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.