was a Japanese

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and painter. Born into a

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

family in Fukui, Hirase discovered the

spermatozoid A spermatozoon (; also spelled spermatozoön; : spermatozoa; ) is a motile sperm cell produced by male animals relying on internal fertilization. A spermatozoon is a moving form of the haploid cell that is the male gamete that joins with an ovum ...

s of the

ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants, assigned to the gymnosperms. The scientific name is also used as the English common name. The order to which the genus belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, , and ''Ginkgo'' is n ...

in January 1894, before Seiichiro Ikeno discovered the spermatozoids of the

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...

. He is a laureate of the

Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy The is a prestigious honor conferred to two of the recipients of the Japan Academy Prize (academics), Japan Academy Prize. Overviews It is awarded in two categories: humanities and natural sciences. The Emperor of Japan, Emperor and Empress ...

(1912).

Works

Selections regarding ''Ginkgo biloba'': * 1894a. Fecundation period of ''Ginkgo biloba''. (In Japanese) Bot. Mag., Tokyo 8: 7-9. * 1894b. Notes on the attraction-spheres in the pollen-cells of ''Ginkgo biloba''. (In Japanese) Bot. Mag., Tokyo 8: 359-60; 361 -364. * 1895a. Etudes sur le ''Ginkgo biloba'' (note pröliminaire). Bot. Mag., Tokyo 9: 239-240. * 1895b. Etudes sur la föcondation et l´embryogönie du ''Ginkge biloba'' (1). J. Coll Sci. imp. Univ. Tokyo 8: 307-3 22. * 1896a. Spermatozoid of ''Ginkgo biloba''. (In Japanese) Bot. Mag., Tokyo 10:171. * 1896b. On the spermatozoid of Ginkgo. (In Japanese) . Bot. Mag., Tokyo 10: 325-328. * 1897. Untersuchungen über das Verhalten des Pollens von ''Ginkgo biloba''. Bot. Zbl. 49: 33-35. * 1898. Etudes sur la fécondation et l´embryogénie du ''Ginkgo biloba'' (second mémoire). J. Coll. Sei. imp. Univ. Tokyo 12: 103-149.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirase, Sakugoro 19th-century Japanese botanists 1856 births 1925 deaths 20th-century Japanese botanists Scientists from Fukui Prefecture