Background
Shiga Kiyoshi was born on 7 February 1871 in Miyagi Prefecture; his family name was originally Sato.
志賀 潔`
Shiga Kiyoshi was born on 7 February 1871 in Miyagi Prefecture; his family name was originally Sato.
In 1896 he graduated from the medical course of Tokyo Imperial University and immediately joined the Institute for Research in Infectious Diseases. Working under the guidance of the bacteriologist Kitazato Shiba- saburo, he succeeded the following year in discovering the dysentery bacillus, an achievement that brought him worldwide fame. He went to Germany in 1901, where he studied under Paul Ehrlich at the Institut fiir Experimentelle Therapie in Frankfurt, specializing in biochemistry and immunology.
In 1904 he cooperated with Ehrlich in publishing a work on chemotherapy and returned to Japan the following year. In 1914, when the Institute for Research in Infectious Diseases was placed under the jurisdiction of Tokyo University, he resigned along with the director, Kitazato, and in 1915 became a member of the newly established Kitazato Institute. In 1920 he became a professor of Keio University, but resigned after half a year in order to take up duties in Seoul as head physician of the government-general of Korea.
In 1925 he became the first head of the medical department of Keijo Imperial University. In 1929 he became president of the university, a post that he held until 1931.
He thus devoted more than ten years to medical education and administration in Korea. Thereafter he served as an advisor to the Kitazato Institute and continued his research in bacteriology through its facilities. In 1944 he received a Cultural Medal. From 1945 on, he resided in his birthplace, Miyagi Prefecture. In 1948 he became a member of the Japan Academy and in 1949 was made an honorary citizen of the city of Sendai.