b. The Founding of the University of Tokyo

During the early years both Tokyo Kaisei Gakho and Tokyo Medical School prospered as their student enrollments increased and numerous foreign instructors were hired to conduct a variety of specialized courses. These schools were the testing ground, as it were, for the realization of a plan to establish a full-scale university. Superintendent David Murray offered a number of recommendations based on his experience with university education in the United States, and these were instrumental in promoting plans for the establishment of the University of Tokyo. The institution finally came into being through the merger of Tokyo Kaisei Gakko and Tokyo Medical School on April 12, 1877. Tokyo Kaisei Gakko became the core of the new University by providing the foundation for the first part of the University - the Faculties of Law, Science and Literature and Tokyo Medical School became the second part - the Faculty of Medicine. One each President (Sori) was appointed by the Secretary of Education to oversee the operations of each of these two parts of the University; Kato Hiroyuki (1836-1916) had charge of the former part. A Preparatory School was also opened for those students who planned to enter the former part of the University. At first, each of the three Faculties - Law, Science and Literature - offered eight-year courses divided into four years of preparatory work at the Preparatory School and four years of specialization.

The three Faculties included the following Departments:

1) Faculty of Law

Law Department

2) Faculty of Science

Chemistry Department, Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy Department, Biology Department, Engineering Department, Geology and Mining Department

3) Faculty of Literature

History, Philosophy and Politics Department, Japanese and Chinese Literature Department

By 1878 the total staff of these Faculties numbered eighteen Japanese and seventeen foreigners. There were 36 students in the Faculty of Law, 102 in the Faculty of Science and nineteen in the Faculty of Literature for a total of 157. In the Preparatory School there were twelve Japanese and six foreign instructors responsible for 418 students.

Tokyo Medical School remained intact when it was redesignated as the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tokyo and offered five years of preparatory and five additional years of regular medical courses. Courses in pharmaceutics and an abbreviated medical training program for day students were also established. There were 25 Japanese and eleven foreign instructors in the Faculty of Medicine in addition to the teaching staff attached to the hospital. 134 students attended the regular course of the Faculty of Medicine and 451 were enrolled in the premedical course with an additional 539 day students attending an abbreviated medical training program. Courses in pharmaceutics had nineteen regular students and 111 day students.

At the outset Tokyo School of English, which had served until then as the preparatory course to Tokyo Kaisei Gakko, was reorganized into the Preparatory School for the Faculties of Law, Science and Literature of the University of Tokyo. The preparatory course for the Faculty of Medicine was established separately. Later, however, the preparatory division for both parts was merged creating a unified institution for the preparatory training of all the students who would proceed to the University of Tokyo.