Imperial College of Engineering
Tanabe was born Edo in 1861, the son of a noted Confucian scholar. In April 1877 he commenced studies under the direction of Henry Dyer at the Imperial College of Engineering. Tanabe graduated in May 1883 with a graduation thesis written in English entitled ‘Lake Biwa Canal Construction Project’. Tanabe and Dyer kept up a correspondence for many years after Dyer returned to Scotland and Tanabe had the opportunity to visit Dyer in Glasgow in both 1900 and in 1913.