Ryokichi Yatabe

Japanese: 矢田部良吉 - やたべ・りょうきち

Year of death: August 8, 1899
Year of birth: September 19, 1851 (October 13, 1851)
A Meiji-era botanist and poet. Born in Nirayama, Izu Province (Shizuoka Prefecture). His father was Goun. In 1869 (Meiji 2), he became a teacher at Kaisei School, and later became the Chief Recorder of Documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 1870 traveled to the United States. He had aimed to become a diplomat, but during his stay in the United States he switched to the path of scholarship and studied botany at Cornell University. His lecture notes from that time are in the collection of the National Museum of Nature and Science, and they are written in beautiful English. He returned to Japan in 1870 and taught botany at Kaisei School in Tokyo, and when the University of Tokyo opened the following year, he became its first professor of botany. While the first and second professors of zoology were employed foreign teachers, his position in botany was unique in that a Japanese person was appointed from the beginning. His notes and other sources show that he studied physiology as well as taxonomy at Cornell University, but at the University of Tokyo he focused exclusively on plant taxonomy, traveling all over Japan to collect plants and forming the basis for the University of Tokyo's plant specimens. The results of his work were made public in such publications as An Illustrated Guide to Japanese Plants (1891) and A Collection of Japanese Plants (1900). He was also elected president of the Biological Society of the University of Tokyo, which had been established at the suggestion of zoology professor Morse, but this society was dissolved in 1815 with the founding of the Tokyo Botanical Society, and became the Zoological Society of Tokyo. Yatabe then became president of the Botanical Society. In 1824, he was suddenly ordered to resign from his position as professor, and in 1827 he was dismissed from his position, which is thought to have been due to a deterioration in human relationships within the university. In 1831 he was appointed principal of the Higher Normal School, but the following year he drowned while swimming in Kamakura. He was also a pioneer of new style poetry, publishing the poetry collection Shintai Shishu (co-authored, 1882), and he also showed an interest in music and painting.

(Suzuki Zenji)

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

Japanese:

没年：明治32.8.8(1899)
生年：嘉永4.9.19(1851.10.13)
明治期の植物学者,詩人。伊豆国(静岡県)韮山生まれ。父は郷雲。明治2(1869)年開成学校の教師,さらに外務省文書大令史となり,3年に渡米。外交官を目指していたが,滞米中,学者の道へ転向,コーネル大学で植物学を修める。当時記した講義ノートが国立科学博物館に所蔵されているが,その英語文字は達筆である。9年帰国し東京開成学校で植物学を教え,翌10年に東大が開設されると,初代植物学教授となる。動物学では初代,2代教授ともお雇い外国人教師であったのに対して植物学は初めから日本人が就任した点で特徴がある。コーネル大学では分類学のほか生理学も学んだことがノートなどから知られるが,東大ではもっぱら植物分類学に力を入れ,日本の各地を旅行して植物を採集し,東大の植物標本の基礎を作った。その成果は『日本植物図解』(1891),『日本植物編』(1900)などとなって公にされた。また,動物学教授のモースの発案で設立された東大生物学会の会長に選ばれるが,この会は15年に東京植物学会創立にともなって発展的解散し東京動物学会となる。ここで矢田部は植物学会の会長になる。24年,突然教授の非職を命じられ,さらに27年免官となったが,その背景には大学内の人間関係の悪化があったことが想像される。31年高等師範学校長に任ぜられたが,翌年鎌倉で水泳中溺死する。詩集『新体詩抄』(共著,1882)を発行するなど新体詩の先駆者でもあり,音楽や絵画にも関心を示した。

(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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