Jokichi Takamine
Takamine Jokichi (Japanese高峰 譲 吉; * December 22, 1854 (Traditional: Kaei 7/11/3 ) in Takaoka, Etchu province (now Toyama prefecture); † July 22, 1922 in New York City ) was a Japanese chemist, businessman and samurai Kanazawa -han. He was a doctor in Chemical Engineering as well as in pharmacology and is considered the first scientist who was able to isolate the hormone adrenaline.
Life and research
Early years
Jokichi Takamine was born in Takaoka, a city in the former province Etchu (now Toyama Prefecture). A year later, his family moved to Kanazawa in the province of Kaga. He was named the first son of Seiichi (高峰 精一), also Genroku (元 陆), and Yuki Takamine (高峰 幸 子). His father was a doctor, his mother came from a family of traditional sake brewers. Takamine went to Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo, to school. He completed his studies in 1879 at the Imperial University in Tokyo in the subject Applied Chemistry from. He then attended the University of Glasgow and the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. 1883 Takamine returned back to Japan and started working as a chemist at the Department of Agriculture and Commerce. A year later he was sent as a civil servant for the World Exhibition in New Orleans in the United States. There he met Caroline Hitch, his future wife. After his return Takamine was deputy head of the Patent Office. A year later he married.
At the same time founded Takamine 1886 Tōkyō Jinzo Hiryō Kaisha (东京 人造 肥料 会 社, dt " fertilizer company Tokyo "; Today: Nissan Chemical Industries日 产 化学 工业, Nissan Kagaku Kōgyō ). He isolated enzyme takadiastase which catalyzes the breakdown of starch, from the koji fungus to be used in the production of soy sauce and miso. 1899 Jokichi Takamine received an honorary doctorate in engineering at the University of Tokyo was awarded.
United States
Beginning of 1900 Takamine emigrated to the USA and founded in New York City, a research laboratory. The exclusive rights for the production of Takadiastase he sold to the U.S. pharmaceutical company Parke Davis. This earned him a total of 30 million U.S. dollars. In 1901 Takamine first isolated the hormone adrenaline from animal adrenal glands. It was the first potent bronchodilator in asthma. 1904 Takamine has been granted a special honor. The Japanese Emperor Meiji had built a pavilion for the World Fair in St. Louis. It consisted of reproductions of two Japanese noble houses in shinden - zukuri style (寝殿 造) after the model of the imperial palace in Kyoto. At the end of the world exhibition Takamine received the building named Shōfūden by the emperor as a gift. They were brought to his estate 75 miles north of New York and rebuilding again. In 1906 Takamine received a doctorate in pharmacology. 1909 were the two buildings as a guest house for the Japanese Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi and his wife Princess Kuni. 1922 died Jokichi Takamine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
Legacy
Jokichi Takamine founded in 1905, the Nippon Club, a gentlemen's club for Japanese and Japanese- Americans. The club was many years in the 161 West 93rd Street in Manhattan and still exists today.
Most of the still existing cherry trees in West Potomac Park in Washington DC were planted in 1912 by Takamine together with the then Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki.
The two houses of the Shōfūden who had received as a gift from Takamine Tennō stand still on the land on which they had been rebuilt. First, changed owners in 1984, it gave the family Osborne, who owned it at that time, a Japanese non-profit organization for conservation. In 2003, the LLC Shofuden the complex.
Takamine's house in Kanazawa was at the foot of Kanazawa castle rebuilt in 1964 and is now a museum.