Tokyo University of Agriculture, Setagaya Campus

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Viscount Takeaki Enomoto founded Tokyo University of Agriculture (Tokyo NODAI), a cosmopolitan figure in modern Japan and a scientist who served as Minister of Education, Foreign Affairs, Post and Telecommunications, and Agriculture the Meiji Period. INITIALLY, Tokyo NODAI was established as the Department of Agriculture at the Ikueiko School of the Tokugawa Ikuei-kai Foundation in 1891. Today, it has grown into a full-scale agricultural university with two graduate schools, six undergraduate faculties with 22 departments, and a junior college with three departments conducting education and research across a wide range of areas, including bioscience, food science, environmental science, health science, energy, and regional regeneration.

Going forward, Tokyo NODAI will continue to develop human resources with an "agricultural spirit" that values life in order to fulfill our mission to contribute to the world with morality, for the happiness of humanity, based on "Return Man to the Farm," the educational principle of our University, and "Practical Science," our approach to teaching and research.

What is "Practical Science" at the time of the foundation of the Tokyo University of Agriculture?

• "Practical Science" is the school motto advocated by the first President YOKOI Tokiyoshi.
• Its original fundamental principle lies in the rational spirit in which problems are totally grasped and analyzed considering diversified conditions and eventually solved through pursuing theories and means.
• "Practical Science" is a multi-disciplinary science, and the fundamental principle is "Return man to the farm".
• Agriculture science is the wisdom of agriculture.
• The inductive approach is symbolized by the words, "Ask rice plant about rice plant, ask farmers about agriculture".
• Introduction of a rural idea to the city and creation of cultural and creative agricultural village is aimed.
• The views of self-sufficiency in food production and maintaining sustainable land are emphasized.

Tokyo University of Agriculture celebrated the 125th anniversary in 2016. With such a background, the new library opened in April 2014.

The library holds a collection of approximately 550,000 items. We are unique among university libraries as 80% of the holdings deal specifically with agricultural sciences. We are also well known for our collection of classic and rare books on agriculture dating back to the Edo period's days.

The new library was established to embody the University's identity. The library building is next to the forested campus garden, which is regarded as a symbolic space as our University attaches weight to co-existing with nature. The building has been designed in the image of a giant tree standing powerfully in the garden. Each floor of the library is furnished with bookshelves made from domestic timber. Users can see the trees of the garden down below from the library. These offer users a comfortable study environment and may help to induce a feeling of harmony with nature.

At the Extension Center, we provide a variety of learning opportunities geared toward the needs of society. We also publish and publicize scholarly information from many different areas and scopes offered at Tokyo NODAI and research and education outcomes at our institution.

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