In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1886
- Died
- 1976
- Birthplace
- Osaka, Japan
- Country
- Japan
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Joint directional-antenna work with Shintaro Uda and international communication of that research
- Known for
- Joint directional-antenna work with Shintaro Uda and international communication of that research
Why this life matters
Joint directional-antenna work with Shintaro Uda and international communication of that research.
Timeline
Key moments
A career in communications and university leadership
Hidetsugu Yagi was born in Osaka in 1886 and graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1909. He studied in Germany and Britain before joining Tohoku Imperial University as a professor in 1919. His interests helped establish a programme in communications engineering at a time when other branches of electrical engineering commanded substantial attention. The later antenna discovery therefore belonged to a research setting that he helped build, rather than appearing as an isolated object without laboratories, colleagues or an institutional programme.
A joint paper and a wider audience
Yagi and Shintaro Uda published a joint English paper in 1926 describing their directional antenna research. The primary record names both authors. Yagi's 1928 paper subsequently drew international attention to the technology. A separate United States patent,1,860,123, names Yagi and records a 1926 filing and 1932 grant. These documents answer different questions: publication authorship, communication to an audience and a particular patent record should not be treated as the same kind of credit.
Recognition with the collaborator restored
Yagi later held leading positions at Osaka Imperial University, Tokyo Institute of Technology and other institutions, and entered the House of Councillors in 1953. He received the Order of Culture in 1956 and died in 1976. His international prominence helps explain the shortened name Yagi antenna, but does not remove Uda's experimental contribution. The full name YagiโUda provides a more faithful starting point. Keeping the careers and records distinct recognises Yagi's scientific and institutional work without assigning every observation in a collaborative research programme to its best-known public representative.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Hidetsugu Yagi
- What is Hidetsugu Yagi known for?
- Joint directional-antenna work with Shintaro Uda and international communication of that research.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Shintaro Uda
How do driven and parasitic elements work in the YagiโUda antenna?
- Jun-ichi Nishizawa
What does the intrinsic layer do in a PIN diode?
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. National Diet Library, JapanYAGI Hidetsugu
Actualofficialbiographyread:1886โ1976, Osaka,1909 graduation,1913 overseasstudy, Tohoku 1919, lateruniversityleadership,1953 HouseofCouncillors and 1956 OrderofCulture.
- 2. Qiang Chen / Proceedings of the Japan Academy,2025First English article of Yagi-Uda antenna
Actuallyreadhistoricalpassages 97โ106:1925 Udaabstract,1926 joint English paper,1928 Yagiinternationalpaper andappropriatenessofjointname. Scopedhistoryonly, numericmodernantennadesignnotreproduced.
- 3. H.Yagi and S.Uda / Proceedings of the Imperial Academy,1926Projector of the Sharpest Beam of Electric Waves
Actualpublicationmetadataread:bothauthors, Tohoku, volume 2 pages 49โ52. Full 4-pagePDF subsequentlydownloadedandtextread; originalgeometry/polarplotsnotreproduced.
- 4. Hidetsugu Yagi / United States Patent OfficeUS1860123A: Variable directional electric wave generating device
Actualprimarymetadataandopeningread:Yaginamed, September 3,1926USfiling, May 24,1932 grant; recorddistinguishedfromjointpublicationandwidercontribution.
- 5. IEEE Japan Council milestone recordDirective Short Wave Antenna,1924
Actualplaquetextread:researchbeginning 1924, Yagi/Uda, closelycoupledparasiticelements and 1995 dedication. Commemorationnotanindependentexperimentalmeasurement.
