Yale's First Asian Professor

choi

Mark Alden Branch, Another Country; The son of a samurai, Kan-ichi Asakawa tried to forge connections and promote peace over a half century in the United States. Yale Alumni Magazine, Jan/Feb 2025.
https://yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/5994-another-country

Note:
(a) "Every summer, ten middle school students from Nihonmatsu, Japan, file into New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery * * * The students, chosen for the trip by a competitive process, are there to pay tribute to Kan-ichi Asakawa 1902PhD (1873–1948), a native of Nihonmatsu who spent his last 42 years in New Haven. * * * ]these students] stop at a memorial garden dedicated to Asakawa in Saybrook College, where he lived as a resident fellow."
(i) Nihonmatsu, Fukushima  福島県  二本松市
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonmatsu,_Fukushima
(A) In Japan: 本 is a counter for counter for long, cylindrical things (including pencil, necktie, wine bottle but NOT book). 隻 is counter for ship.
(B) 北京市海淀区 has an intersection 五棵松, whereas Minato, Tokyo 東京都 港区 has a neighborhood Roppongi 六本木.
(ii)
(A) Grove Street Cemetery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grove_Street_Cemetery
(table: 18 acres)
(B) Grove Street Cemetery
https://grovestreetcemetery.org/
(In the l3ft margin, click "Overview" (for video) and "Frequently asked questions")
(iii) Kan-ichi ASAKAWA  朝河 貫一
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kan%27ichi_Asakawa
("In 2007 the Asakawa garden in Saybrook College, designed by Shinichiro Abe, was dedicated to mark the centennial of Asakawa's appointment as an instructor [starting in 1907; eventually professor] of history at Yale")
(A) Kanji 朝 (as in Asahi shimbun 朝日新聞) and 浅 both share the same Japanese pronunciation.
(B) Saybrook College
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saybrook_College
("is one of the 14 residential colleges at Yale University. * * * [name] after ]Town of] Old Saybrook, Connecticut"_

One may click "residential college" but it is noting extraordinary: a residential building headed by a professor and his family who live on site. I am familiar with Harvard's and MIT's, which are the sAME.)


(b) "At Waseda University in Tokyo, Asakawa became a Christian and met the Reverend Tokio Yokoi * * * His diaries make clear his disdain for proms, sporting events, and student tomfoolery."
(i) Toki-o YOKO-I  横井 時雄
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokio_Yokoi
(ii) tom-fool
https://www.etymonline.com/word/tom-fool

(c) "he was dismayed to see his home country renege on promises in the Treaty of Portsmouth regarding Manchuria and Korea. * * * The Documents of Iriki"
(i) Treaty of Portsmouth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Portsmouth
(table: Languages  English, Japanese and Russian [where Article II is about Korea and Articles III and IV, about Manchuria])
(ii) The Documents of Iriki  入来文書
(A) For Iriki 入来, see Iriki, Kagoshima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iriki,_Kagoshima
(used to be 鹿児島県薩摩郡入来町, but in 2004 became 薩摩川内市 入来町 (after merger at higher level) )
(B)Iriki-in House Document Collection  入来院家文書. 東京大学史料編纂所, undated
in English: https://www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/IRIKI/eng_note.html
in Japanese: https://www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/IRIKI/jpn_note.html
(入来文書 is short from the formal 入来院家文書: "the Iriki-in Ke Monjo * * * The Shibuya were originally land stewards (jito 地頭) on an estate in Sagami Province.  In 1247, the Chiba [千葉; on the eastern border of Tokyo, Chiba Prefecture 千葉県 was named after clan of this surname as landowner there] and Miura [三浦] houses raised arms against the Kamakura Bakufu, and Shibuya Joshin [correct romanization is Jōshin, where ō signifies a long vowel of o] 渋谷 定心 fought to quell the revolt.   In reward for his faithful service, he was appointed to the position of land steward of Iriki Estate [入来院, whose pronunciation is iri-ki-in where kanji 入, pronounced iri, appears in name only and kanji 来 has Japanese pronunciation ki], in Satsuma Province.   Joshin's descendants moved to the estate and took the name Iriki. * * * The documents in the published collection range from 1135 to 1867.   They include documents concerning disputes, calls to military service, remissions of taxes, statements of trial testimony and judicial pronouncements, and more.   Many of the documents reflect very local concerns, such as inheritance disputes, while others reflect the larger political issues which affected the estate, such as the warfare between the Shimadzu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi")
(A) Kanji 家 has Chinese pronunciations ka/ke and Japanese pronunciation ya (and two others).
(B) "The Shibuya were"

If the surname had been anything other than Japanese, it would be The + surname ending in s (even if the last letter of the surname is y, as in the Kennedys). I am clueless about why Japanese surname made an exception.

In addition, Shibuya Ward 渋谷区 in Tokyo also came from the surname of this clan as a local landholder. "The [Shibuya] clan was a cadet branch of the Taira [平] clan."  en.wikipedia.org for Shibuya (Tokyo). So was the Chiba clan (a cadet branch of Taira clan).
(C) Sagami Province  相模国
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagami_Province

Take notice that the map in this wiki page includes Miura Peninsula 三浦半島. Having also descended from Taira clan, Miura clan switched surname (from Taira) to 三浦 (after the peninsula), having been awarded 相模国 -- where Kamakura (headquarters of Kamakura Shōgunate) was located.
(D) 宝治合戦 (occurred in 1247, which was 宝治元年)

Kamakura Bakufu (English: Kamakura Shōgunate; 1192 - 1333) 鎌倉幕府: When the founder 源 頼朝 died, power immediately and forever shifted to 外戚 北条氏 Hōjō clan (till the end of that Shōgunate), starting with 頼朝's wife and her biological father (both surnamed 北条’ the two biological sons of 頼朝 and his wife died violently). 三浦氏, a top vassal of 源 頼朝, opposed 北条氏, lost the war in 宝治合戦 and were eliminated.  
(E) "Shimadzu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi"

Shimadzu (clan) 島津(氏) in its heyday almost conquered the entire Kyūshū 九州 (which literally means nine provinces) from the original three provinces that 島津家の家祖 島津忠久was awared in 1185. TOYOTOMI Hideyoshi 豊臣 秀吉's 1587 九州平定 subjugated 島津氏, spared their lives and permitted them to continue holding the original three provinces (whuke giving up the remaining six provinces).