Jokichi Takamine
| Jōkichi Takamine | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Native name | 高峰 譲吉 |
| Born |
November 3, 1854 Takaoka, Toyama, Japan |
| Died | July 22, 1922 (aged 67) New York, US |
| Citizenship | Japanese |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Alma mater | University of Tokyo |
| Known for | isolating and purifying adrenaline, isolating Takadiastase |
| Notable awards | Japan Academy Prize (1912) |
Jōkichi Takamine (高峰 譲吉 Takamine Jōkichi?, November 3, 1854 – July 22, 1922) was a Japanese chemist.
Takamine was born in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, in November 1854. His father was a doctor; his mother a member of a family of sake brewers. He spent his childhood in Kanazawa, capital of present-day Ishikawa Prefecture in central Honshū, and was educated in Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, graduating from the Tokyo Imperial University in 1879. He did postgraduate work at University of Glasgow and Anderson College in Scotland. He returned to Japan in 1883 and joined the division of chemistry at the newly established Department of Agriculture and Commerce. He learned English as a child from a Dutch family in Nagasaki and so always spoke English with a Dutch accent.
While in the US, Takamine was married to Caroline Field Hitch.
Takamine continued to work for the department of agriculture and commerce until 1887. He then founded the Tokyo Artificial Fertilizer Company, where he later isolated the enzyme takadiastase, an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of starch. Takamine developed his diastase from koji, a fungus used in the manufacture of soy sauce and miso. Its Latin name is Aspergillus oryzae, and it is a "designated national fungus" (kokkin) in Japan.
...
Wikipedia