Background
Kenjiro Shoda was born on February 25, 1902 in Tatebayashi, Gumma, Japan to a wealthy family. He was the second son of Teiichiro Shoda, the founder of Nisshin Flour, one of biggest companies in Japan.
建次郎 正田
Kenjiro Shoda was born on February 25, 1902 in Tatebayashi, Gumma, Japan 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 the 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 afterwards, 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 Shoda was appointed as professor in the Faculty of Science at Imperial Osaka University. Shoda continued to apply himself to learning.
After 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. 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 that year he was elected the Dean of the Faculty of Science at Osaka University.
In 1955 Shoda was appointed as President of Osaka University, a role in which he remained for six years. His achievements as President include foundations of two new faculties: the Faculty of Letters and the Faculty of Engineering Science, both based at Toyonaka, Osaka. The Faculty of Engineering Science was an ambitious attempt to synthesise two traditional disciplines: science and engineering.
When his term as president ended in 1961, Shoda 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, and awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1974.
In 1977 Kenjiro Shoda died unexpectedly while driving with his family. He was posthumously raised to the second degree in the official order of precedence, and awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.
Kenjiro Shoda married twice. His first wife was Tami Hirayama, the daughter of astronomer Makoto Hirayama. He fathered one son and two daughters during this marriage. After the death of his first wife, Shoda married Sadako Ito, daughter of Eisaburo Ito, an engineering scientist and professor at Kyushu University. The remarried couple had one son.