Kenkichi Yabashi was born in
Akasaka-juku (Nakasendō). He was from Sō-honke (the primary head family) of the Yabashis, a distinguished family that
Emperor Shōwa in 1946[4] and
Emperor Heisei in 1965[4] when he was crown prince officially visited.[5][6][7] It is said that he loved fishing so much and so often went fishing to
Kuise River near the house where he grew up, loved
igo with the skill of first grade (sho-dan) because he studied igo under Hon'inbō, grand master of the game of
go, loved
bonsai and reached to the level beyond amateurs regarding
jōruri.[8]
He was the right-hand person of
Tsumaki Yorinaka, called one of "Three Great Masters"[9] in
Meiji Era together with
Tatsuno Kingo and
Katayama Tōkuma, who was the high-level official with supreme power in the Bureau of building and repairs of Ministry of Finance.[8] Yabashi also held the position of professor in charge of freehand drawing and perspective drawing at Koshu Gakko (工手学校, lit. technicians school, now
Kogakuin University) founded in 1887 by educator, politician, and president of Tokyo Imperial University, Koki Watanabe, and professors of Tokyo Imperial University and resigned in 1902.[8]
In 1902, he was appointed by
Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce as a member of Preparatory Committee for the US Expo, went to the
United States in order to select the premises for
Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1902 and came back to Japan in March, 1903.[8] Again in 1908, he was ordered to make on an official trip in order to survey government buildings in western countries, firstly left for the US, Washington and state capitols, went to Europe such as
Great Britain,
Germany,
France,
Italy,
Switzerland,
Austria and
Russia after
Canada to study architectural history and the method of design and supervision.[8] He came back to Japan in 1909.[8] The survey result was submitted to
Katsura Tarō, the then
Minister of Finance.[8]
In 1910, the official system of the preparatory committee for constructing the Diet Building was promulgated and
Katsura Tarō who was then
Prime Minister and
Minister of Finance became the chairman of the committee and Yabashi was ordered to take charge of the secretariat of the committee.[8] In 1913,
Tsumaki Yorinaka with tremendous power who had been Yabashi's superior since Yabashi joined Ministry of Finance resigned his post for health reasons, which meant the opening of Yabashi's era.[8] In 1916 when Tsumaki suddenly died at 58, the investigating committee for constructing the Diet Building was established, Otohiko Ichiki, Administrative Vice‐Minister of Finance, became the chairman and 12 persons including Yabashi and
Tatsuno Kingo, Yabashi's former professor at
Imperial College of Engineering, became the members of the committee.[8] On 25 March 1919,
Tatsuno Kingo with big influence on Japanese architect world suddenly died at the age of 66. In 1919, Yabashi received the degree of "Doctor of Engineering".[8]
On May 24, 1927, Kenkichi Yabashi suddenly died of intercerebral hemorrhage at his home in
Shibuya at the age of 58 without seeing the completion of
National Diet Building which was formally designed by the Bureau of building and repairs of Ministry of Finance based on prize competition design as advocated by
Tatsuno Kingo and completed in 1936 over 17 years.[8][10] He was laid to rest in
Aoyama Cemetery.[8]
^Leaders of All Ages in Gifu Prefecture Business World, All Sorts of Flowers, Biographies in Gifu Prefecture Business World, People of The Yabashi Family, from Composer of Chinese poems to Entrepreneur, The Part of The Yabashi Family (The Gifu Shimbun Company, August 20, 2013) 〈Gifu-zaikai o ken'in shitekita kokon no Rīdā'tachi, Senshibankō, Gifu-Zaikai Retsuden, Yabashi-Ke no Hito'bito Kan'shi'jin kara Kigyō'ka made, Yabashi hen (Gifu Shimbun Sha, 2013 nen 8 Gatsu 20 ka) ぎふ財界をけん引してきた古今のリーダーたち 千紫万紅 ぎふ財界列伝 矢橋家の人々 漢詩人から起業家まで 矢橋編(1)(岐阜新聞社、2013年8月20日)〉