Science GalleryThe University of Tokyo

Exhibits

Tomitaro Makino: Researcher at Koishikawa Botanical Garden

Tomitaro Makino, photographed in the Department of Botany at Koishikawa Botanical Garden

Koishikawa Botanical Garden, the main garden associated with the Graduate School of Science at the University of Tokyo, has been used as a research site by the Department of Botany since the establishment of the University in 1877. In 1886, the garden came under the control of the College of Science at the Imperial University of Tokyo, and after the Department of Botany was relocated from Hongo in 1897, the pace of research at the garden accelerated.

Tomitaro Makino (1862-1957), a native of the Tosa region of the island of Shikoku, was a much-celebrated researcher at Koishikawa Botanical Garden. In 1884, he met Professor Ryokichi Yatabe, of the Faculty of Science at the University of Tokyo, and with his extensive botanical knowledge was allowed to join the Department of Botany, where he remained from 1893 to 1939.

Makino was one of the founders of Japanese plant taxonomy, involved in the description of more than 1,500 plant species. In addition to publishing scientific journals such as the Journal of Plant Research and the Journal of Japanese Botany, he authored numerous works, including Nihon Shokubutsushi Zuhen (Botanical Atlas of Japanese Flora), the forerunner of illustrated botanical books, and contributed greatly to the popularization of botany.

Makino, who was also a gifted botanical artist, prepared detailed illustrations of the characteristics of the plants he studied. Displayed here, Makino’s Illustrated Flora of Japan (published in 1940) was written when he was 78 years old and represented the culmination of his research, containing 3,206 species of Japanese native plants.

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Koishikawa Botanical Garden [2023]