Zenbē Kawakami

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Zenbē Kawakami ( Japanese 川 上 善 兵衛 , real first name Yoshitarō ( 芳 太郎 ); * April 2, 1868 in Kitagata (today: Jōetsu ), Niigata Prefecture ; † May 21, 1944 in Kitagata, Takashi (today: Jōetsu)) was a Japanese Oenologist . He became known for the cross-breeding and cultivation of the first Japanese quality wine, the Muscat "Muscat Bailey A". Likewise through his scientific work on the application of Mendel's rules for the breeding of new types of wine, as well as with the publication of his wine type encyclopedias. He is considered a pioneer and "father" of modern winery and quality wine production in Japan.

Muscat grape

Life

He was born in the village of Kitagata, now part of the city of Jōetsu , in Niigata prefecture as Yoshitarō ( 芳 太郎 ) Kawakami and the eldest son of the landowner Zenbē Kawakami. The land that is now owned by the Iwanohara winery was part of the estate . His father died of an illness in 1875. The young Yoshitaro became head of the Kawakami family at the age of only seven and traditionally took the first name Zenbē. He enjoyed an upscale education and instruction in classical Chinese literature. In 1882 he moved to Tokyo and enrolled at Keiō University . He married his first wife Wokou Miyasaki in 1886, from whom he divorced in 1894 after 8 years.

Kawakami introduced the technique of grafting vines and existing types of wine by Zen bei Kodaira in 1887 . The well-traveled statesman and shipbuilding engineer Katsu Kaishū gave Zenbē Kawakami the friendly advice in 1890 to devote himself to Japanese viticulture and winemaking, which was still little developed . Zenbē had observed how the rice farmers in his home region suffered greatly from fluctuating weather and saw viticulture as an opportunity for alternative employment. He therefore had a vineyard laid out and imported hundreds of foreign vines and the like. a. from France and the USA. Due to a very hot summer, the first harvest of the grapes spoiled in 1893. The first rock-walled wine cellar was built in 1895. The first list of types of wine was published in 1897. To protect the wine and the brandy , he patented “Kikosui” as a trademark . In 1899 an explanation of the types of wine was published. In the same year, instructions for developing new types of wine were published. He married his second wife, the second daughter of Tokiazu Hiramazu , in 1900. He won the election for mayor of the village of Takashimura in 1900. In 1901 he published a book on grape-growing technology. It describes over 300 grape varieties newly developed by him. The Japanese Prince Haru invited Kawakami to the vineyard in 1902. He planned and founded the Takashi primary school in 1903. In 1903, Kawakami commissioned the Japanese Wine & Alcohol GmbH to sell . The book on wine technology was published in 1908. An autobiographical work on his life's work was published in 1912.

In 1922 Kawakami retired to the Buddhist monastery to write there until 1943 about the application of the Mendelian rules to grapevines. In 1930 the first and second volumes of his wine variety encyclopedia were published, the third followed in 1933. * The Kotobukiya GmbH winery , which is a forerunner of today's Suntory company , was founded in 1936. His second wife Tazuko died in 1937. Because of this publication of his scientific work, the Japanese Agriculture Prize was awarded to a private person.

Kawakami died of acute pneumonia in 1944 at the age of 76.

Services

His first breakthrough in increasing the quality of wine production was the targeted control of the temperature during fermentation of the ripe grapes in summer by using snow as cooling and later by storing the grapes in specially built stone cellars. With the description of new, creative ways, he succeeded in the first successful winemaking in the Joetsu region, which was actually not particularly climatically suitable for viticulture. Parallel to viticulture, he worked on the cultivation and development of stable grape varieties immune to pests and the warm and humid local climate. Through Kawakami's tireless efforts - through systematic, endless attempts at crossing different imported grape varieties (a total of 10,311 attempts are documented) - Japan's first resistant quality wine variety, Muscat Bailey A (Muscat Bailey A), was created.

Works

  • 室 直 三郎 (著) Author and Zenbē Kawakami 川 上 善 兵衛 (Ed.): 仰 徳 帖 - - 古書, 室 直 三郎 Publisher, 1889
  • Zenbē Kawakami: 実 験 葡萄 全書 〈上 篇〉 栽培 法地球 出版 Publisher; 再 Edition, 1949
  • Zenbē Kawakami: 実 験 葡萄 全書 〈上, 中, 下篇 ›(昭和 7 年), 西 ケ 原 刊行 会 Verlag, 1932

literature

  • Tomohiro Koseki (小 関 智 弘): “Establishing the Ebikatsura grape variety in the Echigo wine region”: Japan's father of grapes (越 後 え び か ず ら 維新: 日本 ワ イ ン 葡萄 の 父 / 川 上 善 兵衛 異 聞), 小学 first edition May 5, 2010, reprinted August 20, 2015, ISBN 978-4-09-388116-6 (Japanese)

Museums

  • Kawakami Zenbei Museum. jap. 川 上 善 兵衛 資料 館

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tomohiro Koseki 2010
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w website "Chronology" of the Iwanohara winery: http://www.iwanohara.sgn.ne.jp/about/pdf/ chronology.pdf , accessed Nov. 2, 2016
  3. ↑ Museum website Kawakami Zenbē Museum ABOUT , accessed on Nov. 3, 2016
  4. ↑ Zenbē Kawakami: "Description of the grape varieties" (葡萄 種類 説明), 塚 田 勝 Verlag, 1899, OCLC 673392961 (Japanese)


personal data
SURNAME Zenbē Kawakami
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 川 上 善 兵衛
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese oenologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Kitagata (today: Jōetsu ), Niigata Prefecture
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1944
Place of death Kitagata, Takashi (today: Jōetsu)