Takamine Jōkichi

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Takamine Jōkichi, around 1920

Takamine Jōkichi ( Japanese 高峰 譲 吉 ; * December 22, 1854 ( traditionally : Kaei 7/11/3) in Takaoka , Etchū Province (today: Toyama Prefecture ); † July 22, 1922 in New York City ) was a Japanese chemist , businessman and Samurai of Kanazawa - han . He had isolated the hormone adrenaline for the first time in 1901 (shown in pure form).

Life and research

Early years

Jōkichi Takamine was born in Takaoka, a city in the former province of Etchū (today: Toyama Prefecture). A year later his family moved to Kanazawa in Kaga Province to. He was the first son of Seiichi ( 高峰 精一 ), also called Genroku ( 元 陸 ), and Yuki Takamine ( 高峰 幸 子 ). His father was a doctor and his mother came from a family of traditional sake brewers . Takamine went to school in Osaka , Kyoto, and Tokyo . He graduated from the Imperial University in Tokyo in 1879 in applied chemistry. He then attended the University of Glasgow and the University of Strathclyde in Scotland . In 1883 Takamine returned to Japan and began working as a chemist in the Faculty of Agriculture and Commerce. A year later he was appointed as a civil servant for the World Exhibition of New Orleans sent to the United States. There he met Caroline Hitch, his future wife. Upon his return, Takamine became deputy head of the patent office. A year later he married.

At the same time, Takamine founded the Tōkyō Jinzō Hiryō Kaisha ( 東京 人造 肥料 会 社 , German "artificial fertilizer company Tokyo"; today: Nissan Chemical Industries 日 産 化学 工業 , Nissan Kagaku Kōgyō ). There he isolated the enzyme takadiastase , which catalyzes the breakdown of starch, from koji , a mushroom that is used in the production of soy sauce and miso . In 1899, Jōkichi Takamine was awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering from Tokyo University .

United States of America

At the beginning of 1900 Takamine emigrated to the USA and founded a research laboratory in New York City. He sold the exclusive rights to the production of takadiastase to the US pharmaceutical company Parke Davis. This grossed him a total of $ 30 million. In 1901, at the same time as Thomas Aldrich , Takamine isolated the hormone adrenaline from animal adrenal glands (for this he needed 8,000 ox adrenal glands , from which he received four grams of substance) and created the substance name adrenaline , which has been used since then, at the suggestion of his friend, surgeon Norton Wilson . It was the first highly effective bronchodilator for asthma . In 1904 Takamine was given a special honor. The Japanese Emperor Meiji had a pavilion built for the World Exhibition in St. Louis . It consisted of two modeled Japanese noble houses in the shinden style based on the model of the imperial palace in Kyoto . At the end of the world exhibition, Takamine received the building with the name Shōfūden from the emperor as a gift. They were taken to his estate 75 miles north of New York and rebuilt there. In 1906 Takamine received a doctorate in pharmacology . In 1909 the two buildings served as a guest house for the Japanese Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi and his wife Princess Kuni . In 1922, Jōkichi Takamine died in Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Legacy

Takamines grave in New York City

In 1905, Takamine founded the Nippon Club , a gentlemen's club for Japanese and Japanese-born Americans, which still exists today .

Most of the Japanese cherry trees of West Potomac Park in Washington, DC were in 1912 on the joint initiative Takamine with the then mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki , donated and brought to the United States.

The two houses of the Shōfūden , which Takamine had received as a gift from the Tennō , still stand on the property on which they were rebuilt. Initially the owners changed, in 1984 the Osborne family, who owned it at the time, handed it over to a Japanese non-profit organization for monument protection. In 2003 Shofuden LLC took over the complex.

Takamine's house in Kanazawa was rebuilt in 1964 at the foot of the castle there and is now a museum.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b 高峰 譲 吉 . In: 朝日 日本 歴 史 人物 事 典 / 百科 事 典 マ イ ペ デ ィ ア / kotobank.jp. Retrieved September 14, 2011 (Japanese).
  2. ↑ a b c d JOKICHI TAKAMINE, NOTED CHEMIST, DIES (www.kjs.nagaokaut.ac.jp)
  3. ↑ Pulvers, Roger: " Jokichi Takamine: a man with fire in his belly whatever the odds, " Japan Times , June 28, 2009.
  4. ↑ Abel, John J: About the part of the adrenal gland that causes blood pressure, the epinephrine . In: Z physiol Chem . 28, No. 3-4, August, pp. 318-362.
  5. ^ JK Aronson (2000). "Where name and image meet" - the argument for "adrenaline". BMJ , 320 , pp. 506-509. PMID 10678871
  6. ^ Otto Westphal , Theodor Wieland , Heinrich Huebschmann: life regulator. Of hormones, vitamins, ferments and other active ingredients. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1941 (= Frankfurter Bücher. Research and Life. Volume 1), p. 18 f.
  7. ^ N. Ph. Tendeloo, Allgemeine Pathologie , March 9, 2013, Springer-Verlag, p. 654 ISBN 978-3-642-92320-3 . Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  8. ^ Brian B. Hoffman: Adrenaline . Harvard University Press, April 15, 2013, ISBN 978-0-674-07471-2 , page 46 . Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  9. ↑ Entry in the Japanese architecture database (English)
  10. ↑ New York Times: Historical Article ( Kuni in japanese house; Host of Prince, Dr. Takamine, Has Japanese Structures of St. Louis Fair. )
  11. ↑ Christopher Gray: Streetscapes / 161 West 93rd Street; A Building That Recalls the Days After Pearl Harbor. In: The New York Times , September 30, 2001.
  12. ^ History of the Cherry Trees. In: NPS.gov (English).
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Takamine is the family name, Jōkichi the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Takamine, Jōkichi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 高峰 譲 吉 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese chemist
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Takaoka , Etchū Province (today: Toyama Prefecture )
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1922
Place of death New York City , USA