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The Rigakubu News

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The Rigakubu News

The Rigakubu News, January, 2025

Essay in Science No. 74

20 minutes walk, 150 years of tracing the footsteps of the past

Hiroyuki Isobe, Professor, Department of Chemistry

Although not widely known, a short walk from the Hongo campus takes you "close to the origin of organic chemistry.

After leaving the School of Science, head northeast on Kototoi Street and turn left at the Uenosakuragi intersection to reach Yanaka Cemetery. In the middle of the cherry blossom-lined street, where the cherry blossoms bloom in spring, there is a stone monument with the title “獨逸國学士利淂耳君碑". The title of this “Monument to the German Scholar Rittler” was written by Kido Takayoshi, the inscription was written by Iwaya Ichiroku, one of the three most famous calligraphers of the Meiji era, and the letters were carved by Hirose Gunkaku, who was known as a master stone carver, making it a very substantial and splendid monument. Hermann Rittler, who taught at the predecessor of this university, the Kaisei School, passed away at the young age of 47 in 1874. In 1875, the year after his death, a group of students erected this monument in his memory.

The Littell Monument is decorated with cherry blossoms and rain. His grave is in the Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery, and this is a memorial to him. It is located next to Den Takahashi's gravesite on the "A-2-2 side" of Yanaka Cemetery.

Ritter was a man who had a great influence on science and education in Japan, and the Japanese-language textbook based on his English lectures at the Osaka Kaisei School (the predecessor of Kyoto University's Chemistry Department) was the “Rika Nikki” (1870). In this textbook, not only do the newly coined names for the elements “fluorine” and “iodine” appear for the first time, but the concept of “molecules (small molecules)” is also clearly explained, along with Kekulé's “sausage-shaped molecular model” (1865). In 1874, the Rika Nikki was divided into the Kagaku Nikki (Chemistry Diary) and the Butsuri Nikki (Physics Diary), and it became a government-issued textbook published by the Ministry of Education. When I turn the pages of the Kagaku Nikki, a Japanese-style book printed with woodblocks that I acquired a few years ago, I am surprised by the careful introduction of cutting-edge knowledge, and the diagrams of the instruments and experiments that appear at key points make me imagine the exciting lectures that were given with demonstrations. Ritter demonstrated his experiments to the Meiji Emperor in Osaka on June 6th 1872 and in Tokyo on October 9th 1873, and it is clear that he was a man skilled in experiments and demonstrations. A young man who had originally wanted to study medicine but was so captivated by Ritter's lectures that he abandoned his original ambitions and switched to the study of science and chemistry was Jōkichi Takamine, who later discovered adrenaline.

Ritter received his doctorate from the University of Göttingen in 1860, and his supervisor was Friedrich Wöhler (written as “Uehler” in the inscription), who declared the beginning of organic chemistry with his “synthesis of urea”. The first two entries in his “Chemistry Diary” describe an experiment in which methane and chlorine are reacted at high temperatures, and if this experiment was demonstrated, it may have been the “first organic chemistry experiment in Japan” by a devoted student who had received instruction from the founder of organic chemistry. It is also said that Ritter studied physics under Wilhelm Weber, and the content of his “Physics Diary” is also substantial, which is thought to reflect his education.

The relationship between the University of Tokyo's School of Science and Ritter was a deep one, and Ichikawa Morisaburo, who was a translator of textbooks, became a Professor in the Physics Department of the Faculty of Science in 1879. Incidentally, the mathematician Bernhard Riemann was a junior of Ritter's at high school.

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It's only a 20-minute walk from the Hongo Campus. Why not go and pay your respects to Ritter, who brought modern science to Japan 150 years ago? I recommend visiting in spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. Every time I visit this monument, I touch the characters engraved on it, wishing to share in his good fortune. In the course of researching for this article, I unexpectedly came across a Western-style printed version of the “Kagaku Nikki” (Chemistry Diary) published in 1877 (published by Zenichi Maruya), and even managed to get hold of a copy of the original “Rika Nikki” (Chemistry Diary) published in 1870. Perhaps this is a message from Dr. Ritter to “work diligently”.

The Rigakubu News is collecting essay manuscripts. We welcome all submissions, regardless of whether they are self-recommended or not. We especially welcome submissions from Faculty and graduate students. However, the Communications & Public Relations Committee will decide whether or not to publish your essay. Please send your submission to rigaku-news[@]adm.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp.