Taniyama was born on 12 November 1927 in Kisai, a town in Saitama. He was the sixth of eight children born to a doctor's family. He studied at Urawa High School (present-day
Saitama University) after graduating from Fudouoka Middle School. He suspended his college for two years due to a medical condition, but finally graduated in 1950. During Taniyama's college years, he aspired to be a mathematician after reading
Teiji Takagi's work. In 1958, Taniyama worked as an Associate Professor after years of assistant at the
University of Tokyo. He also obtained his doctorate from the University in May. In October, Taniyama was engaged to be married to , while the
Institute for Advanced Study in
Princeton, New Jersey offered him a position. On 17 November 1958, Taniyama committed suicide by
poisoning himself with gas. He left a note explaining how far he had progressed with his teaching duties, and apologizing to his colleagues for the trouble he was causing them. The first paragraph of his suicide note read (quoted in Shimura, 1989): Until yesterday I had no definite intention of killing myself. But more than a few must have noticed that lately I have been tired both physically and mentally. As to the cause of my suicide, I don't quite understand it myself, but it is not the result of a particular incident, nor of a specific matter. Merely may I say, I am in the frame of mind that I lost confidence in my future. There may be someone to whom my suicide will be troubling or a blow to a certain degree. I sincerely hope that this incident will cast no dark shadow over the future of that person. At any rate, I cannot deny that this is a kind of betrayal, but please excuse it as my last act in my own way, as I have been doing my own way all my life. Although his note is mostly enigmatic it does mention tiredness and a loss of confidence in his future. Taniyama's ideas had been criticized as unsubstantiated and his behavior had occasionally been deemed peculiar. Goro Shimura mentioned that he suffered from depression. About a month later, Suzuki also committed suicide by gas, leaving a note reading: "We promised each other that no matter where we went, we would never be separated. Now that he is gone, I must go too in order to join him." After Taniyama's death,
Goro Shimura stated that: He was always kind to his colleagues, especially to his juniors, and he genuinely cared about their welfare. He was the moral support of many of those who came into mathematical contact with him, including of course myself. Probably he was never conscious of this role he was playing. But I feel his noble generosity in this respect even more strongly now than when he was alive. And yet nobody was able to give him any support when he desperately needed it. Reflecting on this, I am overwhelmed by the bitterest grief. ==Contribution==