Yoshihisa Fujii
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100 years ago
Hello to all IRG members.
Almost 100 years ago, in 1923, Japan experienced a serious earthquake centered on the capital, Tokyo. Over 100,000 lives were lost and many wooden buildings collapsed or caught fire. After the disaster, there seems to have been an upsurge in activity to rebuild and build a more disaster-resilient country. Under these circumstances, in 1924, “the Society for the Study of Wood Conservation study”. the predecessor of the Japanese Wood Preservation Association (JWPA) was established. It is assumed that there was an urgent need to realize wooden houses that were resistant to fire and earthquakes. Since then, the association has undergone a series of reforms and developments, becoming the Japan Wood Protection Association in 1978, establishing the foundations of the current institution, which became a public interest incorporated association in 2012.
Coincidentally, on New Year's Day 2024, 100 years after these events, another major earthquake struck Japan, killing many and destroying wooden houses and causing fires. I have been President of the JWPA since 2023, the year of the 100-year anniversary. I would like to send this message while thinking deeply about the task of timber conservation once again.
Roots
I was born in July 1957 in a suburb of Osaka, graduated from a public high school in Osaka, and in 1976, entered the Department of Wood Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University, and graduated in 1980. I then went on to study for a master's degree at the same graduate school, and in 1982 for a doctorate at the same institution, leaving in 1984. I studied wood, wood processing and wood processing machinery and obtained my Dr. degree in Agricultural Science in 1990.
Career
In 1984, I became an assistant professor at Kyoto University, after serving as assistant professor and associate professor of the same department, I became a professor in 2013 and retired in 2023. In 1990, I studied at the University of Stuttgart, Germany for a year. Over time, my research broadened, I became involved in research on quality control of timber.
Quality control of timber includes quality control carried out in factories and other production sites, and quality control of timber used as durable materials on the market. A typical theme of the latter is biodeterioration of wooden houses and its countermeasures. Around 1985, research on deterioration diagnosis and non-destructive inspection of wooden houses began. This was my first encounter with wood conservation research.
IRG meetings
I firstly published a paper for IRG in 1989. The paper was on ‘Non-destructive detection of termite feeding damage by Acoustic Emission, AE’. After the IRG22 meeting in Kyoto in 1991, I attended several meetings and was involved in organizing IRG32 in Nara in 2001. I joined the IRG at this time and have been a member ever since.
Research topics
The research field “wood protection” aims to pioneer technologies for the effective and long-lasting use of timber and wooden construction. I myself come from an engineering background in materials and machinery and have entered the field of wood protection from a different world. This has led me to research into wood protection from slightly different points of view. My research topics have included non-destructive detection of insect feeding and fungal attack, non-destructive evaluation of material properties, deterioration diagnosis and maintenance techniques of wooden buildings, physical pest control, and conservation and restoration of cultural heritage. To read further on the results of these various research projects over the years please visit this Kyoto University website compilation.
Epilogue
In baseball, Shohei Ohtani has been playing for the Dodgers since the 2024 season. Los Angeles, home of the Dodgers, is a world-famous city, and many people are familiar with the ‘Hollywood’ signage installed in the Santa Monica hills outside the city. Hollywood refers to holly, which is thought to symbolize good luck, success and protection from evil. The sign was installed in 1923 as an advertising billboard for Hollywoodland, a residential area on the outskirts of the city. This was the year of the earthquake in Japan, mentioned at the beginning of this message. This Hollywood sign was originally made of wood, but was replaced by a steel sign as a result of a conservation campaign that began in 1978. The history of this sign is a good example of the importance of maintenance for wooden buildings.
With the guidance and cooperation of our members and all concerned, we pray that wood will become a material for ‘protection from evil and good luck’, and we will do our best to develop the wood protection sector and JWPA.
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This bio was written for inclusion with the November 2024 IRG Newsletter.