The dreamer : Kan'ichi Asakawa

Personal History of Dr. Kan'ichi Asakawa (1)

A man called "Asakawa-tenjin"
- In 1873	Dr. Asakawa was born as the first son of Masazumi Asakawa (former member of the Nihonmatsu clan) and his wife Uta in Shin-nagaya, Shimono-cho, Nezaki, Nihonmatsu Town (presently 2-chome, Nezaki, Nihonmatsu City), Fukushima Prefecture. He was named Kan'ichi (meaning to pursue and attain a single goal) from a saying from the Analects of Confucius.

His father, Masazumi

His mother

- In 1879

He entered Tatsugoyama Elementary School (presently Fukushima's Tatsugoyama Elementary School) where his grandfather served as the first headmaster.

At the age of seven or eight he already displayed abilities equal to those of children aged 11 or 12. People began to call him a child prodigy or "Asakawa-tenjin."

Asakawa in his childhood attending elementary school

A man who actually ate an English-Japanese dictionary, and delivered a valedictory in English
- In 1887	In April, Asakawa entered the newly founded Fukushima Prefectural Junior High School. The junior high school was transferred to Kuwano Village (presently Koriyama City) of the Asaka District and later changed its name to Fukushima Prefectural Asaka Junior High School (today's Fukushima Prefectural Asaka Senior High School).

Fukushima Prefectural Junior High School. (It closed one year after its foundation.)

Fukushima Prefectural Asaka Junior High School

Asakawa tried to learn by heart every word listed in an English-Japanese dictionary. He memorized the words on two pages and swallowed the pages every day. After he ate all the pages of the dictionary, he buried the front and back covers of the dictionary at the root of a cherry tree planted in the school-yard. As time went by, the cherry tree began to be called "Asakawa-zakura" (Asakawa's cherry tree). The tree still stands today in the school-yard. Asakawa got the best grades in every subject and delivered a valedictory in perfect English, which surprised everyone at the graduation ceremony.

Asakawa-zakura	Kan'ichi Asakawa graduating from junior high school

- In 1892	Asakawa entered the Tokyo Senmon Gakko (the predecessor of Waseda University) as a literature major and graduated first in his class in July 1895. His academic average was 94.17.

Predecessor of Waseda University	Photo with the comrades before he left for the United States

[ Achievements | Personal history (1) | Personal history (2) | Personal history (3) | Related documents ]

[ Kan'ichi Asakawa | Chieko Takamura | Hideyo Noguchi ]