Kenjiro Shoda

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Kenjiro Shoda (Japanese: 正田 建次郎 Shōda Kenjirō; February 25, 1902 – March 3, 1977) was a Japanese mathematician.

Shoda was born in Tatebayashi, Gunma. He belonged to a wealthy family. He was the second son of Teiichiro Shoda, the founder of Nisshin Flour, one of biggest companies in Japan. He was educated in Tokyo until he finished junior high school. He went to the National Eighth High School in Nagoya, today succeeded to Faculty of Liberal Arts of Nagoya University.

After he finished the Eighth High School, he returned to Tokyo and studied mathematics at Imperial University of Tokyo. Shoda was supervised by Teiji Takagi, one of best mathematicians in Japan at that time and Takagi inspired Shoda to study algebra. Shoda graduated at Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science at Tokyo University in 1925 and continued his graduate study under Takagi's supervision.

In 1925, in his second year at Graduate School of Tokyo University, he got a scholarship which allowed him to study in Germany. With an interest in group theory, he went to Berlin to work with Issai Schur. After one year in Berlin, Shoda went to Göttingen to study with Emmy Noether. Noether's school brought a mathematical growth to him. In 1929 he returned to Japan.

Soon after he returned to Japan, he began to write Abstract Algebra, his mathematical textbook in Japanese for advanced learners. It was published in 1932 and soon recognised as a significant work for mathematics in Japan. It became a standard textbook and was reprinted many times.

In 1933 he was appointed as professor in the Faculty of Science at Imperial Osaka University, which was founded in 1931 as the eighth Imperial University of Japan and hence the second one in the Kansai region, to promote industries in Osaka, therefore focusing on natural science, engineering and medical in particular.

The decades from the 1930s were a hard time for Japan, specially for researchers both in their research and own studies. Shoda continued however to apply himself to learning. After the World War II, he was elected the first Chairman of the Mathematical Society of Japan in 1946. In this role he managed to reconstruct Japanese mathematics both theoretically and organisationally. Also, he was eager to attempt to keep the educational standard at Osaka University as its faculty staff.

In this period, he published General Algebra, another textbook in Japanese. In 1949 Shoda was awarded the Japan Academy Prize in recognition of his fine achievements. Also in this year he was elected the Dean of the Faculty of Science at Osaka University.

In 1955 Shoda was appointed as President of Osaka University and played this role for six years. His achievements as President include foundations of two new faculties: the Faculty of Letters and the Faculty of Engineering Science. Both were based at Toyonaka, Osaka. The Faculty of Engineering Science was an ambitious attempt to synthesize two traditional disciplines: Science and Engineering. Some criticize the Faculty of Engineering Science has been less than the duplication of Faculty of Engineering, others recognise it has been helping to promote academic collaboration between multiple disciplines, including Science, Engineering and sometimes Medical science.

Shoda is remembered by the students and alumni of Osaka University as the founder of the Shoda Cup, which is given for the winning team of five people in an athletics contest. Shoda worried that most students were lacking in physical education and paid too little attention to it. With this Cup, he attempted to invoke interest for sporting activities among students. It succeeded and the Shoda Cup has been contested yearly by many students.

When his term as President ended in 1961, he left Osaka University but suddenly returned as a professor the Faculty of Engineering Science founded in this year and was appointed to its first Dean.

After retirement from Osaka University, he worked still to improve the Japanese educational system in this field. He taught in Musashi University in Tokyo and became its President.

In 1969 he was awarded the Order of Culture of Japan.

In 1977 he died unexpectedly. At the critical moment, he was driving with his family.

He married twice. First he married Tami Hirayama, a daughter of astrologer Makoto Hirayama. He became a father of one son and two daughters by her. After Tami died, Shoda married Sadako Ito, a daughter of Eisaburo Ito, an engineering scientist and professor at Kyushu University. The remarried couple had one son.

After his death, his family contributed a part of his legacy to some academic institutions including Osaka University. Osaka University used the money to make a small garden near to two of his former workplaces: the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Engineering Science and named it after him. "Shoda Garden", a silent cosy space, is at the corner of main street of the campus, beside the building of the Cyber Media Center at Toyonaka, backed by dense bamboo woods. Sometimes people at Toyonaka hold their parties there, like a welcoming party for freshmen, or a barbeque just for fun and communication.

Empress Michiko is one of his nieces.