was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

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 ...

during the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

Biography

Born in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, Yatabe attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1871. In 1876, he became Cornell's first Japanese graduate. He returned to Japan as the first professor of botany at the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

, as well as the director of the

botanical gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

. In 1882, he was a founding member of the

Botanical Society of Japan Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially their anatomy, taxonomy, and ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specialises in this field. "Plant" and "botany ...

, and its journal, the ''

Botanical Magazine of Tokyo 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 ...

''. In 1886, Yatabe led the development of teacher training in Japan as principal of the higher teaching college at the University of Tokyo. In 1899, Yatabe drowned while on summer vacation off the coast of

Kamakura , officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...

Legacy

Yatabe is commemorated by the genus '' Yatabea''. Psychologist was his son.

Publications

*
Iconographia Florae Japonicae
' or ''Descriptions with figures of plants indigenous to Japan'', small 4to., Tokyo. ::Vol I., part I., pp. 66: Cruciferae, Saxifrageao, Rubiaceae, Compositae, Primulaceae, Acanthaceae, Labiatae, Aristolochaceae, Orchideae, Liliaceae, etc. With plates 1-20, 1891. ::Vol I., part II., pp. 111-165: Ronunculaceae, Berberideae, Caryophyleae, Geraniaceae, Rosaceae, Saxifrageao, Umbelliferae, Rubiaceae, Ericaceae, Styraceae, Solanaceae, Gesneraceae, Thymelaeaceae, Liliaceae, Uritinia, Gelidiaceae, Ulvaceae. With plates 31-40 1892. ::Vol I., part III., pp. 167-252 Caryophyeleas, Ternstraemiaceae, Saxifrageao, Compositae, Gesneraceae, Aristolochiaeae, Laurineae, Orchideae, and Liliaceae. With plates 41-60, 1893. Yatabe published nothing more. All descriptions are in Japanese, only the title and the names of the plants are in English.Wenckstern, F. (1907)
Bibliography of the Japanese Empire: Being a Classified List of All Books, etc.
Tokyo: Maruzen Kabushiki Kaisha. pp. 385.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yatabe, Ryōkichi 19th-century Japanese botanists Botanists active in Japan 1851 births 1899 deaths Cornell University alumni People from Shizuoka Prefecture Scientists from Shizuoka Prefecture Academic staff of the University of Tokyo