Kiyoshi Oka was
born on April 19th, 1901 in Osaka, Wakayama
Prefecture, Japan. He graduated in mathematics at the
Imperial University of Kyoto in 1925 and continued there
as a lecturer in the Faculty of Science. In 1929, he took
sabbatical leave and went to the University of Paris and
became interested in unsolved problems in the theory of
functions of several complex variables and he became
acquainted with Julia. Oka remained on the staff at the
Imperial University of Kyoto while he was on leave in
Paris but on his return to Japan in 1932 he accepted a
position as assistant professor in the Faculty of Science
of Hiroshima University. In 1938, Oka went to Kimitoge
in Wakayama where he studied, presented his doctoral
thesis to the University of Kyoto in 1940. After
obtaining his doctorate, Oka was a research assistant at
Hokkaido University during 1941, then, with the support
of the Huju-kai Foundation under the chairmanship of
Takagi, he spent the next seven years again at Kimitoge
in Wakayama.
Oka was
appointed professor at the Nara University for Women in
1949, a post he held until 1964. From 1969 until his
death in 1978, he was professor of mathematics at the
Industrial University of Kyoto. His most famous work was
published in a 25 year period from 1936, when he solved a
number of important problems. He worked on the theory of
functions of several complex variables. The
publication in 1934 of a monograph by Behnke-Thullen
marked a crucial stage in the development of the theory
of analytic functions of several complex variables. By
giving a list of the open problems in the area, this work
played an important role in deciding the direction of Oka's
research. Oka received a number of important honours
including the Medal of the Japan Academy of Science in
1951, the Asahi-bunka-sho Prize of Culture in 1954 and
the Bunka-kunsho Medal of Culture in 1960. He died 1 March 1978 in Nara, Japan.
