Mitsutaro Shirai

Shirai Mitsutarō (Japanese白 井 光 太郎, born July 17, 1863 in Edo (now Tokyo), † May 30, 1932 there ) was a Japanese phytopathologist, a professor at the University of Tokyo and first president of the Japanese Society for Plant Pathology. Constant, who did much also to the study of the history of the natural history of his country. His botanical and mycological author abbreviation is " Shirai ".

Life

Shirai was born a few years before the Meiji Restoration in Edo (now Tokyo) in the branch of the domain Fukui. Immediately after completing his studies in botany at the newly founded University of Tokyo in 1886 he was entrusted with teaching at its affiliated University for Agriculture and Forestry, the organization its final form later found as a faculty of Tokyo University. From 1899 to 1901 he studied plant physiology in Berlin. During this time, he established close ties to Paul Christoph Hennings (1841-1908), who had matured as a curator at the Museum of the Botanical Garden one of the leading mycologists in Germany. Hennings led Shirais name in the botanical nomenclature a ( Shiraia and Shiraiella ).

After returning Shirai built up the world's first chair of Phythopathologie. In 1920, the founding of the Japanese Society for Plant Pathology (日本 植物 病理学 会, Nihon Shokubutsu byōri gakkai ). Between 1915 and 1919, Shirai taught at the same time as a professor at the College of Agriculture in Tokyo ( Tōkyō nōgyō daigaku ). In 1929 he became Professor Emeritus. Three years later he died.

In addition to his research on plant diseases and fungi, Hirai was intensely occupied with the historical development of natural history in Japan and this built a huge collection of rare books and manuscripts from Japan and China. Parts of it are scattered over several libraries in the country. About 6,000 volumes are called " Shirai Bunko " treasured in the National Parliamentary Library.

Works

• Kimura Yojiro (ed.): Shirai Mitsutarō chosaku shū [ Collected Writings of Shirai Mitsutarō ]. Vol 1-6, Tokyo: Kagaku Shoin, 1985-90.
• Shirai Mitsutaro: A Brief History of Botany in Old Japan. In: Scientific Japan - Past and Present. Tokyo: National Research Council of Japan, 1926, pp. 213-227 ( digitized BHL )