Kenji Miyazawa studied at the Imperial College of Agriculture and Forestry, Morioka, as a regular student and then as a research fellow from 1915 to 1920, majoring in agriculture at the Department of Agronomy, Second Section (which later became the Department of Agricultural Chemistry). He was an honest, good student with rather fair skin and a charming smile. He was the president of his class, a scholarship student, and a standard-bearer in his college days. He had a keen interest in Buddhism and also in Japanese Tanka. He deepened his friendship with friends through a literary art club called “Azalea" and an alumni association. He also loved to walk around in outdoor fields and mountains to be in touch with nature. Academically, he was interested in geology and pedology, and was trained under Prof. Toyotaro Seki, who was an authority in these fields. Under his instruction, Kenji wrote a paper entitled “Report on the Survey of Geological Conditions around Morioka" together with his classmates. As a member of Seki's lab, he wrote his graduation thesis, “Beneficial Effects of Inorganic Substances in Humus on Plants." After graduating, he collaborated with Prof. Seki as a research fellow, and together they wrote “Survey of Geological and Soil Characteristics in Hienuki-gun, Iwate Prefecture." Through the encounter with a prominent researcher like Seki and repeated soil surveys, Kenji developed a deeper understanding of the agricultural environment of his hometown, Hienuki-gun. This gave him the foundation for a fertilizer project at the Rasu-Chijin Association where local agricultural teachers and instructors came together to learn agricultural practices. Prof. Seki's desire and dream of improving the acidic soil through the use of limestone sheets and to overcome the cold-weather damage became Kenji's own desire as a result of his graduation thesis and soil surveys but unfortunately, he died halfway through this effort. He wrote his desire and dream in his book “The Biography of Gusko Budori” and other children’s stories and poems.
