Matatarō Matsumoto

Matsumoto earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree at Tokyo Imperial University under Yūjirō Motora, the man who had introduced scientific psychology to Japan.[2] He then completed a Ph.D. at Yale University under experimental psychologist Edward Wheeler Scripture, and the school made him an assistant professor. Shortly thereafter, however, the government of Japan decided to send him to Europe. For about three years, Matsumoto did postdoctoral study with Wilhelm Wundt and other psychologists, returning in 1900.[3]

Matsumoto took a faculty position at the Tokyo Higher Normal School upon returning to Japan. He also consulted with Motora as the latter built the first psychology laboratory in Japan in 1903. (While he was studying in Europe, Motora had asked him to purchase certain supplies for the planned laboratory.) In 1906, Matsumoto went to Kyoto University and built Japan's second psychology laboratory.[4]

After Motora's death in 1912, Matsumoto came back to Tokyo Imperial University and assumed Motora's position as the department chair there.[4]

Matsumoto was also the founding president of the Japanese Psychological Association and president of the Kyoto Prefectural School of Art and Crafts, later known as the Kyoto City University of Arts. He was elected to the Japan Academy in 1921.[5]