Background
Tomitaro Makino was born on 24 April 1862 in what later became Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku.
Tomitaro Makino was born on 24 April 1862 in what later became Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku.
Tomitaro Makino dropped out of elementary school and devoted his time to the observation of plants, studying systematic botany on his own.
After serving as an elementary school teacher, in 1881 Tomitaro Makino began making occasional trips to Tokyo and from around 1884 on was often to be found in the botany study room of Tokyo Imperial University, immersed in research.
In 1888 he published his Nihon shokubutsu shi zuhen (Illustrations of the Flora of Japan). Tomitaro Makino later served as an assistant and lecturer at Tokyo University and after his retirement in 1939 devoted himself entirely to the classification and description of his botanical specimens.
Tomitaro Makino traveled all over Japan, almost single-handedly collecting specimens. His academic publications include classifications of 1,000 new species of Japanese plants, 1,500 varieties, and the astounding number of over 400,000 specimens. He thus played a major role in laying the foundations of Japanese systematic botany.
In addition to his scholarly writings, he produced illustrated books and primers for the general reader, seeking to spread a knowledge of botany among the populace as a whole. In 1927 he was awarded a doctorate of science, and in 1957, following his death, he was posthumously awarded a Cultural Medal.
