Dr KiyoshiMuto (1903-1989)

Hiroyuki Aoyama, Prof.Emeritus, Universityof Tokyo,Japan

and was activein researchand design analysis activities.His recent enjoyment wasto go to the Shinjukuareaof Tokyo to look at the new city skyline swarming with skyscrapers, all designed under his guidance, and to watch the site of his last contribution. Tokyo City Hall, which had just completed its designstage, and the constructionwas about to start (Fig.2). Towards evening he visited his wife YoshikoMuto in the Miyairi Hospital, and asusualhe spentseveralhourstogether with her. Yoshiko, the first daughterof his advisorProfessor Riki Sano,married him in 1929,and was blessedwith one son and two daughTheycelebrated ters. their GoldenWedding Anniversaryin l9l9,but Yoshiko wasrecentlysufferingfrom liver cancer. At home, after a nightcap of Scotch whisky he went to bed - in which he neverwoke up again. Imperial Metropolis Collapsed

sistant building structuresto which he devoted his whole life. His first encounter with an earthquake dated back to September 7 of 1923.Born on January 29,1903,as a son of Yoshitaro and Tsuru at Toride, Ibaraki Prefecture, Muto lost his parents while he was an elementary school pupil, and after spending high school days in Sendai where his elder brother Masao was working as a surgeon in the Medical School of Tohoku University. he entered the Department of Architecture at the University of Tokyo, in 1922. Being a science-orientedstudent, the study of art in architecture was not attractive to him. During a diversion journey he was staying at the Asamushi Fig. 1: Dr Kiyoshi Mttto (c. 1985) Spa in Aomori Prefecture on Septem(courlesy: Kobort Researclt Contplex) ber 7,7923, and was surprised by the news of the disastrous Kanto EarthAnother Week Has Passed quake that struck the Tokyo area. returning to the Ueno station, It was Saturday, March 11, 1989. This Quickly all he saw was a miserably shattered week had been anotherbusy week for and burned Imperial Metropolis of Dr Kiyoshi Muto (Flg. 1). He attended T o k y o . T h i s h o r r i f y i n g e x p e r i e n c eu n the Muto Institute of Structural Medoubtedly took root in Muto as the imchanicsevery day where at the age of petus for his passion to earthquake re86 he continued to serve as Director sistant construction.

Tokyo for almost 40 years.The second career was practical at Kajima Corporation which he commenced as an Executive Vice-President in the year of his retirement from the University of Tokyo. Shifting his major study to structural engineering in response to the Kanto Earthquake experience,Muto graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1925, and was immediately appointed to Lecturer, to Assistant Professor in 1927, awarded Dr of Engineering in 1931, and after two years of study abroad at the Berlin Institute of Technology he was appointed to Professor of Structural Engineering in 1935. His major research themes in those days were stress and deformation analyses of building frames subjected to lateral loads, and their vibration analysis.The world famous D-method, stress analysis of frames under horizontal loading using lateral load distribution factors, was the result of these studies. The seismic coefficient for earthquake resistant design, advocated by his fatherin-law Professor Sano, had been incorporated into Urban Building Law in 1924 reflecting the Kanto Earthquake experience, but its use could not prevail without a practical hand calculation method of analysisfor every structural engineer. Muto's D-method answered to this demand, and was adopted into the Calculation Standard of the Architectural Institute of Japan in 1933.Its popular use for general build-

StaticalSeismic Design
Since then, over 65 years of work Muto's contribution was vastly abundant. His pre-eminent achievementhad been produced during not one, but two. distinguished careers. The first one was academicat the University of

Muto would have dreamed of past, presentand future of earthquakere50 Eminent Ensineers Structural

Fig.2: Tokyo skyline with high-rise buildings in Shinjuku (1993)

(courtesy: Kajimo Corporation)

StructuralEngineeringlnternational U2005

l+>

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of !t^5,1e sketchduring development 2000ton testing machine(1959)

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ings,in Japanas well asoverseas coun_ trieg savedinnumerablebuildinssfrom earthquakedisasLers for mori than half a century until the arrival of the computerage.

Dynamical SeismicDesign
Muto was firmly convinced,through his early study of structuralvibratiSn and studyon blastresistant designdur_ ing World War II, that earthquik" ,"_ rt:lq"] designof structures, paiticularly of high-rise buildings, would haveto be basedon their dynamicbehaviorin the elasto-plaslic range. Based upon his foresight for the need of thiee ele_ ments,i.e. earthquakeground motion records, load-deformation relationship of structuresand structural elementi, and nonlinear earthquake response analysis method,he endeavored io de_ velop, and installed in the Universitv of Tokyo, a strong motion accelero'graph SMAC (I952),a large-scale struc_ tural testingmachine(1959, Fig.3),and an analog computer SERAC (1961). He himself took the office of Dean of Engineeringin 1960,and retired from the-University in 1963,but these up_ to-date research facilities supported the study of his followers for^several decades. contributing to the recogni_ tion of Japanasan internationallea?er Structural Engineeringlnternational U2005

oped a large-scale computer program for time-history seismic ,esponiea"naly_ sisof an elaborateelasto-plastic model of a structure, on the basii of his study at.the University of Tokyo.A special seismic wall, calleda slit wall, *us on" of his inventions for this project,which wasutilizedto controlvibrationsof the building under small earthquakesor strong winds,and to absorbvibration Executiveof a Large energyunder strongearthquakes. Thus Construction Company rt was a predecessor of structuralcon_ trol devices, widely used in contempo_ Upon his retirement from the Univer_ rary seismic design. Kajima continued sity of Tokyo in L963,Muto was re_ to design and constructmanv skv_ ceived by Kajima Corporation as an scrapers under his guidance, completl_ ExecutiveVice-president. Kaiima was Iy changing the skyline of cities in foundedin 1840, and is today one of Japan. the largestgeneralcontracting firms in Japan with more than 7000iechnical personnel.As Kajima was exploring Muto Institute of Structural the project of Mitsui Real Estite Col Mechanics to construct the first skyscraper in Japanat Kasumigaseki,Toicyo +1, In 1969 he establisheda corporation 1fig. his entry to the company was an iOeit calledMuto Instituteof StructuralMe_ setting to realize his long-cherished chanics,and in 1977he stepped down idea of dynamic design.The buildine from Vice-President of Kajima Corpo_ was 36-stories high, and its desienanI ration to concentrate on the director_ constructionin Japan, where'most ship of the Institute.The business of buildings were lower than 10 stories the Institute consisted of seismicanaly_ then,encountered a chainof technical. sis and designof various special strut_ practical,as well as legal and adminis_ tures including high-rise buildings and trative, difficulties. With all his might, nuclearpower facilities,not necessarilv he worked hard in leading the wh--ole relatedto the business of Kaiima Coi_ project group. In particular, he devel_ poration. Sucha wide contribuLion to EminentStructural Engineers 51

in earthquake engineering. In 1960the Second World ConferenCefor Earth_ quake Engineeringwas held in Tokyo under Muto's chairmanship,and in 1963he wasinstalledas the iirst presi_ dent of the newly organizedInterna_ tional Associationof EarthquakeEn_ gineering.

public facilities was deemedworthy of Muto who came from a national university, and the work at the Institute was,though very hard and busy,quite comfortable and substantialfor him. Occasionallyhe might have recollected countlesshonors given to him for his brilliant contribution to the public, in Japan as well as overseas: Imperial Prize from the National Academy of Japan (1964), Commendation by the Minister of Statefor Scienceand Technology (1968), Medal with Purple Ribbon (1968), Memberof NationalAcademy of Japan(1975),IABSE International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering (1976),DesignatedLecturer at the New Year's First Lecture to His Majesty Emperor (1977),Foreign Associateof the USA National Academy of Engineering(1978),Person of Cultural Merits (1979),and Order of Culture (1983).

Sixty-sixYears sinceKanto Earthquake

Japan has changed.Countlessbuildings line up along every street,all de-

signedagainstearthquakeforces using Muto's D-method, and skyscrapers soar up here and there, all designed againstearthquakeground motions using Muto's dynamic analysismethod. Such a wide spread of seismicdesign was,of course,the result of the endeavors of the many people involved, but Muto had always lead people in the development and execution of new technology. At the sametime, he liked to consult with authorities in each field. Ms. Mitsuko Morinaga, his second daughter,lately recollectedin her addressat an alumni meeting,that her father did not look like a scholar, aloof and distant,but alwaysin warm and affectionate contact with many collaborators, with full power of action as if fed by the energyof Mother Earth [3]. A nightcap of Scotchwhisky with reminiscences of 86 years of life might havebeen a little excessive for him. Before dawnof March 12,L989,DrKiyoshi Muto passedaway due to heart failure in his home at Kamiochiai, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Funeral serviceswere held on March 16 and L7 presidedby Yoshiko, his widow, despiteher anxiouscondition. His Majesty Emperor conferred

on him a posthumous honor of Grand Condon of the Order of the Sacred Tieasure.It was sad news for all who knew the couple, that Yoshiko followed her belovedhusbandto heaven just 30 dayslater. on April 11,L989,

Acknowledgment
This article was compiled with the help of Dr ThdashiSugano,ex-staff of Muto Institute, and was reviewed by Dr Hiroo Kanayama,Kobori ResearchComplex,Kajima Corporation.

References
"Obituary Hon. [1] UMEMURA, HAJIME, Member Kiyoshi Muto (in Japanese)", Journal of Architectureand Building Science, Arch. Inst. No. 1285, Japan,Vol. 104, May 1989. "Obituary Acade[2] OKAMOTO, SHUNZO, (in mician Kiyoshi Muto Japanese)", Journal of National Academy of Japan,Yol.44, No. 2, June 1989. "On my father [3] MORINAGA, MITSUKO, Kiyoshi Muto (in Japanese)", A speechat New Year alumni assembly, Kogakuin Univ., Niche Tbpics23,2004.

52 Eminent Structural Ensineers

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