The story
Founding
Kyoto University can trace its roots back to the Chemistry School (舎密局, Seimi-kyoku), an institution for Chemistry and Physics founded in Osaka in 1869. Seimi is a Japanese transcription of the Dutch word chemie, meaning chemistry. In 1894, this institution was replaced by the Third Higher School, which was a specialised boys' boarding school. Back then, the country had only one university, the Imperial University (today's University of Tokyo), and the call for the nation's second university in the Kansai region was gaining momentum. However, due to financial reasons, the government was reluctant to do so.
The situation changed when the aristocratic politician Saionji Kinmochi, who was from a prominent kuge family in Kyoto, suggested the founding of the nation's second university using war reparations from the First Sino-Japanese War. This plan was edicted accordingly in 1896, and Kyoto Imperial University (京都帝國大學, Kyōto-teikoku-daigaku) was established on June 18, 1897, as the second university in the country. The University started using Third Higher School's buildings, and the higher school moved to a patch of land across the street, where the southern section of the Yoshida Campus stands today. The Imperial University in Tokyo was renamed Tokyo Imperial University following the founding of its counterpart in Kyoto.
It started teaching with the College of Science and Engineering in the year of its foundation, which was followed by the establishment of the College of Law in 1898. Other faculties and colleges were established during its first decade as a university. The low rates of success of its graduates in the Higher Civil Service Examinations led to the Chief Commercial Law Professor Yoshihito Takane (高根義人) adopting a distinct style of teaching, which he called the 'German way of cherishing the freedom of research, teaching, and learning'. He is said to be the originator of the current motto 'freedom of academic culture (自由の学風, Jiyū no Gakufū)'.
Post-war period
The Allied Occupation Period following Japan's defeat in the Second World War saw a radical reform in the country's educational system, and Kyoto University was not immune from it. Along with other Imperial Universities, Kyoto Imperial University dropped the word 'imperial' from its name and came to be known as Kyoto University (京都大学, Kyōto daigaku) in October 1947. In May 1949, as a result of the American-led reform, former Imperial Universities merged with higher schools and became four-year universities as they are today. Kyoto University merged with the Third Higher School, which had been coexisting with the university since its founding as a university-preparatory boys' boarding school. The now-integrated higher school became the College of Liberal Arts (教養部, Kyōyō-bu) within the university in September 1949, and came to be in charge of equipping all first-year undergraduates with general knowledge such as mathematics and foreign languages. The college was replaced by the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies (総合人間学部, Sōgō-ningen-gakubu) in 1992.
Kyoto University has been incorporated as a national university corporation along with all the other national universities, gaining a greater independence from the MEXT.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kyoto University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3