Toyama Kametaro

Japanese: 外山亀太郎 - とやま・かめたろう

Year of death: March 29, 1918
Year of birth: September 26, 1867 (October 23, 1867)
A geneticist and silkworm breeder of the Meiji and Taisho periods. He was the first in the world to confirm Mendel's law in animals using silkworms. He was born in Koayu Village, Aiko District, Sagami Province (Kanagawa Prefecture). He graduated from the College of Agriculture of the Imperial University in 1892. While he was a student, he studied spermatogenesis in silkworms under the guidance of zoologist Ishikawa Chiyomatsu in the Sericulture Department, and in 1908 he began genetic research on the silkworm. This research was mainly carried out while he was dispatched to the Siamese Imperial Sericulture Research Institute as the chief sericulture engineer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce (1902-05). The results of his research were published in the university journal in 1904, and are highly regarded for having been completed just six years after Mendel's "rediscovery" (1900) of the value of his genetic research. After graduating from university, he worked as an assistant at the university and as a teacher at the Fisheries Training Institute. In 1929, he became the principal of the Fukushima Prefectural Sericulture School, but he became so absorbed in his research that he was subjected to a campaign to expel him, and he retired in 1932. He then went to Siam, and after returning to Japan, he received a doctorate in agriculture in 1939, and served as an assistant professor at the Imperial University in 1941, and as an engineer (concurrently) at the Gen Silkworm Seed Manufacturing Plant in 1944. In the same year, he went to Europe to inspect the state of sericulture, returning to Japan in 1912. In the same year, he became a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. Around this time, he suffered from a spinal cord disease, and although he underwent treatment, it was ineffective and he passed away at the age of 52. In his book Silkworm Seed Theory (1909), he advocated the use of first-generation hybrid silkworms, and contributed to the development of Japan's silkworm seed industry, for which he was awarded the Imperial Memorial Award by the Imperial Institute of Invention and Innovation. In the same year, he received the Academy Prize.

(Suzuki Zenji)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：大正7.3.29(1918)
生年：慶応3.9.26(1867.10.23)
明治大正期の遺伝学者,蚕種改良家。蚕を用いて世界で初めて動物でメンデルの法則を確認した。相模国(神奈川県)愛甲郡小鮎村生まれ。明治25(1892)年帝大農科大学を卒業。在学中に養蚕学教室で動物学の石川千代松の指導のもと,蚕の精子形成を研究し,33年その遺伝学的研究に着手する。主としてこの研究は農商務省の蚕業技師長としてシャム帝室養蚕研究所へ派遣されていた間(1902～05)に行われた。研究成果は39年の大学紀要で発表されており,メンデルの遺伝研究の価値の「再発見」(1900)からわずか6年という早さは高い評価の対象となっている。大学卒業後,同助手,水産講習所教師を勤めた。29年には福島県蚕業学校の校長となるが研究に熱中するあまり排斥運動を受け,32年には退職している。そのあとシャムへ渡り,帰国後の39年農学博士の学位を受け,41年帝大助教授,44年原蚕種製造所の技師(兼務)などを歴任。同年ヨーロッパの養蚕事情視察に赴き,大正1(1912)年帰国。同6年には東京帝大教授となる。このころから脊髄の病に侵され加療するが,効果なく52歳で他界した。著書『蚕種論』(1909)で蚕の1代雑種利用を提唱し,日本の蚕種業の発展に貢献,帝国発明協会から恩賜記念賞を贈られる。同4年学士院賞。

(鈴木善次)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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