu Nishijima, Zen Buddhist priest
• Mori Ogai
• Natsume Soseki
• Kenzaburo Oe, Nobel laureate
• Osamu Dazai (dropout)

In entertainment

• Isao Takahata, Anime director
• Mayuko Takata, Actress
• Rei Kikukawa, Actress
• Towa Oshima, Manga-ka
• Yoji Yamada, Movie director
• Koichi Sugiyama, Music composer

Others

• Ah Syong, Founder of Japanese Electric Pole
• Hisashi Owada, International Court of Justice Judge
• Toshihiko Fukui, Governor of the Bank of Japan
• Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima
• Leo Esaki, Physicist, Nobel laureate
• Masatoshi Koshiba, Physicist, Nobel laureate
• Hiroo Mori, Real Estate Developer
• Kitaro Nishida, Philosopher
• Ong Iok-tek, Linguist
• Princess Masako, Crown Princess
• Kitsune Ouzora, Founder of OGc and GGB
• Eiji Toyoda, Industrialist
• Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Buddhist scholar
• Manshi Kiyozawa, Buddhist thinker
• Toshihiko Atsuyama, professor of Japanese studies at Harvard University
• Watsuji Tetsuro, Philosopher
• Kazuhide "Mirrorman" Uekusa, Economist, former professor at Waseda University graduate school and sex offender
• Takashi Yuasa Lawyer, Economist
• Takafumi Horie, ex-CEO of Livedoor (dropout)

External links

• Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC, English)
• Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC, Japanese)
• The University of Tokyo Library website (Japanese)
• The University of Tokyo Library website (English)
• Top 100 Asia Pacific Universities
• University of Tokyo

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