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Kenjiro Takayanagi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kenjirō Takayanagi
高柳 健次郎
Kenjirō Takayanagi in 1953
Born(1899-01-20)January 20, 1899
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Japan
DiedJuly 23, 1990(1990-07-23) (aged 91)
Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
Engineering career
DisciplineElectrical engineering
Significant advanceDevelopment of television

Kenjiro Takayanagi (高柳 健次郎, Takayanagi Kenjirō; January 20, 1899 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka – July 23, 1990 in Yokosuka) was a Japanese engineer and a pioneer in the development of television and video tape recorders.[1] Although he failed to gain much recognition in the West, he built the world's first all-electronic television receiver, and is referred to as "the father of Japanese television".[2]

Career

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A recreation of Takayanagi's pioneering experiment, on display at the NHK Broadcasting Museum in Atagoyama, Tokyo

In 1925, Takayanagi began research on television after reading about the new technology in a French magazine. He developed a system similar to that of John Logie Baird, using a Nipkow disk to scan the subject and generate electrical signals. Unlike Baird's display method, Takayanagi used a cathode ray tube to display the received signal, thereby demonstrating electronic image reception.[3][4] On December 25, 1926, Takayanagi successfully demonstrated his system at Hamamatsu Industrial High School, where he was teaching at the time (the school is now the Faculty of Engineering at Shizuoka University). The first picture he transmitted was of the Japanese katakana character イ made up of 40 scan lines.[3][4] This was several months before Philo T. Farnsworth demonstrated his first fully electronic system in San Francisco on September 7, 1927, which did not require a Nipkow disk. (See History of television.)

In subsequent years, Takayanagi continued to play a key role in the development of television at NHK (the Japan Broadcasting Corporation), where he worked on higher-line electronic television systems, including a 40-line image of a human face by 1933, and then at JVC (Victor Company of Japan), where he eventually became vice president.[3][5] In the late 1950s, he developed a two-head, helical scan video tape recorder.[6] He was also involved in the development of color television.[7][8] In 1984, he created his own foundation for the study of electronics.[6] In 1988, he became the first Japanese person to become an honorary member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers[6] He died of pneumonia in 1990 at the age of 91.[9]

Honours

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From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

References

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  1. ^ "The story of BBC Television - How it all began". BBC World Service. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010.
  2. ^ Kenjiro Takayanagi: The Father of Television Archived June 4, 2002, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2012-11-01.
  3. ^ a b c "Research into all-electronic television systems". Evolution of TV. NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories. Retrieved 19 April 2026.
  4. ^ a b Suematsu, Yasuharu (May 2006). "Braun-tube display of Katakana 'i' by Kenjirou Takayanagi in the early days of Television Development". IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering. 1 (2): 179–181. doi:10.1002/tee.20035.
  5. ^ "Milestones: Development of Electronic Television, 1924-1941". Engineering and Technology History Wiki. IEEE. Retrieved 19 April 2026.
  6. ^ a b c d "JVC's Supreme Adviser Honored By Engineers". Variety. October 26, 1988. p. 29.
  7. ^ "JVC America Consumer Site — History". Archived from the original on 2017-09-22. Retrieved 2006-12-01.
  8. ^ Home VCR: International de facto standard made in Japan Archived 2002-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Kenjiro Takayanagi, Electrical Engineer, 91", New York Times, July 25, 1990.
  10. ^ "Milestones:Development of Electronic Television, 1924-1941". IEEE Global History Network. IEEE. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
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