Background
Takakusu was born in Hiroshima Prefecture, adopted by the Takakusu family of Kobe, and sent to England to study Sanskrit at Oxford University (1890).
高楠 順次郎
university professor Esperantist
Takakusu was born in Hiroshima Prefecture, adopted by the Takakusu family of Kobe, and sent to England to study Sanskrit at Oxford University (1890).
He was an active Esperantist. After receiving his doctorate, he continued his studies in France and Germany. Upon his return to Japan in 1894, he was appointed Professor at the Tokyo Imperial University and Director of Tokyo School of Foreign Languages.
He founded the Musashino Girls" School in 1924.
The institution Takakusu founded is now known as Musashino University (武蔵野大学, Musashino Daigaku). From 1924 to 1934, Takakusu and others established the Tokyo Taisho Tripitaka Publication Association (東京大正一切經刊行會), later known as the Daizo Shuppansha (大藏出版株式會社, Daizo shuppansha), which collected, edited, and published the Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō.
In 1930, he was named President of the Tokyo Imperial University. He was awarded an honorary degree by Tokyo Imperial University.
And he was similarly honored by the universities at Oxford, Leipzig, and Heidelberg.
At the time of his death in June 1945, he was Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit at the Tokyo Imperial University.
He was a member of the Imperial Academy of Japan and a Fellow of the British Academy. When in 1919, a new organization, the Japanese Esperanto Institute (Journal of Economic Issues) was founded, he became a member of the director board.
