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NATURE|Vol 448|12 July 2007 ESSAY BRITISH MUS., LONDON/BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY ART BRITISH MUS., LONDON/BRIDGEMAN

Linnaeus and in Japan Doctors at the Dutch Trading House on Dejima were a conduit for science into and out of Europe.

His Majesty The Emperor of Japan accompanied by his delegation includ- Katsuragawa Hoshu and Nakagawa ing the doctor. Kaempfer thus visited Edo Jun-an visited Thunberg almost every day In memory of I would like twice, taking more than 80 days for the trip and sometimes stayed until very late into to address the question of how European each time. The 256 sketches of Japanese the night to learn from him about various scholarship has developed in Japan, touch- plants he made during his stay are now kept scientific matters. Both of them, Naka- ing upon the work of people such as Carl in the Natural History Museum, London. gawa Jun-an in particular, could speak Peter Thunberg, Linnaeus’s disciple who Dutch quite well. In his book Travels in stayed in Japan for a year as a doctor for Rates of exchange Europe, Asia and Africa Made During the the Dutch Trading House (pictured above) In 1775, 83 years after Kaempfer left Years 1770–1779, Thunberg writes that he and later published Flora Japonica. Japan, a Swedish doctor, Carl Peter Thun- asked Katsuragawa Hoshu and Nakagawa In the first edition of Plantarum berg, arrived at the Dutch Trading House. Jun-an the Japanese of the fresh in 1753, and in his later books, Linnaeus Thunberg was Linnaeus’s pupil and later plants that they brought, and taught them described many Japanese plants became a full professor at Upp- the names and the Dutch names of and gave them scientific names. sala University in both the plants. Camellia japonica, for exam- and medicine. Exchanges between Thunberg and the ple, was described in the first Whereas Kaempfer had just two Japanese doctors continued even after edition of , one visit from a Japanese doc- Thunberg’s return to Sweden. The letters and this scientific is still tor during his two trips to the are kept in Uppsala University. I saw them used today. city, Thunberg was visited by with Their Majesties the King and Queen These Japanese plants were five doctors and two astrono- of Sweden during our visit in 1985, as illustrated by Engelbert Kaemp- mers the moment he arrived Crown Prince and Crown Princess, and it fer in his book Amoenitatum in Edo. Japanese doctors had left a deep impression on both of us. Exoticarum, published in 1712. developed a deeper recogni- Kaempfer was a German doctor tion of European medicine. End of an era who served in the Dutch Trading House in This change occurred because in 1720, We do not know exactly when the scien- Japan for two years from 1690. Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune relaxed the tific names under the binomial nomen- At that time, Japan had isolated itself prohibition on importing books, which clature, originated by Linnaeus, were from the world. Japanese people were not had been put in place to prevent Christian introduced to Japan. Despite what Thun- allowed to go abroad, and visits by foreign- ideas from coming into Japan. This devel- berg writes in his book, some doubts ers to Japan were severely restricted. As the opment stimulated research on European remain that they were first introduced to policy of isolation was taken to suppress science, and people came to focus their Japan at his time. They started to be used Christianity, the Dutch, who came for attention on medical books written in here after a German doctor, Philipp Franz trading purposes only, were permitted to Dutch. In 1774, for example, A New Book von Siebold, arrived at the Dutch Trading come to Japan. of Anatomy was published. This Japanese House in 1823. By this time, there were Dutch people were made to live on an translation of a Dutch book was made by many Japanese who could speak Dutch. artificial island, Dejima, built in the sea doctors of Edo, including Sugita Genpaku, Siebold established a school of medicine off Nagasaki and connected to land by a Katsuragawa Hoshu, a physician for the and a clinic for treating patients in the sub- bridge; they could not leave the island with- Shogun, and his friend Nakagawa Jun- urbs of Nagasaki. He could also leave the out permission. The head of the Trading an, after they saw a dissection of a island of Dejima to visit patients at their House, however, was to visit the shogun at body and were convinced of the accuracy homes or to collect medicinal herbs. Edo — present-day Tokyo — once a year, of the Dutch book. In 1829, Ito Keisuke wrote a book in ESSAY 139

   ESSAY NATURE|Vol 448|12 July 2007

which Linnaeus’s was used following year in 1897. For this achieve- When I started my research, I frequently for the first time in Japan. Keisuke took ment these two researchers were awarded referred to a book titled Fish Morphology the scientific names of plants in Thun- the Imperial Award of the Japan Academy and Hierarchy by Kiyomatsu Matsubara, berg’s Flora Japonica, which Siebold had in 1912. published in 1955. The book covered all brought to Japan, put them in alphabetical The ginkgo is unique in its phylog- Japanese fishes with keys to the species, order, and added their Japanese names. In eny because it is a single-order, single- and it listed 134 gobioids, including sub- his book, Keisuke introduced Linnaeus’s family, single-, single-species plant. species. In the more recent Fishes of Japan classification system as the “Explanation It flourished in the Mesozoic Jurassic with Pictorial Keys to the Species, published of the 24 Classes”. age but survived only in China, and was in 2002, the number of gobioids, includ- Keisuke studied under Siebold brought from China to Japan in ing , increased to 412, but 45 of for six months in Nagasaki. ancient times. It was given a them have only Japanese names and have When he was about to return scientific name by Linnaeus, no scientific names yet. KVA home to Nagoya, he was on the basis of Kaempfer’s given Thunberg’s book illustration. Class act as a gift. Keisuke sent The ginkgo tree that In 1967, I published a paper in the Japa- the manuscript of his Hirase Sakugoro used nese Journal of on the classi- book, A Translation for his research is fication of the four gobioid species of the of Thunberg’s Flora still standing in the genus Eleotris found in Japan based on the Japonica, to Siebold in Koishikawa Botanical arrangement of their sensory papillae. In Nagasaki, and Siebold Gardens of the Univer- those days, no one in Japan was yet clas- checked it. sity of Tokyo. I visited sifying gobioids thus, and some people In 1854, Japan and with the Empress last had considerable doubts about my classi- the United States signed year and looked at the fication. The arrangement of the sensory the Treaty of Peace and ginkgo tree, thinking papillae has now become an important Amity as the arrival of of the research that was factor in classifying gobioids, and I am the American naval fleet done a long time ago. glad that I have been able to make some brought to an end Japan’s pol- In the twentieth century, contribution in this field. icy of isolation, which as Japanese taxonomy The binomial nomenclature estab- had lasted for more than , pupil of Linnaeus. made progress, more lished by Linnaeus has been immensely 200 years. After that, and more new species beneficial, providing a universal basis for Japan began establishing diplomatic rela- began to be reported. Before that, Japa- taxonomy and enabling taxonomists tions with many countries. The last sho- nese animals and plants were given sci- around the world to communicate with gun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, resigned from entific names by European scientists, and each other through a common language his post in 1867, and a new government as a matter of course, the specimens about things existing in nature. was formed under Emperor Meiji. used for naming them were kept in Euro- Today, an even newer field of research, The Meiji government sent students pean museums. Therefore, when Japanese molecular based on evolution, overseas and invited foreign teachers to researchers wanted to describe a Japanese is seeing remarkable development. As a Japan, and the Japanese people made a animal or plant as a new species, they had result, systems based on phylogeny are great effort to acquire Western knowledge. to check the type specimens in foreign considered to be more accurate and are The foreign teachers who were invited to countries one by one, and the difficulties now the mainstream of taxonomy. Japan at this time made a great contribu- they encountered were far from trifling. As I have been familiar with classifica- tion to Japan, and the students who went Thanks to the efforts made by many tions based on morphology since I was to study overseas also contributed in vari- people, all Japanese spermatophytes, pteri- young, the appearance of the electron ous ways to the subsequent development dophytes and vertebrates excluding fishes microscope, which enabled me to observe of Japan. now have scientific names. However, there minute morphological characteristics, and are still many unnamed fishes; in particu- my encounter with an even smaller world, New shoots lar, there are many gobioids that must be where classification is based on DNA anal- One of the academic achievements made given scientific names. ysis at a molecular level, have been great by Japanese scientists in the nineteenth experiences for me as a researcher. century was the discovery of gymnosperm On the 300th anniversary of Linnaeus’s sperm. In 1896 Hirase Sakugoro, an illus- birth, I feel that taxonomy is entering a trator in the botanical laboratory of the new era. The analysis of mitochondrial University of Tokyo who later became a DNA will open up great possibilities of research associate, observed the swim- discovering new species that cannot be ming of ginkgo sperm, and published his distinguished morphologically. I hope to paper on this discovery in the Botanical understand and take into consideration

Magazine (Tokyo). this newly developing field of research, but MUS., LONDON HISTORY NATURAL A month later, Ikeno Sei-ichiro, an at the same time, I intend to continue to associate professor in the agricultural give my attention to and keep up my inter- department of the University of Tokyo who est in morphology, which is a field of study collaborated with Hirase Sakugoro, found carried on from Linnaeus’s days. ■ cycad sperm, also reported in the Botanical This is an edited extract of a speech given Magazine (Tokyo). by His Majesty The Emperor of Japan This discovery was not believed at to the Linnaean Society of London on first, but it became accepted after Zamia 29 May 2007. The full text of this speech sperm, from the same cycad family, (http://tinyurl.com/29djvx) will be was discovered in the United States the Linnaeus referred to Kaempfer’s drawings. published later this year by The Linnaean. ESSAY 140