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Linn E and Taxonomy in Japan: on the 300Th Anniversary of His Birth

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Linn E and Taxonomy in Japan: on the 300Th Anniversary of His Birth No. 3] Proc. Jpn. Acad., Ser. B 86 (2010) 143 Linne and taxonomy in Japan: On the 300th anniversary of his birth By Akihito (His Majesty The Emperor of Japan) (Communicated by Koichiro TSUNEWAKI, M.J.A.) President, dear friends bers of stamens belonged to dierent classes, even when their other characteristics were very similar, I am very grateful to the Linnean Society of while species with the same number of stamens be- London for the kind invitation it extended to me to longed to the same class, even when their other participate in the celebration of the 300th anniver- characteristics were very dierent. This led to the sary of the birth of Carl von Linne. When, in 1980, I idea that the classication of organisms should be was elected as a foreign member of the Society, I felt based on a more comprehensive evaluation of all I did not really deserve the honour, but it has given their characteristics. This idea gained increasing me great encouragement as I have tried to continue support, and Linne’s classication system was even- my research, nding time between my ofcial duties. tually replaced by systems based on phylogeny. Today, I would like to speak in memory of Carl The binomial nomenclature proposed by Linne, von Linne, and address the question of how Euro- however, became the basis of the scientic names of pean scholarship has developed in Japan, touching animals and plants, which are commonly used in the upon the work of people like Carl Peter Thunberg, world today, not only by people in academia but also Linne’s disciple who stayed in Japan for a year as by the general public. In the binomial nomenclature, a doctor for the Dutch Trading House and later the scientic name of a species consists of a combina- published Flora Japonica. tion of the generic name and an epithet denoting Carl von Linne, who was born in Sweden in the species. Before Linne established the binomial 1707, published in 1735, when he was 28 years old, nomenclature, scientic names consisted of the spe- the rst edition of Systema Naturae, in which he out- cies’ generic name and a description of the character- lined a new system of classication. According to this istics of that particular species which dierentiated it system, the plant kingdom was classied into 24 from the other species in the same genus. Therefore, classes based mainly on the number of stamens, when there were many species in one genus, the de- the animal kingdom was classied into six classes { scription dierentiating one species from the others quadrupeds, birds, amphibians, shes, insects and became highly detailed and very long, making scien- worms { and the mineral kingdom was classied into tic names difcult to use. To solve this incon- three classes { rocks, minerals and mined material. venience, Linne proposed a new nomenclature, ex- Each class was divided into several orders, and exam- cluding the description of characteristics from the ples of some genera were given for each order. Linne scientic name and simplifying it to a combination rmly believed that nature had been created by God of a generic name and an epithet only, with the de- in an orderly and systematic manner, and he aimed scription of the species to be noted separately. to discover the order of nature so that he could clas- The International Code of Zoological Nomencla- sify and name all things created by God and thus ture and the International Code of Botanical Nomen- complete the system of nature. However, in Linne’s clature stipulate that, when more than one scientic system, which classied plants mainly on the basis name exists for a particular species, the oldest scien- of the number of stamens, species with dierent num- tic name shall be adopted. It is also stipulated that, for spermatophytes and pteridophytes, the scientic This article was rst published in 2008 as a chapter of Special Issue No. 8 of The Linnean ISSN 0950-1096 and is reprinted by names in the rst edition of Linne’s Species Planta- kind permission of The Linnean Society of London. rum, published in 1753, shall be recognised as the doi: 10.2183/pjab.86.143 62010 The Japan Academy 144 Akihito [Vol. 86, oldest scientic names, and for animals, the scientic put in place to prevent Christian ideas from coming names in Clerck’s Aranei Svecici, a monograph on into Japan, and allowed the import of books on spiders, and those in the 10th edition of Linne’s Sys- European science published in China, which were un- tema Naturae, both deemed to have been published related to Christianity. This development stimulated on 1 January 1758, shall be similarly recognised. research on European science and people came to The names published before these publications are focus their attention on medical books written in not recognised as scientic names of the organisms. Dutch. In the rst edition of Species Plantarum and Yamawaki Toyo, who had studied classical in his later books, Linne described many Japanese Chinese medicine introduced into Japan, noted the plants and gave them scientic names. Camellia great dierence between what he had learned and japonica, for example, was described in the rst edi- the illustrations in the imported Dutch medical tion of Species Plantarum, and this scientic name is books. To nd out which was true, he performed a still used today. These Japanese plants were illus- dissection of a human body in 1754, with permission trated by Engelbert Kaempfer in his book, Amoeni- from the government, and published the results as tatum Exoticarum, which was published in 1712. An Account of the Observation of Viscera. From Kaempfer was a German doctor who served in the that time onward, dissections were often performed. Dutch Trading House in Japan for two years from In 1774, a year before Thunberg arrived in Japan, A 1690. New Book of Anatomy was published. It had been At that time, Japan had isolated itself from the translated from Dutch into Japanese by Sugita Gen- world. Japanese people were not allowed to go abroad, paku and other doctors of Edo. They decided to start and visits by foreigners to Japan were severely re- the translation when they actually saw a dissection stricted. As the policy of isolation was taken to sup- and were convinced of the accuracy of the Dutch press Christianity, the Dutch, who came for trading book on anatomy. Some of the people who came purposes only and not to promulgate Christianity, together knew the Dutch language, but the leader of were permitted to come to Japan. The Dutch people the translation project, Sugita Genpaku, did not were made to live on an articial island, Dejima, even know the alphabet. Translation proved to be built in the sea o Nagasaki and connected to land an extremely difcult task, but thanks to the zeal by a bridge, and could not leave the island without of Genpaku, who wanted to publish the book in permission. The head of the Trading House, how- Japanese as soon as possible and contribute to medi- ever, was to visit the shogun at Edo, present-day cine, A New Book of Anatomy was completed for Tokyo, once a year, accompanied by his delegation publication after only three years. including the doctor. Kaempfer thus visited Edo In Kaempfer’s posthumous book, The History twice during his stay, taking more than 80 days for of Japan, he writes that, during his two visits to the trip each time. Edo, only one Japanese doctor visited him just It was during his stay in Japan that Kaempfer once to ask for medical advice on some disease. In sketched the plants, which were later published in Thunberg’s book, Travels in Europe, Asia and Amoenitatum Exoticarum in 1712. His 256 sketches Africa Made During the Years 1770{1779, however, are now kept in the Natural History Museum. he writes that immediately upon arrival in Edo, he In 1775, 83 years after Kaempfer left Japan, a received visits from ve doctors and two astrono- Swedish doctor, Carl Peter Thunberg, arrived at the mers, and that thereafter, Katsuragawa Hoshu, a Dutch Trading House. Thunberg was Linne’s disciple doctor for the shogun, and his friend Nakagawa and later became a full professor at Uppsala Univer- Jun-an visited Thunberg almost every day and some- sity in both botany and medicine. Kaempfer and times stayed till very late into the night to learn from Thunberg were both doctors who worked in the him about various scientic matters. These two Dutch Trading House during Japan’s period of isola- doctors had both participated in the translation of tion. But unlike Kaempfer’s days, Japanese doctors A New Book of Anatomy. In the book, their names had a deeper recognition of European medicine when appear after Sugita Genpaku, the translator, as Na- Thunberg came to Japan. This change occurred be- kagawa Jun-an, the editor, and Katsuragawa Hoshu, cause in 1720, Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune relaxed the supervisor. Both of them, Nakagawa Jun-an in the prohibition on importing books, which had been particular, could speak Dutch quite well. Thunberg No. 3] Linne and taxonomy in Japan 145 writes that he asked them the Japanese names of the post in 1867, and a new government was formed fresh plants which they brought and taught them the under Emperor Meiji. The Meiji government sent Latin names and the Dutch names of the plants. students overseas and invited foreign teachers to Exchanges between Thunberg and the two Japan, and the Japanese people made a great eort Japanese doctors continued even after Thunberg’s to acquire Western knowledge.
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