Notes to the early history of the Knot Theory in Japan

Abstract

We give a description of the growth of research on Knot Theory in Japan. We place our report in a general historical context. In particular, we compare the development of research on mathematical topology in Japan with that in Poland and USA, observing several similarities. Toward the end of XIX century and at the beginning of XX century several young mathematicians, educated in Germany, France or England were returning to their native countries and building, almost from scratch, schools of modern mathematics. After a general description of the growth of topology in Japan between the World Wars, we describe the beginning of Knot Theory in Japan. Gaisi Takeuti, later a famous logician, conducted the first Knot Theory seminar in Japan in 1952 or 1953. Kunio Murasugi (later a prominent knot theoretist) was the only student who attended it. In Osaka, a Knot Theory seminar started in 1955, initiated by Hidetaka Terasaka and his students Shin'ichi Kinoshita and Takeshi Yajima. We complete the paper by listing 70 Japanese topologists born before 1946, and by sketching the biography of Fox.