Sakuhei Fujiwhara


Sakuhei Fujiwhara was a Japanese meteorologist who became the namesake for the Fujiwhara effect. Novelist Jirō Nitta is his nephew and mathematician Masahiko Fujiwara is his grandnephew.

Biography

Early life

Born in the city of Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, Fujiwhara received primary education at Takashima Common Elementary School and Suwa Higher Elementary School, where he was in the same class as future Imperial Japanese Army general, Tetsuzan Nagata. He was also close friends with Shigeo Iwanami, who would later found Iwanami Shoten Publishing company. He joined the Central Meteorological Observatory in 1909 after completing undergraduate studies in theoretical physics at Tokyo Imperial University.

Academic career

Fujiwhara earned his doctorate in 1915 through his research work on the abnormal propagation of sound waves, and earned the Japan Academy Prize in 1920 in recognition of his research. He traveled to Norway in the same year to study meteorology under Vilhelm Bjerknes.
He joined the Central Institution for the Training of Meteorologists as general director after returning to Japan in 1922. He started his tenure as a professor at Tokyo Imperial University in 1924, and succeeded Takematsu Okada as the fifth director of the Japan Meteorological Agency in 1941.

Later life

Fujiwhara participated in the development of the fire balloon during the Pacific War, and was purged from his position after the conclusion of the war. He retreated to the countryside afterwards to concentrate on his writing, and devoted his efforts to educating the future generation of meteorologists and researching meteorological phenomena such as vortices, clouds and atmospheric optics. He also spearheaded the study of gliders in Japan, and became a member of the Japan Academy in 1937.

Texts

Kumo wo Tsukamu Hanashi, Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1926Kumo, Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1929Kishō to Jinsei, 1932Chika, Chiretsu to Jishin, 1932Taikichū no Kōshō, 1933Kishō to Jinsei, Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1935Tenbun ya Kishō no Hanashi, Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1935Uzumaki no Jikken, 1939Kishō Kanshoku, Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1942Umi no Nayami, 1947Reki to Seikatsu, Sanseido, 1948Kishō Nōto, 1948Terada Torahiko Shū, Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1949Gunka – Kishō Yonjūnen, 1950Nippon Kishōgaku Shi, Iwanami Shoten Publishing, 1951Reki to Seikatsu, Sanseido, 1955Chika Nitsuite, Iwanami Shoten PublishingTaiki Butsurigaku, Iwanami Shoten PublishingKishō Kōgaku, Iwanami Shoten Publishing