Background
Kaichi Watanabe was born on March 22, 1858 in Tatsuno, Nagano, Japan.
Kaichi Watanabe (centre, seated) demonstrating the cantilever principle
嘉一 渡邊
Kaichi Watanabe was born on March 22, 1858 in Tatsuno, Nagano, Japan.
Kaichi Watanabe was one of the first Japanese engineers who came to study in the UK. He studied under Henry Dyer, the Scottish engineer associated with technical education in Japan. After obtaining a degree from the Faculty of Technology of the University of Tokyo, he studied at the University of Glasgow from 1885 and graduated with a Civil Engineering and Bachelor of Science degree, and worked as a construction foreman on the Forth Bridge, which crossed the Firth of Forth in eastern Scotland in 1890.
Kaichi Watanabe worked briefly for Railway Bureau and then proceeded to Scotland (1884) for further studies at Glasgow University. After completing his postgraduate course worked as a supervisor in Benjamin Baker Construction Company's building of the Forth Bridge. Upon returning (1888) was appointed chief engineer of Nippon Doboku Kaisha (Japan Public Works Company) and later was director of several railway companies, including Sangu, Narita, Tokyo Electric and Kyoto Electric.
Conductor Takashi Asahina was the illegitimate son of Watanabe.