Mamoru Kawaguchi grew up in the small town of Fukui together with seven siblings as a son of strictly religious Buddhists. In the Second World War his parental home fell victim to an air raid attack. In June 1948 it was again destroyed by a heavy earthquake, with the family happily surviving. These formative experiences contributed to the fact that he became a civil engineer and later explored the greatest enemy of our buildings, the earthquake. He taught drawing and shaping to his students in Tokyo and impressed them with his pianoforte and his enthusiasm for Japanese folk music. Mamoru, who is an active and enthusiastic vocalist, regularly meets with his friends. After completing his studies in 1955, he was still able to acquire the master's degree at Tokyo University in 1957 and to promote it there in 1966. In 1960 he became a lecturer, an associate professor in 1962, and a professor at Hosei University in Tokyo, where he taught until his retirement in 2003.

Mamoru Kawaguchi is one of the most distinguished engineers of our times. Its work is characterized by the use of a wide range of spanning structures, such as shells or suspension roofs, and its use of pneumatic construction and lightweight structural principles.