The story
On 22 June 1907 (Mēji 40), Tohoku Imperial University (東北帝國大學, Tōhoku teikoku daigaku) was established by the Meiji government as the third Imperial University of Japan, after Tokyo Imperial University (1877) and Kyoto Imperial University (1897). From its inception, it advocated 'Open-door' policies, becoming the first university in Japan to accept both female students in 1913, and foreign students.
It was not until 1911 that teaching and research activities started in Sendai. When the university was founded in 1907 it only had one faculty (college), the College of Agriculture, in Sapporo, Hokkaido. This college, originally founded in 1875 as the Sapporo Agricultural College (札幌農學校, Sapporo nō gakkō), precedes the establishment of the university, and in 1918, it became independent to form another imperial university, Hokkaido Imperial University, in its own right. The School of Science was established in Sendai in 1911, followed by the School of Medicine (formerly Sendai Medical College) in 1915, the Faculty of Engineering in 1919, and the Faculty of Law and Literature in 1922.
In 1947, during the post-war educational reform, the university dropped the word 'imperial' along with other imperial universities, and assumed its current name, Tohoku University. It was also this year that the university's academic scope came to cover agriculture again, with the establishment of a new Faculty of Agriculture in Sendai. In 1949, the Faculty of Law and Literature was split to form independent faculties of Law, Literature, and Economics. A Faculty of Education was added in 1949, Dentistry in 1965, and Pharmacy in 1972. Tohoku has been a National University Corporation since April 2004.
2011 Tōhoku earthquake
Subsequent to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the university was declared closed until further notice, but with a tentative re-opening date of the end of the following April. The Aobayama, Katahira, Amamiya, and Kawauchi campuses are all at least 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) from the ocean, towards the mountains, and therefore suffered no damage resulting from the tsunami. No deaths or serious injuries within the faculty and student body were reported on campus grounds. However, earthquake damage lead to the closure of 27 buildings and caused millions of dollars of damage to equipment. Classes have resumed normally since early May 2011 and plans for restoring, reinforcing or replacing damaged buildings are underway.
From Wikipedia’s article on Tohoku University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4