From Samurai to Engineer-Manager

From Samurai to Engineer-Manager reconstructs the life and work of the Japanese mining engineer Ohara Junnosuke in the early decades of Japan’s industrialization.

While Japan's political and socio-economic development during the Meiji period has been extensively researched, the technological/technical foundations that were crucial to its success have remained largely obscure. Drawing on unique, mostly handwritten sources including lecture notes, internship and work experience reports, travelogues and diaries, the example of Ohara Junnosuke illustrates the beginnings of engineering education in Japan and its intertwining with the subsequent professional career of the protagonist. Born in 1859 into a samurai family, Ohara Junnosuke studied at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo, the first higher technical school in Japan. He worked for the Ministry of Public Works, then joined a private mining company as head manager of the Omori Mine in Iwami, where he oversaw the construction of a modern silver production plant. His premature death in 1896 ended a promising career.

Ohara’s education and professional career are in many ways typical of Japan’s emerging technical elite and their contribution to the industrialization. The book will be of interest to scholars in the fields of history of technology, economic history and history of education not only concerning Japan, but in general.