Henry Dyer: Pioneer of Engineering Education in Japan

Ignored in Britain and forgotten for generations in Japan, Henry Dyer (1848-1918) engineer, educationalist and author of two monumental volumes on Japan at the turn of the 20th century has been the subject of ongoing research by Nobuhiro Miyoshi for more than 30 years, culminating in this updated and extended version of his original 1989 biography, "Dyer no Nippon". At the age of 24, even before he had taken his final exams at Glasgow University, Henry Dyer was appointed principal of Japan's new Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) with a remit to set up a world-class engineering institution that would deliver the engineers with the technical know-how and expertise to build the New Japan. It proved to be a master stroke by Ito Hirobumi, then Vice Minister of Public Works and a member of the Japanese Embassy in London. In the nine years he was in Japan - unfettered by ancient academic traditions and protocols - Dyer formulated an approach to engineering education that enabled the ICE to become the most advanced institution of its kind in the world, laying the foundations for Japan's spectacular industrial and economic achievements in the 20th century. This study makes an important new contribution to "o-yatoi" ("hired foreigner") studies of the Meiji period, particularly in the field of education, as well as illuminating existing perceptions of Japan's pragmatic route to modernization.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements to the English Edition; Acknowledgements to the Original Japanese Edition; Prologue to the Original Study; List of Plates; List of Tables; Introduction; 1 The Scene is Set for the ‘Britain of the East’; 2 Dyer’s Educational Experiment in Japan; 3 The ‘Boomerang Phenomenon’ of Educational Experimentation; 4 Dyer’s Studies on Japan: A Model of National Evolution; 5 Epilogue to the Original Study; 6 Dyer Revisited: Japan in the Twenty-first Century – On Her Way to Globalization; 7 Retrospective; Afterword; Sources of Photographs and Illustrations; Dyer’s Writings; Dyer’s Articles of Agreement; Index

About the Author :
Nobuhiro Miyoshi is Professor Emeritus, University of Hiroshima, as well as President, Hijiyama University, Hiroshima. He was born in Oita Prefecture, Japan, in 1932 and as a graduate student began researching education in Britain, with special reference to J.Kay-Shuttleworth. He subsequently expanded his research into UK-Japan educational exchange where he found Henry Dyer the subject of greatest academic interest. Professor Miyoshi has published a number of books on the history of Japan’s industrial education, including engineering – commercial and agricultural – in relation to both comparative methods and international exchange, and is today a leading figure in the study of industrial education in Japan.